Beating Yourself Up Exacerbates Overeating

Beating ourselves up for our overeating contributes to more compulsive eating, not less.

It is so easy to get down on ourselves, judge ourselves, shame ourselves and emotionally attack ourselves when we feel we've eaten too much.

It can feel like the warranted thing to do: we messed up, now we deserve chastising.

We act as if the need is to become like a militant drill sergeant towards ourselves.

We think that if we punish ourselves enough, then we can whip ourselves into shape and stop doing it.

The truth is though, that attacking ourselves rarely improves our behavior, and if it does it is never long-lasting. Rather, the berating often perpetuates compulsive eating, because now we are feeling even worse about ourselves.

Kindness and compassion can feel wrong, as if we are letting ourselves off the hook and being too lenient.

We associate self-love with apathy, and, well, more overeating. We think that being kind to ourselves will lead us to eternal donut-eating that will ruin our health. But that's not kindness, that's addiction.

True self-love and kindness doesn't contribute to behaviors that damage our bodies or our lives, rather, they inspire us to act in our own best interest because we love and respect ourselves.

If you've overeaten, you can investigate it deeply and reflectively, with curiosity. Being curious and reflective with the aim to heal does not require an ounce of self-judgment.

Resist what is yet another addiction to self-punish about your eating, and instead investigate the causes without judgment.

Your soul and your stomach will be better off!

Photo by Daniel Anthony via Unsplash