DAE have this relationship with food? And were you able to over come it to stay Paleo long term?

I (29f) was raised in the 90s during the whole “fat and meat are bad” crazy. Because of this, my family gave me carte blanche to eat whatever I wanted that was “low fat” so basically my diet was mostly made up of very processed grains and sugars (goldfish, Cheetos, snackwells, PB&J’s, hostess cupcakes, etc.) I only ate meat and veggies at dinner and it usually was something either canned or frozen like Sara Lee dinners. I rarely had fresh food as my parents didn’t have time to make those kind of meals and thought all of these low fat foods were healthy and there was no nutritional difference between a microwavable meal and freshly made one.

Eating extremely sugary desserts were a major part of celebrating in my family. Not indulging in these treats was (and still is) seen as depriving yourself and missing out on the fun parts of life. I feel this guilt for not partaking in unhealthy food at get-togethers for this reason. I also eat food from my childhood as a way to comfort myself when I’m stressed or to relive happy memories. For example, my grandparents always brought donuts over on mornings they would visit. And when I miss them or those simple times from my childhood, I get a donut to feel that way again. This is obviously a horrible habit as I’m just hurting my body and the feeling of reliving those happy memories is fleeting.

Whenever I eat anything high in processed sugar or grains, all of my joint start to ache (like they do when you get the flu) within about 20 minutes. I get a headache, brain fog and I become highly irritable. This lasts for a few hours to a full day depending on what I eat. If the sugary/processed thing I ate has dairy in it, the symptoms are worse.

When I was 21, I discovered Paleo. I lost almost 30 lbs, was in amazing shape, didn’t have these weird symptoms I mentioned above and generally felt amazing. But around 24/25 I started to slip. I was working a stressful job and got injured which kept me from working out daily like I used to. Also, everyone at every job I’ve ever had pressures me relentlessly to eat all the treats that people bring in for the break room. If I didn’t, I was seen as rude and my coworkers wouldn’t stop talking about it. Couple that with stress and my poor eating habits from childhood, I fell off the wagon.

Now at 29, I don’t want to live like this anymore. I want to be completely free from processed foods and all the horrible health consequences I experience when I eat them. But with the stress of parenting a one year old, the pandemic and feeling lost in my career, I keep comforting myself with these foods from childhood which just leads to me feeling like shit. Yet I can’t stop this masochistic pattern.

Does anyone else struggle with food this way? Did you do anything specific to overcome it?

submitted by /u/Infamous_Suspect_44
[link] [comments]

from paleo diet https://ift.tt/2WVX13a
via IFTTT