Tag Archive for: emotional eating

Rebound Eating- What is it & how do I stop?

You may have heard the term “rebound eating” and find yourself asking “what is this”?

 

In a nutshell, when you restrict the foods you really enjoy eating until you’ve reaching a your breaking point, the backlash is rebound eating.

 

Think of it as your body’s last ditch effort to get your attention after you’ve decided to ignore what it’s trying to tell you—it’s also saying, “Hey! You’re seriously depriving me over here!”

 

As a chronic dieter, rebound eating is something you may have experienced in the past. Does this cycle sound familiar?

 

Reducing the number of calories you consume to less than what your body needs > deprive, deprive, deprive > hit a wall where you can’t take the deprivation anymore and your restriction takes a nose dive > binge, binge, binge > compensate with intense exercise—“I need to work this off!”> REPEAT!

 

This common cycle is harmful to your physical and mental health, and truly take a toll on your body. It leads to disordered eating patterns, and if not responded to immediately could lead to other health complications (i.e., dehydration, brittle hair/nails, fatigue, brain fog, and more).

 

How to Stop Rebound Eating

 

The only way to put an end to this cycle of rebound eating is to stop the restriction. That means to stop dieting. So what is the alternative you might ask?

 

Intuitive eating!

 

Making peace with food and giving yourself full permission to eat while connecting to your inner wisdom to guide you is the way to stop this destructive cycle. When you embrace intuitive eating and bring all foods back into your eating world, you no longer obsess about those foods.

 

Intuitive eating is a practice you are cultivating, and it’s a lifelong journey (it’s not a quick fix!). If you truly want to end the cycle of restriction-deprivation-rebound eating/binge eating – repeat, then consider committing to stop dieting.

 

Pop your name and email into the boxes below for a free experience to Break the Spell of Diets in 3 Days.

 

Want more? Join an amazing supportive community of women inside my membership called The Intuitive Nutrition Circle (aka The IN Circle) where the are learning to integrate gentle nutrition into their intuitive eating practice. Click here for all the deets.

How to Get Started With Intuitive Eating

Learning how to become an intuitive eater after months, years, or even decades of dieting and unsuccessful weight loss attempts is a journey. Intuitive eating is a marathon not a sprint… no quick fixes here!

 

Intuitive eating goes against what diet culture has taught you your entire life. The messages of diet culture are basically that you must look a certain way (skinny) to be worthy of respect. And to get skinny, you must restrict your food and deprive yourself of what you really want.

 

Intuitive eating, on the other hand, teaches you how to attune to your body’s hunger cues, listening to what it’s craving, provide what it needs, and to give your body the love and respect it deserves. Dieting teaches you how to ignore your body’s signals, it creates a toxic mentally with food, and causes you to obsess about unrealistically shrinking your body.

 

Intuitive eating is NOT about dieting, weight loss, and creating food rules. It’s about unlearning what has been drilled into your mind from diet culture. And although this does take time and it is definitely a process, there are some steps you can take to get started, without the overwhelm!

 

4 Steps to Get Started with Intuitive Eating

 

(1) Identify your burning food rules.

We all have them. Whether its no “junk food”, not eating after a certain time, or avoiding a food group altogether—these food rules are not your fault. This is the result of what diet culture has made you believe.

 

It’s important to notice when these food rules come up for you. Next time you’re in the grocery store, sitting down at the dinner table, or thinking about food—get curious about what food rules you have and start challenging them.

 

(2) Acknowledge that hunger is a good (and normal) feeling.

No diet, meal plan or nutrition label can tell you how much to eat. With all these external sources telling you when you eat and when to stop eating, no wonder hunger is no longer an intuitive feeling. Diet culture and dieting itself teaches you to go against what your body is telling you and to ultimately not trust it.

 

Physical hunger is your body’s way of telling you it’s time for nourishment. This is not a feeling to be ignored! If you’re feeling hungry… eat. And celebrate this feeling!

 

(3) Know the difference between feelings of “fullness” and “satisfaction”.

Believe it or not… these feelings are two different things. Fullness is a physical feeling of eating enough, while satisfaction is the mental or psychological feeling of eating enough. The way to get these two feelings in check is to eat enough food that is also satisfying. Your meals/snacks should be a combination of foods that provide you with energy and satisfy your cravings.


(4) Think of food and eating as a form of self-care.

Instead of thinking of eating as something that is supposed to be “perfect” or “all or nothing”, think of food and providing your body with nourishment as a form of self-care. Providing your body with foods that are nutrient-dense and that make you feel energized and happy, while also giving it delicious desserts and a glass of wine ARE BOTH forms of self-care. You can’t have self-care without a balance of these two!

 

I recognize that even these 4 steps might seem overwhelming. To make it easier for you, I’m hosting a webinar on Monday, June 13th! It’s called 3 steps to Eating for Healthy Living: The Intuitive Eating Blueprint.

 

Click here to register for FREE (replay will be available to those who register).

 

How to Tackle Nighttime Overeating and Binge Eating

Do you find yourself coming home from work after a long day and immediately heading to the fridge? Does it feel like this eating is “out of control”?

There are many reasons why you may be overeating or binge eating at night when you are not physically hungry.

