power of perception wellness with Julie Latz,

Hi, I’m Julie Latz, the founder of Peaceful Eater. For 45 years I was obsessed with and controlled by food. It actually felt like my life revolved around it. I was either trying the “latest and greatest” diet plan hoping I could muster up the willpower to stay on it long enough to take off all the weight, or I was eating everything in sight. I knew no in between. All I wanted was to figure out how to eat my favorite foods in moderation. But instead I was always living at one extreme or the other; deprived or bingeing. Because I didn’t want anyone to know how much I really ate, I used to sneak food and eat it in private. Hiding junk food and planning when I could sneak away to eat it, figuring out where to hide the wrappers and dealing with the depression of being a food addict seemed like a full time job. But, not only was it a job I wasn’t getting paid for, it was a job that came with many costs. Being a binge eater sucked the joy out of daily living. As with any addiction, when you feel controlled by something, you’re just not “yourself.” I felt like this thing would come over me and make me screw up my diet even though I knew I’d be miserable after abusing myself with food. But I felt compelled to do it anyway. I had a closet full of different sized clothes because I never knew what would fit depending on where I was in the dieting/bingeing cycle. I hated the way I looked in clothes and just wanted to be able to wear what I liked instead of only what fit. I couldn’t bear looking in the mirror and I stayed as far away from the camera as possible. When I’d go on a family outing, all I could think about was when it would be lunch time or when I could escape to the bathroom to eat whatever junk food I had hidden in my purse. I couldn’t be “present” when I was controlled by food.