Have you ever had someone mention something in passing and that something just resonated with you? And then, it completely changes your perspective. That happened to me last week in regards to food. A dear friend of mine gave an awesome, succinct definition of food. Here it is…
Food is for…
1) Relationship
2) Nourishment
3) Pleasure
I want to focus on the first point in this post. I will cover the second point later. The third pretty much speaks for itself. Right?
The first point, Relationship, in its position is what resonated so much with me. Food is social. How many social situations do you go to that don’t involve food? Not many, I bet.
How many times have you been in those social situations and you were “on a diet” or “watching what you eat?” If you are reading this blog I would imagine quite a few times. What did you do? Did you push through and stuck to your plan? Did you offer to share on plan food so that wouldn’t be tempted? Or did you eat the food put in front of you? Just asking, no judgement.
Now flip the coin. Have you ever been the hostess who worked hard on the all the food or paid a lot of money for catering and a guest refused to eat because of a diet. Was it a big party? Or was it an intimate dinner party? How did it make you feel? Were you okay with it or were your feelings hurt? I know I have been in the latter position. I have baked cookies or whatnot out of love and have had them refused because of a “diet.” It hurt my feelings.
Where am I am going with this? Well, I consider relationships to be more important than any food plan I am on. My eating plan is very important to me and I strive to stick to it (okay, struggle some days). I have goals and I know that 90% of those goals are achieved through my diet. This is why I stock my pantry and food with healthy foods and I pack a lunch box whenever I am away from home. I plan to be successful.
There are situations, however, when I am going to forget my plan, eat food, and enjoy the people in my life. One example happened a few months ago when a Polish family friend was in town. I was in a fat loss phase and she was cooking homemade Polish food. Do you know how much I LOVE Polish food? You have no idea. But, NONE of it was on my eating plan. Guess what? I ate a big plate of it!! And I ate it without any guilt. I ate it, smiled, and relished in the friend’s company.
Relationship trumps any eating plan. Loving other people will always be more important than what I eat. I will share a bag of chips with someone if that means that person leaves feeling loved. That is the most important.
This idea really blew my mind. Thank you so much to my friend who mentioned this on Facebook. Leave a comment if you see this!! In a small way, I found freedom in my relationship with food. I have been a pharisee about food. I wanted perfection. When perfection was not achieved, I hated myself and ironically, I would drown my sorrows in food. I hated social situations because those usually mean food. Either I would refuse to eat and feel out of place or I would eat the food and feel guilty later. There was no joy in being with the PEOPLE. How wrong is that? I realize my error now.
Food is good. People are good. Putting the two together is even better.
Disclaimer: I do believe you can eat on plan or healthily when in fellowship with the people you love. You can PLAN for that. That is the ideal and worthy of being pursued. This post is for those situations when the food can’t be controlled. Relationships are still more important.