Overeating and Not Making "Real” Meals

When I was constantly struggling with binge eating and felt really upset about my extra weight, I never made myself real meals.

Instead, I was always snacking, eating convenience foods, or eating just nuts or just chips.

I also always ate standing up or walking around or driving in my car. I didn't sit down and act as if I was eating a proper meal.

Many people I work with also struggle with this: deep down, we feel we aren't allowed to take time to plan recipes, make nice meals, and sit down and eat them.

We feel like, if I binge, if I have extra weight, then food is my problem and I need to be restrained. Food is not for me to enjoy. Enjoyment of food is my problem.

The way to challenge this is, do it anyway, and feel what comes emotionally as you do.

Make a rule with yourself that you're only going to eat sitting down at a table, undistracted. Buy some place mats, and some dishes that you really love.

Commit to making proper meals that really honor yourself, like you'd make for someone you really adore.

This doesn't mean it has to be complex--you don't need to become a gourmet chef--it just means making heartfelt and caring meals.

When you do this, you might have shame arise because you feel like this isn't allowed, you're not thin enough for this. You might have fear and terror triggered because you feel like you're going to make your weight or health issues worse if you validate eating like this.

Feel these things in your body as they come up: cry, shake, tremble, do whatever you need to do to allow the emotions to flow through you.

But we must understand: addictive eating with food is very different than honoring and respecting ourselves within our eating.

The "enjoyment" of numbing out by using food as a drug could not be more different than the enjoyment that comes with self-love.

What you'll find is actually that validating eating can help us to heal food addiction. Real love always does.

Photo by Ruth Georgiev via Unsplash