What Kind of Life?

After a long hiatus, I'm back again. I'm in learning and researching mode for a while but there's something personal that's been on my mind recently and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. 

There's one question that's been...not quite haunting me, but definitely sticking around. Every now and then it just pops back into my head again, and each time I get a little closer to a definitive answer. The question: What kind of life do I want to live?

 

This question is about more than weight loss, it's about more than money, it's everything. All of it, wrapped together. Physical, mental, spiritual, financial, and emotional all together. Unsurprisingly, my current answer is still mired in the way that I want to relate to food. 

Food has been a big deal for me, pretty much my entire life. Every event, every significant memory, is earmarked or categorized by the food that was present at the time. My whole identity for a really long time has been wrapped up in my relationship with food. That's why it's not surprising that my answer to this question is stuck in this category for now. 

So, how do I want to relate to food? It's a tricky question for me. Unlike my health coach and the real food mom blogs I follow, I don't want to cut out every food that doesn't strictly comply with all of the recommended standards. I don't want to go to parties and avoid the cake because I "can't" or "don't" eat cake. I don't want to crave pizza and never ever satisfy that craving, sticking instead to substitutes that only half do the job but are what I'm left with when I look into the 'healthy foods' category. 

What I do want is for food to be just a piece of my life instead of the whole thing, I don't want my world to revolve around the next meal. I don't want my whole existence to feel hinged on what I'm going to eat next - and that includes the worry and 'what if' that comes with trying to make sure I only ever eat in certain guidelines. 

If I want a piece of cake, I want the ability to eat that piece of cake without feeling any guilt over it. If mealtime is swiftly approaching and I'm on the road, I want to allow myself to choose a salad, or sometimes a cheeseburger and fries, 

And y'know what? I want the same thing for you. 

Bondage is bondage. Whether you're a slave to a master who takes care of you or to a master who abuses you makes no difference, at the end of the day you're still a slave. Junk food is a cruel master, but being enslaved by vegetables isn't actually any better. What kind of a life do I want to live? I want to be free. And I want you to be free too. That's what this journey is really about for me. 

What kind of life do you want to live?