❌ Negative Emotions Around Eating Like Experiencing Regret, Guilt, Shame, Anxiety or Stress About Foods
If you find yourself turning to food for comfort, feeling anxious or stressed before social gatherings that involve meals, obsessively tracking your meals, or unable to enjoy the foods you love, then you might have an emotional relationship with food that can create feelings of guilt, stress, shame, regret or anxiety.
❌ Distracted Eating
This can look like watching T.V. while eating a bag of chips, sitting in on a work call and munching on some cookies, or going on a road trip and enjoying some popcorn while on the drive. There’s nothing wrong with indulging in any of these snacks! The problem can lie within the tendency to eat more than we intended because we were focused on something else. We call this Snacker’s Remorse!
❌ Consistently Having NO Meal Plans For The Day
This is not to be confused with an actual “meal plan” where you practice strict or restrictive eating. What we mean by no meals planned for the day is you haven’t mapped out what you might want as a snack or for lunch, so instead of having a healthier option sitting at the front of the fridge (like some cut-up strawberries and nuts) you might go for what is the most accessible or sounding the most delicious. This could look like last night’s kettle corn sitting on your counter instead of having to search for or make a healthier option. The key is to ensure the “quickest” and “easiest” options are healthier.
❌ Overcoming Food Beliefs Instilled By Your Childhood, “Never Waste Food!”
This is not so much a habit but a well-intended belief system a lot of us grew up with. The value of never wasting food is a good one for us to have, of course! Where this can turn into a mental battle that impacts our eating habits is when you are full but still have food left on your plate. A lot of us experience this obligation when we are at someone’s house and they fix you up a plate or when you’re at a restaurant.
❌ Overcorrecting For Yesterday’s Meals
If you’ve ever had a day or an evening out, woke up the next morning (or got home later that day), and realized you have WAY more food than you intended. First things, first… you are not alone! And it’s absolutely OK to have more than you meant to every now and then. What happens is a lot of us struggle with overcorrecting. “Since I went to that BBQ yesterday and had a delicious hotdog, potato chips, soda, and a dessert… I’m going to be REALLY strict with myself tomorrow,” and you might start to plan for small and restrictive meals all the next day.
This content was originally published here.
