Day Fourteen: Don't Look at the Label

Calories, calories, calories. 

You don't have to have an eating disorder to become preoccupied with the label on the package. In fact, obsessing over calories is such a universal concept that lawmakers are considering printing nutrition labels on everything. Yes, that means restaurant menus, baked goods, and possibly even those little samples at Sam's (ok...maybe I'm exaggerating just a little on that one). The point is- people obsess over nutrition labels, even if most of them don't heed them. 

Have you ever gone to the office or attended an event only to hear these dreaded words: "Oh, you shouldn't eat that. Do you know how many calories are in there!?" It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how those words affect you. Eating disorder or not, calories are a big deal. They are what we use to please people. They are what we constantly pay attention to. They are, essentially, the bane of our existence. 

I'll admit, I am a calorie hoarder. It seems like my mind has created a central database of every food imaginable and-when I least expect it-it spits out the nutrition facts for me to stop and consider. Though some may see it as beneficial, it is a hindrance really. Life is not about calories. There is happiness outside of the nutrition label on the cookie box. There is freedom in not knowing the facts of every food imaginable. 

Today's challenge is not to look at those labels and not to heed the constant information output that goes on in my mind. Today is a day of choosing what I want to eat- what's healthy, not what has the least calories. Today is the day I scribble through the box and create my own reality. One of health and nutrition, not rules and regulations. In the end, life is not about food. It's not about the number of calories you consume. It is about the amazing ability to live free. 

Verse: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes." (Luke 12:22-23)