October Workshop on Food Issues

I'll be attending a workshop put on by Scott Abel in Kelowna, BC, in October. The topic is pretty interesting to me. Here's an excerpt from the workbook Scott's preparing for the workshop (http://www.facebook.com/notes/coach-scott-abel/from-the-upcoming-workshop-workbook-i-am-preparing-for-oct-workshop/232412123441527):

I’ve seen competitors/extreme dieters who are thin or lean only a few weeks per year, and then they torture themselves mentally and emotionally by believing their starved selves are their real selves. For many of these types of individuals, food becomes the enemy because it is now directly tied to body image and nothing else. Food becomes a right/wrong, or good/bad- absolute. Therefore so does the way the person feels about herself. Food is the enemy that becomes this thing to fight against, rail against, fear, and understand and conquer. And yet it’s this exact mentality that only further feeds and fuels the food/eating issues. And food instruments, weight scales, food scales etc. now are part of the ammunition used on the self-judgment of good or bad, in the war being waged against yourself in the feeling brain – sometimes described aptly as “the battlefield of the mind” in regards to food issues. But common sense tells anyone that you don’t really need to weigh yourself to know if you are sticking to your healthy eating regimen or not. This process becomes a vicious emotional battle where what you eat, eats you up as well. And as I have said often, even if you are not acting on your food impulses behaviourally - if food and eating and resisting both occupy your mind constantly, then you still have food/eating issues. The act of eating or not eating just separates the type of the food/eating disorder is all.

Physical Symptoms, Emotional Causes

I've been feeling tired. I mean really tired. Ass-dragging, don't-wanna-get-out-of-bed tired. This from someone who has proven again and again she can give 'er when there's very little gas in the tank. You don't get contest ready otherwise.

 

For me, it was when I experienced some down time that the physical symptoms really started to manifest. And it's taken me about a year to figure out how to appropriately feel the emotions associated with the life-stuff going on. I'm getting a lot of this emotional work done right now, but it's through opening myself up to the process and through coaching. I have the keys, but unlocking the answers is not an overnight thing. I don't think the average GP is really equipped to help with this sort of physical stuff. It's labelled "stress" and you're often given a prescription to alleviate symptoms. Not good. But if you're focusing on the symptoms, you're looking in the wrong place for the answers. They might be right in front of you; you just may not be ready or don't want to see them. Yet.

 

So my eyes are open now, and I feel a tremendous weight has been lifted. Does this mean everything is sunshine and roses? No, but it means I'm not stuffing my feelings around the issues anymore. What I'm experiencing must be felt in order to be released. If I bottle it up, one or more things happen: I become irritable; I eat to numb myself; I get sick; I feel so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open. And no drug is ever going to relieve these symptoms.

 

Now it's up to me to keep an eye on myself. And when these symptoms come up again, if they do, I need to stop. Look inside. Figure out what it is I'm ignoring. Feel it. Let it go. Then it won't hurt me anymore.