What Type of Eater are you?

You know I never really understood that question, what do you mean, what type of eater am I?

I’m one that likes food; all kinds of food! Mexican, Italian, Puerto Rican, Chinese, Indian, I don’t discrimínate.

I was having a conversation with an Aunt of mine and the topic came up about what typr of eater we were and she stated , “Humph….I’m a bored eater.”

Bored eater…what does that mean? You get bored with the food you eat…I’m thinking check out the Food Network I’m sure they’ll give you ideas on how to spice up your food.

Then she proceeded to tell me that when she has nothing to do around the house, she’ll automatically go to the fridge and find something to eat, if she finds nothing…she’ll find something.

Interesting….”a bored eater”…I wondered what I was?

Then one day, I found out.

I was in a former boss’ office and we were going through our yearend figures. I was doing my presentation and apparently I said something about department he did not like and proceeded to start yelling at me about my performance and production of my team.

I sat there and let him go on and on about what reports I wasn’t doing, what assignments I wasn’t delegating, what phone calls we weren’t making and all the while when I was looking at him, you know what I saw……….I saw a vat of chocolate chip ice cream screaming at me and “wahhh wahhh wahh wahh“ coming out the lid…you know the voice?… the Peanuts teacher voice.

All I kept thinking was, “When I get off work today, I’m going home, eat some chocolate chip ice cream ,Michael just went grocery shopping and I know he bought a half gallon!”

At that moment that was the only thing that was going to make me feel better. I think I associate ice cream with my childhood memories of whenever I got hurt, my mom gave me an ice cream pop to make be feel better. You know what? And it always did.

So here I am as an adult…whenever I am upset…I turn to food to help me feel better…so it was then that I found out I was an emotional eater.

Just like when a dam bursts from over flooding, that’s exactly what happened to me when I made that revelation. All sorts of past visions started to pop in my head of me eating from some type of emotional breakdown I had: My first breakup, a fight with my mom, an argument with my brothers, bad news, a bad day; all with the same end result….my head in the fridge or the cabinets searching for any type of food that would make the pain go away.

When I think about when I gained the majority of my weight when was when my family was at odds with each other. It was a tough time for all of us, I am happy to say, we’re all in a much better place and I’m very thankful for that. However, during it….it was very emotional and no amount of food was making it better.

Now, today? I deal with my emotions differently.

For instance, last night I was watching an episode of House. Don’t know if any of you watch it but the episode revolved around the Dean of Medicine, Lisa Cuddy and her mother. The mother was ill and the doctors were trying to figure out what was wrong. If you followed me a few years ago, you know this is what we went through with my own Mom. Needless to say, this was a rough for me.

Lisa argues with her mother about how hard she was on Lisa growing up, pushing her to do good in school and try out for different things at school , like becoming Yearbook Editor. The mother, who is played by Candice Bergen, claims she never was hard on her. They argue some more in typical mother- daughter fashion then to the next scene.

The scene is Lisa telling her mother, “I know why you were hard on me all those years, it’s because you wanted me to be all the things you never got to be, I see how proud you look when I talk about my job.”

When her mother gets well, the camera pans to how the mother reaches for her daughter's hand to hold it.

Just then…..I completely lost it. It was my mother and I all over again and at the moment I felt like I was right back at the hospital with her on January 1, 2009.

My initial reaction was to get up and grab something to eat, but instead….I grabbed the keys to the car and went to pick up my daughter from work. When I arrived to get her, I parked the car and had myself a good cry, it seems that was just what I needed, not ice cream, not chicken, not cookies…but a cry.

I did just that and didn’t step one foot in the kitchen when I got back home.

Ask yourself what type of eater are you and instead of turning to food, what can you do differently?

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