I want to publicly address a question I get asked a lot: Do I still eat G-BOMBS? (Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, and Seeds)
Yes, most of the time. My body responds beautifully to the nutrients.
However, I no longer adhere to the obsessive mindset of precision nutrition; nor do I believe in, or strive to reach an arbitrary ideal weight in order to achieve so-called optimal health ideals.
The fear-mongering rhetoric of succumbing to disease, depending upon whether one eats perfectly or not, suffocated me—and the resulting anxiety did not promote optimal health or longevity.
For me, the preoccupation with “precision nutrition” eventually led to developing a full-blown eating disorder.
There’s a big difference between listening to the body’s innate cues for fuel—versus obsessively following a strict diet with absolutely no deviation, flexibility, or nuance.
When I walked away from the stress of 100% compliance, 100% of the time, I settled into a peaceful and natural attunement with my body. (I was put on my first diet at age six, so this has been a refreshing healing journey for me. Actually, I felt this same freedom in 2008 when I first followed “Eat to Live,” but over time it turned into an obsessive fixation on weight loss and scales, going on and off weight loss challenges and resets, the fear of succumbing to disease if I didn’t eat perfectly, and the demoralizing doom of failure if ideals were not achieved—as most diets eventually become.)
The mental energy and anguish spent on precision nutrition; combined with attempting to reach an ideal weight (spoiler alert: I never reached it, no matter how hard I tried), consumed my attention and focus. It left little energy for other tasks, cognitive performance, and the spontaneous enjoyment of life. I was, however, in complete denial of how much it was adversely affecting my life.
On the morning of November 19, 2023, I had a profound spiritual experience in my kitchen that released me from the unhealthy relationship with food and my body.
Through the still small voice of God’s Holy Spirit’, he guided me to a healthier, balanced, and more peace-filled approached to being attuned with my body. The harmonious relationship I now have with food has brought me much freedom and joy again; the same liberation I had back in 2008 before I got caught up in diet-wellness culture.
(And, for the record, I will not be appearing on TV talk shows or magazine covers to promote weight loss ever again. The cognitive dissonance of promoting food as medicine—while simultaneously being asked to participate in weight loss marketing ads and campaigns such as “The 7-Day Crash Diet” on national television— felt uncomfortably incongruent. Those days are over for me.)
When I started the Transformation Art Exhibit in 2008, I never intended for the art experiment to replace the medium of painting.
But it did.
I lost myself to the brand, and it gradually became the focus of my life.
(I’ve since removed the art exhibit from my website, but it’s still in my book.)
I am a painter; not a foodie fanatic.
And as a result, the eating disorder—and the so-called food addiction I was told I had—have both ceased.
Emily Boller, wife, mother, painter, and author is on a mission to create expressive works of art in her lifetime; and to bring awareness to the potentially harmful traps of diet-wellness culture. In her free time, she loves to chase sunrises, grow flowers and vegetables, and can homemade soups.