As I gaze at this picture I took a few months ago I remember thinking how the sun rising looks similar to the sun setting. Is it a beginning or an ending...only to be a beginning once again? Somehow, my mind managed to relate this thought to successfully giving up addictive foods only to fall back to binging on sugary and flour foods, and then to give them up again. A continuous cycle like sunrise and sunset.
A dear friend of mine, who I admire and respect, fell off her program eating free of sugar, flour and wheat after years of leading the way for many food addicts. At first, I felt heaviness in my heart: an ending. But...then I thought about myself and the times I fell off my path and succumbed to binge eating. Although they were dreadful times, I learned and grew from each experience beyond my wildest imagination.
You see, when you are eating non processed real foods and your weight is "normalized" there is this sense of glorious mastering (beating) a chronic, progressive, and fatal disease. You begin to forget where you were, only focused on where you are: your success. Today, at times I might embrace this almighty knowing because I am 100 pounds lighter and hundreds of people come to me for advice...and then the unthinkable happens: your mentor falls. It's like an ice cold splash of water smack in the face. It is a reminder that this disease does not go away, it is only masked with clean eating, while lurking in the background is the disease wanting to resurface.
But is this the end? No! It is only the beginning. Just as the sun rises and sets and then rises once again. Every fall brings an incredible surge of erecting. I would not be where I am today if I did not crash many times. Father Rookey (a wonderful priest I know) told me once, "Out of bad comes good: Always." He spoke these words with such conviction as he looked straight into my eyes.
Out of bad, comes good: Always! Hey, look at Oprah...another mentor of mine (and probably yours). She too struggles with this insidious disease. She inevitably will turn bad into good. It is destined. But for today, she is struggling with her weight and addiction to food. Food addiction knows no bias. It does not matter how rich or poor you are, educated or uneducated, if your skin is black, white, or brown. Food addiction is a chemical imbalance that often comes with weight gain and even obesity. Statistics show more than seven million Americans suffer from Binge Eating Disorder (BED), which often is perpetuated by food addiction (chemical imbalance).
I read in Oprah Magazine (March, 2009), What I Know for Sure section, "66% of American adults are either overweight or obese." In my own research I learned that if Americans don't make a positive change in their eating and exercise 75% of the population will be overweight or obese by the year 2015! This is not astounding to me as my pager rings several times a day with someone reaching out for help with their eating disorder.
Yes, my dear friend and mentor is in a dark place. You could say she is the sun going down. But tomorrow is the birth of a new day, a new beginning. She will climb out of her darkness and blind us all with her light. Out of bad comes good: Always!
Photo taken by: Lisa Ortigara Crego
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