I decided to write my first blog after seeing a commercial that continues to weigh on me (pun intended). Just the other day I had the TV on in the background as I was doing something around the house that I can’t remember at the moment. My radar seems to always be on for so-called trigger words… “Calories” must have done it this time! I stopped whatever I was doing and walked over to the front of the TV to see a commercial featuring three women comparing their lunches. Two women were sitting at a table on their lunch break discussing the number of calories in each of their lunches, bragging about how few calories the meals contained. (I can’t recall the foods nor the calories of either, but I can almost guarantee they were absurd to be considered a meal.) At this point, the third woman walked in holding a new vase and boasting about her zero calorie lunch due to spending her break shopping at Home Goods. The other women seemed almost jealous and looked at “Zero Calories” like she was a genius! Unfortunately, to many people the commercial has probably gone unnoticed, and to others, the idea of shopping at lunch in order to avoid eating seems will become the newest diet. However, for me, well, I’ve been disturbed by this idea for the past 4 days. As a society, how have we come to the idea that food is something we don’t need and that we should actually try to avoid? How have we gotten to the point that a store like Home Goods, selling just that, “home goods”, is using weight loss to sell it’s unrelated products? We’re obsessed. We’re obsessed with the idea of losing weight and obsessed with ways to make it happen. We treat food like the enemy rather than the nourishment that it is. Food is essential to life and our vitality. We need to eat and we deserve to eat! Cutting calories and avoiding meals only causes deprivation, a slowed metabolism, and a cycle of yo-yo dieting and binge eating. Why torture ourselves physically and emotionally? We can treat our bodies with the love and nurturance that each of deserves if we practice responding to our hunger and honoring our physical needs. My hope is that we can transform our distorted view of food and weight in our society by focusing on self care. We can energize and fuel our bodies rather than deprive them. And to Home Goods, you can sell products without promising weight loss. I encourage you to focus on furnishing the home rather than nourishing the body.