Obesity: It's about more than food

As you know I am working toward my Bachelor's degree in Digital Media Design. The great thing about the classes I'm taking now is that we're beyond the horrible "learn-how-to-use-the-software" stage and we're working on projects that allow much more creativity and freedom. One recent project was to choose a social issue we're interested in and create a public service announcement poster. The resulting design is one I'm pretty proud of and wanted to share with you. Obesity: it's about more than food...

Throughout my battle with obesity, lost 100 pounds and kept it off for five years I have learned that obesity is about so much more than just food. In fact, it has very little to do with food at all. Food is just the vehicle many of us use to deal with the emotions or feelings we want to hide or celebrate.

• We use food to cover anxiety and fear
• We use food to celebrate happy moments or achievements
• We use food to deal with stress or fulfill obligations
• We use food to show our love and affection for friends and family
• We use food to comfort in times of pain or sorrow

Once we understand how to live with all those emotions in a psychologically healthy way, we no longer need to use food as the barrier against those emotions. Emotions are just emotions ... it's OK to have emotions and feel your feelings. No, it's not easy, but it's OK. 

Be well.

~Pam