Bread. Soft and chewy, firm and crusty, savory, sweet, tangy, versatile, love. Bread is the love of my life on most days. Filling, bloated, energy-high, energy-crash, gut bacteria, slowed metabolism, still love.

We love bread and bready things. It’s comfort, it’s tasty, it’s harmful to many or to most. Maybe on average we eat too much bread in a day compared to 50 or 60 years ago and before. Food in general is much more available to us at any given minute in the day and we eat it even when we’re not hungry.

Bread is a staple, but maybe we should view it and use it as if it were a luxury instead. Why? Bread messes with your blood sugar, your intestinal flora, your brain, your metabolism, and you emotions. When we’re addicted to bread, we get anxious when we cannot have it. Bread leads to belly fat and other fat storage and eventually to weight gain and brain fog to mention just two; but the list goes on.

I’m addicted to bread. My grandfather used to be amused when I would have a piece of bread without butter or any other toppings; I still do that. Comfort for me is bread with a glass of milk; though, I’ve switched to almond milk 90% of the time.

Why am I writing to you about bread? Because, as a health coach many have told me that it’s good to know that I’m not perfect as they thought I was; they were happy to know that I too am human and real. I live a healthy life but it doesn’t mean that I am without fault. The key for me and for everyone is recognizing faults and working on fixing or at least improving them.

I like to think that there is a happy medium when it comes to bread; maybe there is, I will test it and post my findings, opinions and experiences. I love pasta, crackers and tortilla chips too, but for some reason I don’t feel as emotionally anxious when I limit and/or eliminate those items as I do with bread.

Upon doing research about bread addiction I have found the following points that I’m going to try to work on and share my experience with you. A few factors leading to bread or carbohydrate addiction are deficiency in certain minerals including serotonin and dopamine in the body – what to do? Add probiotics; another leading factor is lack of amino acids and zinc in the body – what to do? Add exactly that, amino acids and zinc. Supplements will help get you there but proper nutrition through food is even more important.

Foods that help keep your blood balanced are:

Lean proteins – fish, poultry, beef and cheese

Healthy fats – nuts, butter, olive oil, seeds

Fruit & Veggies – 2-3 pieces of fruit per day and lots of assorted vegetables 5-11 servings per day

Try to get into a habit of eating something every 2 hours, choose from the list above, and drink plenty of water each day too. Set yourself up for success by shopping and stocking up so that you have these healthy items available at any given moment every day. It you’re off at work and find it difficult to find healthy snacks, pack them up early in the week so you can grab and go. Use snack sized Ziploc or covered containers for perfect portions. Wash your fruit in advance and cut up snackin’ veggies and divide them up for each day of the week as well.

Healthy belly, healthy brain is what we want to achieve, let’s work on it together!

Symbolizes maturity, power & poise, self discovery, removing doubt, living IN the moment & opening one’s eyes; seeing beyond

I’ve never been a stress eater, in fact, I’m more of a stress non-eater. I forget about food, I’m not even hungry during stressful situations. We all react differently to stress and we can react differently to each type of stress we encounter.

For some of us, frustration or feeling lack of control in a situation will cause us to eat, and often we will choose hard, crunchy items – things that make noise to get our non-verbal point across or to simply ‘vent’ in solitude.Maybe you’re bored, so you eat. Maybe you lose hope, care or interest in your best health and/or goals so you sabotage your ‘diet’; only to feel regret later. Other times we might feel lost, lonely, and out of touch and so food becomes our friend, our comfort.

Recently, I have noticed a pattern with my own behavior. Winter brings long and sometimes lonely nights, lonely days and some kind of sadness for me for several reasons that I’ll get to another time. Recently, having accepted the winter routine, I found myself at peace with it and with my mealtime habits. I wasn’t eating as much, I didn’t snack much at night and I was feeling pretty good, inside and out. I felt an energy inside and a positive I can do anything attitude; then came what many people feel is their own special day, my birthday; it came and went, barely noticed by the one person I’d expect to celebrate my day. It brought me down. I worked on letting it go but it wouldn’t let me go. The words “do unto others” keeps running through my mind. The week following, our schedule has gone back to normal due to no snow storms this week. The unsettling thing I have noticed is that all I want to do is eat at night I eat three meals a day plus healthy snacks throughout the day but when night comes and my S/O is home, I look for food. I feel my stomach turning, growling and my mind is filled with thoughts of food. I forage through the pantry only to find things I don’t want but eat anyways. I regret it later. I know that I have sabotaged myself.

Have you ever punished yourself for someone else’s actions or in-actions? Have you thought to yourself, “why should I try? why should I care? no one else does”? My guess is yes, you have. I have thought those same words and on the inside I know that statement isn’t true’ ‘no one’ else cares – no one is usually that one persona who is closest to you, that one persona you expect would care the most; ‘no one’ isn’t everyone, he/she is the only one in our eyes though. Don’t let this ‘no one’ allow you to treat yourself with less love and respect than you would give them.

When you’re eating from emotions rather than to simply fuel your body with healthy nutrients, step back and assess your situation. Write notes on your mood, your inner-most feelings, your actions, words, and self-thoughts. Make note of how your view yourself on the inside and on the outside. Do you see yourself as wholesome and worthy of self-respect? If you’re not respecting yourself, others won’t think you need or deserve it either.

Show yourself the kindness and nurturing that you wish for from others. Stop using food as your weapon of self-destruction. Don’t give others satisfaction of believing their actions/in-actions toward you are deserved.

Treat others as you wish to be treated; treat yourself as you expect to be treated.

~In health, emotional wealth and love.

I would guess that the majority of us makes a New Year’s Resolution. I would also guess that it starts out strong and maybe by the third week it begins to fade and by the second or third month we have forgotten about it completely or at the very least we struggle to keep it going. Sometimes feeling like a failure, and sometimes we brush our struggles off as “I have no will-power”. The thing is, none of us have will-power, we learn it and use it – much like discipline.

Who says you can’t start over every day? Who says you can’t change or tweak your resolution? When you’re walking along a path and you realize that you won’t end up on the other side of the beach, woods, lake or hill, you usually try another path; so why not do the same thing with your goals?

If what you want to achieve isn’t getting closer the way you’re currently trying to reach it, change your path, change your thinking and how you view yourself regarding your struggles. There is no set-in-stone rule to reaching your destination. Just because a certain diet, a certain routine or food works great for someone else doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Like buying clothing, you try it on to see if it’s the right fit for you, if it is you keep it, if not, you try out others. Try out different paths toward your goal. Ask for guidance when you need it. Learn how you’re unique and the many ways you can reach your destination.

Reinvent your goals, renew your plans, re-create yourself and do it often!