Food, Emotions and Healing

Avoiding foods during the healing process can bring up a lot of emotions.  Here’s some encouragement.

As an African American, as someone from the South, and as someone from a place with great culture known as New Orleans, I know what it is like to be emotionally distraught from not being able to eat certain foods.  I went through feeling figuratively and physically weak, disconnected from family and friend gatherings, outcast, weird, angry, sad, feeling deprived, stubbornly rebellious. I noticed the silence when others would want to know what’s on Devin’s plate, being singled out by getting asked ‘how’s the food’ to make sure I was okay when all I wanted to say was, “it’s chicken and vegetables, what do you think it tastes like?!” Although I admit almost anything I made was stellar because I’m a good cook, it was still not the same for me.  

It took me 10 years to become somewhat okay with all of this, which is much longer than average.  I want you to know that what you feel is normal, to not back away because of your emotions, but feel them and then let them pass, however long that may take. Find other things that spark your interest and fun – because if food is your only source of enjoyment, that is part of why it can be so hard.  You are not alone in these feelings. 

The truth is you are gaining much more than what you think you are losing, you are avoiding further physical demise.  You are also learning so much more about yourself, your thinking and your habits, and you have the chance to change that if you wish.  You are inspiring others around you overtime, and your presence with family and friends is and has always been the real connection, not the food.