Eating And Moving As Comfort

This submission came from Jasmine at Eat, Move, Write (check out her amazing yam pancake recipe-YUM). I was so touched by her honesty. I agree completely that food can be comforting and nourishing, rather than guilt inducing or punishing. Amen, sister!

I used to weigh 343 pounds. The only things I’d ever known to bring me comfort involved a knife, fork, spoon, or, in really desperate time, my own grubby fingers. Today, I’m less than half the woman I was and I’ve learned that sometimes it actually is a reality to find comfort in food. But a bowl of whole oats with raw peanut butter can be so much more comfortable than a bowl of ice cream. Sometimes when I’m missing home, a bowl of milk rice like my mom used to make is like a small slice of home. Today, mostly, I use exercise as comfort. It takes my mind off whatever in life is bothering me, and it reminds me that there are few things more precious than our health, which for the majority of my life I hadn’t even considered.