I Sense a Theme

I was catching up on reading my fellow diet bloggers, when I noticed a theme.

Jack Sh*t Gettin' Fit talks about not being happy or satisfied until he meets his weight loss goals: http://jackfit.blogspot.com/2009/09/serious-post-that-lost-its-way.html

Bitch Cakes talks about Emotional Eating: http://msbitchcakes.blogspot.com/2009/09/weekly-meeting-topic-managing-feelings.html

Prior Fat Girl was feeling a bit Cranky and skipped her work-out: http://www.priorfatgirl.com/2009/09/moving-on.html


And T-Rez over at Queen of My Domain was getting a little whine on: http://www.queenofdadomain.com/2009/09/hey-would-like-little-whine-with-that.html

Emotions and how we feel really do effect what we eat, and how we exercise. So we need to recognize that we do sometimes eat or crave a particularly fattening food because we've had a bad day and not because we're hungry.

But beyond recognition of our emotional eating, I think its a good idea to look at why we're feeling the emotions we're feeling in the first place. Instead of using food to try to make ourselves feel better, we should try to, well, just make ourselves feel better.

Now, I am certainly not belittling anyone who has any kind of serious clinical depression, or anyone who has gone through an honest to goodness trauma--like losing a loved one.

But, oftentimes, we do let the little things get the better of us. Life is too damn short to let petty disagreements and problems get in the way of our happiness.

Something I've been leery of revealing here is my son's disability. My son is on the autistic spectrum, and classified as mentally retarded. When you're the parent of a disabled child, you tend to hang out with parents of other disabled children--of which there are two types.

First you get the kind, like me. We have a disabled kid, and we just deal with it. We find the joy that our children present us, and don't fixate on the the difficulties.

Then you get the sad sacks. These are the parents who think their lives are miserable because their children present challenges. These are the parents who root out the "pity givers" and come to meetings with other parents of kids with disabilities just to cry about how awful their lives are.

So, its all in how you view things. Both sets of parents have the same situations and the same challenges. But some of us choose to not focus on the negative, and others can't think of anything but the negative.

But the reality is not only does focusing on the negative make us miserable, it doesn't do a damn thing for our kids.

So, in the end, it's all just wasted emotion.

So, the next time something goes a little wrong in your life and you find yourself going for the box of Ring Dings.

Take a step back, and ask yourself "is it really that bad?"

Chances are it isn't, and you really don't need that Ring Ding.