As Nancy Reagan said "Just Say No!"

When the Reagans issued in the era of  "Just Say No!" I'm pretty sure they were trying to discourage the youth of America from caving to the peer pressures of drugs, well what about the peer pressures of fast food, sweets, nachos at the pub...shall I go on?

How many of us have tried to go on a "diet" to then go to a family dinner and feel guilt-ed into a piece of pie that Auntie Sue spent all afternoon baking? The look of such sorrow and hurt in her eyes when you decline. Well Auntie Sue is my drug dealer, or in the immortal words of Ice T, she's my Pusher.

I know we all associate food and emotions. Who hasn't buried their face in a bag of chips on a Friday night after a stressful week? Or who am I kidding a bag of chips every night of a stressful week? Who doesn't have fond memories of special occasions around the family table dining on roast beast, all the fixins' and of course followed with dessert, until we rolled like little sedated cartoons to lay semiconscious in front of the tv until we could eat some more?

Don't we all have Mothers and/or Mothers-in-law who are always pushing a plate of sweets toward us. Even at my heaviest no one ever said  "Dear, I think you've had enough."  There is this satisfaction of seeing others enjoy the fruits of our labours, I've done it, we've all done it.

I made a promise to myself last year that I would no longer feel guilt-ed into eating anything I didn't really want or need, or know later I would regret having eaten (hello, seventh evil lemon square?). I wouldn't leave another family gathering thinking "Why did I eat all that? Why?" No more beating myself up over food. And do you know what slowly started to happen when I started declining the sweets and the cakes and the pies? Healthier options started appearing at family gatherings, a plate of fruit beside the pie! I smile on these occasions knowing in some little way I've made an impact, I've pushed back ever so gently against my Pusher and no tears were shed, no one died, and as I see more of those around the table reach for a bowl of fruit salad instead of a piece of cheesecake I know slowly but surely I'm becoming their Pusher.

Thanks Ice T.