Earlier this week I took a poll asking about whether or not you thought you had a good relationship with food. I wasn’t surprised at all for many to say yes and by the end of the ongoing slides, your vote might have changed if I had asked the question again. While I wasn’t surprised I truly felt sad for you. I feel disgusted that we have allowed ourselves to hide our feelings, fears, and insecurities with food. We hide behind eating a “treat” and drinking alcohol instead of dealing with what is really going on with our lives. Let’s change that!
Your first step. Admit you have somethings you need to work out. Maybe your stressed because you feel the weight of running the house and kids, maybe you feel stressed because your working on top of that, maybe it’s because you have lost every good friend you had because you couldn’t juggle a high executive position and a social life without feeling like you’d need to sleep for a week. So you’ve picked food. I get it. I think we have all eaten our stresses away, for the time being, but how about this time, you don’t?
What if you stop and ask yourself,
- “Is this going to make me feel better and fix my problem long term, or is this temporary?”
- “Will I be happy with this decision tomorrow or will I feel annoyed with myself”
- “How can I deal with my feeling/stress outside of food and booze”
What if this time you,
- Confide in your partner or friends. Let them know “hey! I don’t need you to fix anything I just need to vent” Be clear with what you’re needing from talking with them.
- Told your spouse you need a bit more help around the house and with the kids.
- Look into cutting back on some other expenses to have your toilets cleaned once a week for you.
- Looked at hiring an assistant or delegating more responsibilities to someone who can do them too.
When you start to acknowledge that you’re not in fact hungry and that eating half a dozen cupcakes won’t pay those extra expenses that came up, likely you’ll stop and think of a solution and put it into action. Find a solution that’s not at the bottom of a bottle or chip bag.
Do you binge and then feel guilty? This one happens a lot to individuals who eat a very very strict diet and are constantly being told what they can’t eat. It’s like telling a child they can’t have ice cream or a cookie, they want it more, they obsess until they get it. We are very similar. The second you can’t have something you want it! For me, this happened when I was pregnant. Before I became pregnant I never drank but then when I couldn’t MAN I used to smell Matt’s wine glasses and curse him. Silly hey! But now here I am again able to drink whenever and I could give two shits. Anyways, back to you, so you created this OMG moment about what it would be like to have a pizza and ice cream and three bottles of wine and Chinese food, and then next thing you know you have eaten a week’s worth of calories and after that stomach ache goes away you now feel guilty. You feel embarrassed and ashamed when really you should have an “omg I’m not doing that again because it hurt my belly” no other reason. All of those foods are fine once in a while so if you love them to enjoy them once in a while, guilt-free.
Ladies… are you replacing sex with food? You laugh but it happens. You’re not in the mood to shave your legs and put in the effort, so you sneak to the pantry for chocolate or sugar trying to get that quick feel-good insulin spike and bedtime crash. Instead well, skip the pantry and shave your legs!
Learn the language. Eating carbs won’t make you “fat”. Eating uncontrolled amounts of calories, consisting of highly processed, high sugar, wheat, pasta, and pastries can contribute however fruits and vegetables are carbs too and last I checked eating mass amounts of veggies hasn’t made anyone fat. Knowing that you can have a balanced diet of carbs consisting of veggies fruits, starch, and minimally processed sugar will give you enough energy and give you a great body composition.
Mindful eating. Everything you put into your body is a reflection of the life you want. Enjoying good whole foods 90% of the time and enjoying those other treat type foods 10% of the time will set you up for a long life of happy balance! Your mind is a very powerful weapon again your cravings, mood swings, and everything else life throws at you. Create positive self-talk, learn the difference between eating for survival, and eating for emotions. Balance your sleep, water, and stress and I guarantee your relationship with food will become much better! If your feeling overwhelmed and feeling like you don’t know where to start, just start somewhere. Start with the few tips I laid out for you and if your still needing more help, let’s work together.