Chef AJ is my favorite plant-based mentor. Several months ago, she started a private Facebook group for her UWL (Ultimate Weight Loss) students and I quickly joined, but I have to admit, I have been lurking lately. I feel so far off track from where I want to be with my plant-based diet that I barely feel worthy of being in the group. I know it's a support group, but when I fall off the wagon, I just want to go into hiding.
I love the way Chef AJ keeps it real and truly understands food addiction because she has lived it. Tonight she made a post that snapped me out of my food coma of the past couple months and got me thinking about my future - one of extreme lethargy and other side effects of morbid obesity if I continue on the junk food path and the other I want so much of abundant energy and a quality life that comes from the other choice of eating clean and moving my body.
In her post, she asked HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT? How bad do I want to lose weight and have energy to live a normal and maybe even extraordinary life? My first thought is I WANT IT SO BAD I CAN TASTE THE KALE! But, if I'm being totally honest with myself, how bad do I really want it? Do I want it bad enough to give up sweet tea, mocha frappes, fries, butter, bread, pizza, chips, cake, pie, cookies, and other junk food? Do I want to be in shape bad enough to go for a 30 minute walk every day and lift some weights? If consistent action is the answer, it has thus far been a resounding NO! Talking and wishing doesn't make it happen.
Chef AJ has some really good advice for the food addict's dilemma and that is to study the UWL material until you know it inside out, "like your favorite movie" which makes a lot of sense. Seriously, how many times have you seen your favorite movies? I lost count on how many times I've watched Dirty Dancing, The Notebook, and Pretty Woman. I've seen those movies so many times, I can quote lines from them! This repetition concept clicks with me. If you want to live the plant-based lifestyle, don't just read the book, watch the DVD and then put it back on the shelf, study it over and over again until you have those golden truths memorized.
Maybe Chef AJ should create a test to see how well we know the answer to what she teaches like the calorie density chart - memorizing that alone can make a dramatic difference in how I think when I go to grab something saturated in oil. I should automatically know the answer to the question of how many calories are in a pound of pasta versus a pound of steamed spinach! Actually, I could make it simple and just ask myself, what foods are to the left of the red line? Well? Waiting? What exercises does John Pierre (he heads up the fitness side of the UWL program) recommend? I watched the video this spring and it's all a blur, definitely time to watch, listen and learn until it is part of my DNA!
Chef AJ said something else on that post that really struck a cord with me. She said in order to overcome food addiction you must do what all addicts that overcome addiction do which is to "Permanently abstain from all the substances you are addicted to." I have had such a problem with "permanently" abstaining. The moment I tell myself this, I go into some sort of rebellious mode where I have to have the very thing I am trying to abstain from. Sweet tea is a good example. To think of never having it again as long as I live makes me sad. It would be the first thing on my list if I knew I was going to die tomorrow, well maybe second, right after a pina colada!
But, then I think what if I don't die tomorrow, but instead continue on this free-for-all junk food path and suffer the consequences of serious illness and disease, which I have already experienced with diverticulitis that put me in the hospital for a month with 18 inches of my colon removed and an additional six months wearing a colostomy bag!
There are many other negative effects of this food addiction, so many things that have to do with quality of life. The list is a mile long and far outweighs the momentary pleasure I get from consuming the junk food.
Anyone who has never had to deal with addiction is probably thinking, so just stop, have some willpower! Yeah, right, that's like standing in front of a train and telling it to stop. It's on the rails going full-speed, nothing short of an big obstacle is going to stop it until the conductor on the inside knows it's time to stop. (I live next door to a train track, so maybe that's why the train analogy came to mind). Anyway, the point is, changing directions in life rarely happens automatically. Like my friend John Maxwell says you will change when the pain becomes too great to stay the same or when you learn enough to change.
I can this promise to myself. I may fall a million times, but as long as I have a heartbeat, I will get back up again and keep on trying to live my best life! Something in my soul tells me that this plant-based lifestyle is the key that unlocks the abundant energy I seek. I am grateful for people like Chef AJ who care enough to help me (and others who struggle with food addiction) get the information and support we need to climb out of the abyss and live our best life.
Kathy G
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