Moving On Means Eating Well

Cortez Ranieri has written 10 Habits For Grief and Loss: Create Change Through Adversity To Become A Better You. You can read it for free if you have Kindle Unlimited. Let’s look at Habit #2 = Moving On Means Eating Well.

Diet is just as important as exercise. What you eat is your fuel while exercise is your expended energy. The problem is that we tend to overdo or under-do our eating when we are grieving.

In my family of origin, you ate if you were happy and your support system tried to get you to eat something if you were sad. I grew up through high school where I couldn’t gain an ounce to save my life. Then, the switch flipped and I could just look at pictures of food and gain 10 pounds.

I topped out at 278 pounds in September 2020 and I am now down to 210 pounds in May 2021 — thanks to gastric sleeve surgery, two daily chewable Flintstone’s Complete multi-vitamins, 64 ounces of water & 60 grams of protein I am feeling the best I have felt in years. I eat my protein first at every meal and I also have switched to smaller plates. A protein shake is a good and quick food source for me almost every day at lunch.

You may lose weight and have poor dietary habits as you move through complicated grief. Stress is also a big factor in a griever’s overall health. Then there is the fact that we tend to gain weight as we grow older. The average weight gain per year after 30 has tended to increase as junk food became widely available. More than one-third of Americans consumed fast food on a given day between 2013 and 2016, as reported by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The good news is that there are more clinical dietitians than ever before who can walk you through what you ARE putting in your body versus what you SHOULD be putting into your body. You cannot control when you start or stop grieving, but you can control what you put into your mouth during that time. You can help yourself.

As a rule, it is better to prepare your menus and shopping list in advance and as much as possible keep that junk food out of your house! Our grief has ebbs and flows and if it peaks at mealtime we might end up with an eating disorder. It may take 6-12 months after a great loss to get back into a consistently healthy eating schedule, so do not give up on healthy eating in the short while but have long-term physical and emotional, and spiritual goals in view.

Just like you may need an exercise buddy, you may need a nutrition buddy to help you make it through. 

Ephesians 6:10 NKJV
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.