Food use to be the most important thing when I went out with family and friends. Since I stopped dieting and focused on improving me, I’ve gained a new perspective on my relationship with food. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net and Stuart Miles.

I’m finally back home after 3 weeks in Texas helping Dr. Mom pack up her home and move to Virginia. During my time in Texas I didn’t track my food, exercise, or weigh myself. I pretty much ate when hungry and not to excess.

Except for the 3 meals where I ate Tex-Mex (hey, I was in Texas), I pretty much stuck to my regular meals and snacks.

If I find fault in my choices, it was probably in the wine department. After a hard day of wrapping artwork, lifting heavy objects, going though reams of old papers, and skimming through family albums I haven’t seen in years, Mom and I treated ourselves to a glass (or 2) of vino.

For 3 weeks, the wine did flow!

So I’m guessing there’s a chance I’m up some pounds. I’ll know on Saturday, yet I’m not freaked out by it.

No matter what I ate or drank, it was easy to slip back into my healthy routine immediately. Back at home, I’m confident any gains will quickly turn into losses.

While going out for Mexican with family, I didn’t fret about the menu. I made the smartest low carb choice available, sipped on a margarita, limited my chips and salsa snacking, and stopped eating when full.  It was far more important to catch up with my niece and her beau.

After the evening festivities, it was straight back into my regular routine — 15 hours of intermittent fasting followed by a low carb, high fat meal. Easy peasy.

I didn’t feel any cravings for carbs or sugars after eating out, but my body felt a little sluggish in the morning. Carbs do that to me. If anything, my body craved real foods and welcomed the lifting of all the heavy boxes.

Moving back into my healthy routine was a snap.

Gaining Perspective With Healthy Eating
When I was heavy, food was just as important as the company I kept. But I’m ashamed to admit there were far too many evenings where what I ate was far more important. There were times I could recall with perfect clarity what I ate, but not much of the conversation.

That’s just sad.

I’m happy to write that’s no longer the case. I’m in a much better place emotionally when it comes to my “relationship” with food: I have relationships with people, not food. Food became my crutch for dealing with a life not lived the way I wanted.

Now if I’m meeting folks for dinner, food is just part of the ambiance, along with the restaurant’s service, noise level, or color scheme. Sure, all those things taken together can enhance a night out. But talking and laughing with family and friends is far more important to me.

When thinking back on dining out with my niece and her boyfriend, I can’t recall if I had a salad or fajitas. But I feel a chuckle coming on remembering their anecdotes of a recent trip to Austin.

Perspective rocks.