Boundaries: New Year’s Resolutions – Weight Loss

I’ve been asked by X-Weighted to post in my blog, casting calls for families who want to lose weight together, and target childhood obesity which seems to be a serious issue these days.  Where do boundaries come into play for these new year’s resolutions?

2009 was a year of sharing with everyone what a boundary actually is.  Learning for each individual what you own and what you don’t own.

As we grow up in our lives, we mimic the tools that our parents give us in order to prepare us for the “real world”.  If we see our parents unable to own or not own theirs or other peoples issues, respectively, then we believe that is how we are to be.  Some people, instead of dealing with issues, and in order to not hurt other people’s feelings, shove their issues deep inside and pretend they don’t exist, or they are not valid issues.  When in fact, they actually are.  But we do what we think or feel is acceptable behaviour.

For those who shove their issues inside, may take up something else to keep them occupied.  Those issues don’t go away just because we want them to.  They actually fester and can even cause illness for some.  Some people will take up smoking, or eating, or drugs, or even exercise in order to deal.  These are other tools that people use in order to get along with the world.  People have choices on which tools they want to  use, however some of the consequences to some of those tools just so happen to be addiction.  Today I want to focus on food addiction.

I love food.  My husband and I love food.  We love to eat well together.  We are slightly overweight by the BMI standards.  Each of us could lose 10 to 20 lbs.  My husband works out several times per week and still maintains 10-20 lbs over weight.  I hate going outside or doing anything in the winter because of the cold, but have changed habits from last year to only gain 10 lbs over this winter season, last year it was 20 lbs.  I seem to have an incredibly slow metabolism from the previous illness with Crohn’s disease.  I can work out and work out and eat healthy and eat healthy but my weight doesn’t want to ever get past that 154 lb mark.  (yes I just broadcasted some of my weight on live blogging, ick)

What I have noticed over the past year is that when my husband and I are eating together, I get very agitated when I find I might not be getting what I consider “my fair share”.

As a child my father would grab stuff from my plate and say “are you going to eat that?”  He was always joking around like that, however I some how took it to mean that I need to get my fair share.  When we had treats around the house and I wanted to save mine for later, I would always find it missing and realized growing up that if I didn’t eat it right then and there whether I wanted it or not, I was never going to have it again.  When I came down with my illness at 19 years old all I could do was eat and eat, my body was starving from the inability to absorb food so when I was on medication I ate and ate and ate.  And then when I finally lost the illness I came out of it at 32 years old believing that I have to eat everything there is in front of me or I might starve to death.

Even though I started exercising at the same time I lost the illness, I managed to put on over 30 lbs in a year and since then haven’t been able to take it off.  So when I sit down with my husband and eat it is very difficult for me to put less on my plate than what he puts on his plate.  Its difficult to hear my body say its no longer hungry instead of its so full my stomach feels like its splitting.

These are issues that I own.  No one is now responsible for these feelings that I get when I eat and what eating means to me, except me.  It is up to me to recognize my habits and if I truly want to change them, then I need to do the work to change my perception of food and its meaning to me.  I need to prioritize what is important to me and then stick up for those priorities.  As hard as it may get, it is still up to me.

For those of you who would like to discover new tools to use to help you maintain your health and wellness goal, you can email me at michelle@making-strides.ca or call (403) 266-2867.

For information and help on nutrition and dieting, contact Alexandra Kariagiannis at puresensehealth.com or (403) 457-3673.

For the X-Weighted program:

HOW FIT IS YOUR FAMILY?

TV SERIES IS CALLING ALL FAMILIES FOR ITS FIFTH SEASON!

Airing on Slice™, X-Weighted: Families is an inspiring series of one-hour documentaries showcasing the triumph of losing weight by encouraging healthy lifestyles and hard work. For its upcoming fifth season, X-Weighted is looking for more families ready to come to terms with their unhealthy reality. Each episode will follow a different family in their struggles and successes in effecting positive change through nutrition and exercise in their lives over a period of six months. We’re looking for families who want to make healthy living a priority, inspiring both themselves and audiences everywhere.

Contact us if your family:

• Is sick of living an unhealthy lifestyle and wants to make positive changes,

• has children between the ages of 8 and 17,

• lives in (or within an hour’s drive of) VANCOUVER, CALGARY, or KELOWNA.

We want to tell your story. Submit your application to X-Weighted as soon as possible.

Apply now by downloading the application questionnaire at www.anaid.com. Please complete the questionnaire and send it with current, full-length photos of your family via:

E-mail: xweighted@anaid.com

Fax: (780) 465-0580

Mail: Anaid Productions

208–3132 Parsons Road,

Edmonton, AB, T6N 1L6

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