Month: September 2014

Slippery Fish

 

My life is seldom under control. My floors are sticky, piles of stuff are always in need of organizing, and rotten food is almost always in my refrigerator. On days that I attempt to achieve control, it ends with an exhausted body and a mind that is dark and mean. I grip onto insignificant things like Facebook, making the bed, and matching the kid’s outfits.

Some days, I put a few things in place and attempt to go with the flow. This is most successful when I make no plans, have no appointments, and have a big bowl of fresh fruit at the ready. We hunker down and trash the house. There is ease, but it’s not always practical.

So, I wonder if there is a middle ground.

Have you ever tried to hold a fish? Maybe it’s like holding a fish. Hold too tight- it slips free, hold it too loose- it slips free. It’s a matter of holding it with a gentle ease. Whoops, there it goes.

The slippery fish analogy works well with a CTFD diet, too. Don’t hold on too tight, but don’t be too loose. In other words, we can’t take it all too seriously, but perhaps we should pay attention.

The food we eat is important. It has an impact on our health over time. The what and how we eat can steer us in a direction of disease or health.  SAD is an acronym for the standard American diet. Studies show it is indeed sad and bad. This is a diet comprised of mostly refined and processed foods and it is a pattern of eating, day-to-day, meal-by-meal, over a lifetime.

Hey, I know the 5 bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios I ate last night was not my best choice. But it happened and I do feel guilty and bloated. I have two healthy options to cope with the guilt:

1. Accept the situation

2. Change the situation

I can do that. Maybe. Actually, I really struggle with both. For me, option 3 sometimes comes into play.

3. Continue to feel guilty and finish the entire box of cereal.

Fortunately, option 3 fits in the CTFD diet plan! Understanding that diet has the most impact over time is the key to CTFD. There is wiggle room for making mistakes-you know, being human. Everyday we have opportunities for changing or accepting. Each meal or snack is an opportunity. A moment to hold on tight, hold on loose, or just CTFD.

Sugar and the Brain

There are two stories that I wish I could erase from my mind. A movie- Requiem for a Dream– and a book- The Road. I know, works of fiction. Briefly, if you chose to insert a dark cloud of hopelessness into your life, Requiem for a Dream is about heroin addiction, and The Road is about the life of a boy and his father surviving the end of the world. It has been years since I saw and read them, but still, I lay awake at night and wonder…..what went so wrong. And then I think of ways I can buffer my children from these horrors. My husband tells me I worry to much. But, he hasn’t seen Requiem for a Dream.

In one of my earlier posts, I made reference to my youngest child eating sugar and, as a result, perhaps I’m priming her for heroin addiction. I meant this as an example of how my thinking can be alarming and colorful, possibly more for the big screen.

I saw this video and thought it was a clever discussion of the science behind this fear. After viewing, I felt a sense of CTFD.