Archives

Another Name for Fat People

Mar23

Today I went with a friend to the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. We went to see an art exhibit titled “The Baroque World of Fernando Botero”.

The docent who led the first part of our tour said that Botero painted “fat people”. I believe she said those were Botero’s words.

In that museum with 100 pictures of gigantic people, animals and musical instruments painted by a world famous, living artist, I was forced to see fat in a different light.

When we look at art, it’s hard not to make judgments since our perceptions are influenced by our preferences, prejudices, and paradigms. When we see art, we tend to see life as we know it.

Think for a moment about fat people, what those words mean to you, how you feel when you hear the term. What would it take to change your perception about fat people?

I thought about that today when the docent said the most extraordinary thing–that the people in Botero’s paintings weren’t really fat people, but people of “heroic proportions”.

When I heard “heroic proportions “the label “fat people” instantly disappeared. A paradigm shift occurred and I will never see large people as fat people again.

Even as I struggle with my own food addictions and emotional eating challenges, I know the power of words when it comes to food and labels.

Today, I got to take a different look, a new picture, and I liked what I saw.

Boredom Can Lead to Emotional Eating

Mar20

While we may not think of boredom as an emotion, it is definitely a feeling. In our busy techno-lives, the way we communicate has changed dramatically.

There is less interaction and more interfacing. The only problem with that is that we’re not computers. We’re people. People need to talk and to see each other face-to-face now and then.

Interpersonal communication can be very gratifying. Friendships fill in the gaps we feel in our own lives. Being with others allows us to enjoy our alone time. That keeps us from getting bored.

Emotional eaters sometimes start out as bored eaters. There’s nothing to do so they eat. If their life feels dull, they choose spicy foods. If things are a bit rocky, they choose smooth foods like ice cream or pudding. There’s a pattern.

Eating when you’re feeling bored can start a person down a tough road. It’s not like a food addiction, and emotional pain or trauma isn’t gnawing at you.

It’s plain old boredom. It’s like turning on the TV for the company. You may not even have any junk food in the house but you start opening and closing the refrigerator or cabinet doors until you find something to eat.

Emotions change when the extra pounds start to make you feel uncomfortable. There’s a kind of nervousness, then anxiety when your clothes don’t fit the same and your friends start to comment.

Panic is next when it isn’t so easy to take off the pounds. The cycle begins, and behold, an emotional eater is born.

Who knows what the turning point will be? You never know until you get there. If you already are an emotional eater or have struggled with food addiction in the past, then boredom can really be the kiss of death.

Boredom makes you numb. You feel like a lump on a log. It’s the feeling of having no feeling. There is no motivation to eat, just an unconscious act of putting food in your mouth.

I know it’s a brand new world where texting rules and reading is considered outdated. I know that friendships tend to be more shallow, more distant, and more fleeting.

No wonder people get bored. Expectations of being entertained constantly, not being able to look into someone’s eyes when you talk with them, not knowing how to spend time with yourself.

It’s funny how everything seems to come back to food. Food is such a big deal nowadays. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize that what we need is not food, but love.

Nourishment is not just for the body. It is for the spirit too. And when boredom sets in, food just doesn’t cut it.