Sorry Bread. It's Not Me, It's You.

Do you ever wonder why certain foods know you by name? They call out to you while you’re walking around the grocery store, driving down the street, or at home watching a movie. Their enticing voices hypnotize you with promises of delight. In time, you really get to know each other. You may watch the sunrise together, take long walks on the beach, enjoy beautiful picnics in the park and develop a meaningful and fulfilling relationship.

No? That doesn’t happen to you? So…the foods you eat are just inanimate objects without the ability to speak? Hmmm…be that as it may, I decided to go on a quest to find out why we feel controlled, even compelled, to eat foods that we know are detrimental to our health.

To ensure this research project was successful, I implemented a few ground rules:

1. The study, and I use that term VERY loosely, could only include foods that I felt had power over me. They had to be items I just had to have, no matter what.
2. The foods had to be delicious…obviously.
3. The foods had to contain a small or large amount of my digestive system’s nemesis: Wheat Flour.

After many discussions with myself, as well as friends, colleagues, mentors, and anyone else I could get to speak to me, here’s what I learned. There are several, deep-rooted, psychological reasons why we choose to consistently consume unhealthy foods. A few of those reasons are as follows:

1. Cake is associated with joyous celebrations and events. We have cake to celebrate another year of life, the joining of two souls in marriage, graduations, retirement, etc.
2. We associate high sugar breakfast cereal, bacon, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, and candy with our fun-filled days as children. Those magical times in our past when nothing else mattered, besides having a vivid imagination.
3. We have foods that represent our culture, our history, our willingness to overcome and survive. Unfortunately, almost all of these foods are fried, drenched in butter, or drowned in sugar.
4. We spend all year anticipating the holidays and attach our feelings of laughter, joy, gratitude and love, to honey glazed ham, macaroni and cheese, cornbread dressing, candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet buttered dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, chocolate, and cookies.

After reviewing the results of my “study,” I thought to myself, “Well that makes perfect sense!” That’s why, when I learned what my digestive system’s nemesis was, instead of being ecstatic, I cursed the universe because I could no longer consume the delectable slice of heaven known to most humans as bread. To be clear, I’m not talking about the stuff you get in the grocery store. No, no, no. I’m talking about Cheddar Bay Biscuits, Rosemary Focaccia, French Baguettes, Croissants, Brioche, Naan, Roti, and more! And once I learned how to make all these wonderful breads in the comfort of my own home, I went into a full-on meltdown.

When I realized I had to sacrifice something that provided my taste buds with so much joy, I didn’t know what to do. That French toast I used to have at Sunday brunch? Gone. Crossaints on Fridays? Only in my dreams. I feel I may need to explain this further, so you can truly understand how deep this goes. I am someone who has had three colonoscopies, endoscopies, allergy screenings, and every other test you can think of to figure out what was wrong with my digestive system. I thought I had tried everything. Everything…except for cutting out my beloved bread. So not only were the results of my “study” monumental, I knew I had no choice other than to break up with bread. Why? Because no sane person would consciously choose to eat something that causes them debilitating pain. Luckily, once I cut out bread for a year, I discovered that I can consume it on occasion. However, the less bread I have, the better I feel. I spent many days and nights kicking, screaming, crying and complaining, before finally moving forward to the next step: developing a positive, impenetrable mindset that would allow me to focus on what I’d gained, and not on what I’d lost.

One way to achieve this goal is to change the meaning we give to food and disassociate our positive emotions with the items that dramatically hurt our health. When Ursula appears (that’s what I’ve aptly titled the “Dark Force” within me), I have found that word replacement is the winning ingredient. Instead of saying, “I hate that I can't eat delicious bread whenever I want,” I say, “I eat flavorful and delicious food, that does not cause me pain.” Most days this strategy works…unless I’m passing by a bakery. That’s when things can get awkward.

What tactics have you used to help you move towards a healthier lifestyle?