  1. You’re not eating enough during the da,y leading to feelings of ravenous hunger at night.
  2. You are eating for reasons other than biological hunger, such as emotional hunger, boredom, loneliness, sadness, etc.
  3. You ignore the signs of hunger throughout the day.
  4. You are using food as a way to unwind or relax at night due to a hard day or general life stressors.
  5. Eating at night is a habit or a part of your routine (that you just can’t break)

Once you’ve identified when and why you may overeat and binge eat at night—how do you confront this issue?

Here are four ways to end the struggle with nighttime eating:

(1) Eat consistently throughout the day.

Eating meals throughout the day ensures sustained energy, limits glucose spikes and crashes and can be just what you need to stop overeating and bingeing at night.

 

Ensure your meals have a balanced amount of macronutrients—carbohydrates, protein and fat.

 

If you are a chronic dieter, it’s quite possible that you aren’t including this very important nutrient with your meals – carbohydrates! Part of embracing Intuitive Eating is recognizing that all food groups are nutrients fit! Carbs are the preferred fuel source for your body. Add carbs back to your meals throughout the day, and you may just see those nighttime binges disappear.

 

(2) Power up with snacks.

Overeating at night is more than likely due to a lack of sustained fuel throughout the day. Having large gaps between meals with no food can leave you feeling ravenous by the time your next meal comes around.

 

If you have a good rule that states “no eating in between meals”, it’s time to toss that rule to the curb. Adding in a snack, either between breakfast and lunch, or between lunch and dinner could prevent those serious hunger pangs that leads to overeating, both at dinner and late at night.

 

Here are some snack suggestions:

  • Cheese, fruit, and crackers
  • Yogurt and granola
  • A handful of trail mix
  • An apple or banana with almond butter

 

(3) Listen to your hunger cues.

Ignoring hunger cues will more than likely lead to overeating. Choosing to listen to the signals of your body will allow you to give your body what it needs. This in turn will help you build back trust with your body.

 

This feeling of trust is important to develop since dieting has stripped you of trust. If you’re holding onto a limiting belief around hunger and fullness, then work on reframing these beliefs into more empowering true beliefs.

 

For example, if you think “I can’t trust my hunger and fullness signals”, flip it around and start to tell yourself “I CAN eat when hungry and stop when full.”

 

(4) Check in on old dieter habits.

Do you find yourself defaulting to old dieting habits? Do you:

  • Only include certain foods in your meals
  • Deny yourself certain foods because they’re “bad”
  • Skip meals
  • Hold onto food rules (ex: no snacking during the day)
  • Ignore your hunger cues

 

These habits are deep rooted in your diet mentality—check in with yourself to identify if these habits may be surfacing. The only solution is to grant yourself unconditional permission to eat and allow yourself foods that satisfy you.

 

Still stuck in the spell of diets? Pop your name and email in the boxes below and start your journey towards breaking the spell of diets and developing TRUST!

 

3 Reasons to Say Yes to Intuitive Eating

Every week I receive dozens of phone calls asking me for a meal plan to help them lose weight. Most of my clients have tried the most popular diets on the market with little success. Instead of giving them another meal plan with strict rules to follow, I will instead point them in the direction of Intuitive Eating.

 

Intuitive Eating is not a weight loss program. Unlike diets, the focus is not on weight loss. It’s on creating a healthy relationship with food as you work towards regaining trust in yourself and food choices. Intuitive Eating is the opposite of a diet. You will not follow a set of rules set forth by a money-making corporation but instead, you will learn to listen to your body’s natural hunger and fullness signals.

 

Your relationship with your body is affected by many years of dieting. Marketing campaigns are centered around the theory that everyone needs to look a certain way. However, everyone’s body is different, and we aren’t all going to look the same.

 

Intuitive Eating embraces that idea that everyone is different and that all bodies aren’t meant to look the same. That is why Intuitive Eating does not come with a set of rules and instead, focuses on restoring your relationship with your body.

 

Losing weight may make you happy short term. But when you gain that weight back, you are the opposite of happy. You can find inner peace and restore your relationship with food and your body through Intuitive Eating.

 

Here are 3 reasons to say yes to Intuitive Eating:

 

1. You are in charge

 

After years of dieting, you aren’t listening to your hunger and fullness signals as a guide to your eating, you’ve been listening to external rules. Intuitive Eating reminds you that you are in charge of your food choices and your body. You have the inner wisdom to know when you are hungry and when you are full, when you should start eating and when to stop.

 

2. You will live life guilt-free

 

Every diet has a list of restrictions with the food you can and cannot eat. But what if you happen to want to eat a food that’s on the “avoid” list? You can deny your desire for only so long. So, you indulge, and the guilty feelings and harsh self-talk start. With Intuitive Eating, you learn to enjoy the foods you love without guilt, and without the worry of overeating.

 

3. You will restore trust in yourself 

 

Marketing campaigns for diets want you to think that everything you have done before you start their diet was wrong. Diets will make you think that you have been choosing the “wrong” foods for years or doing the incorrect workout regimen. However, you are in charge of your body and what it needs. The diets have stripped you of trust. But Intuitive Eating can help you regain that trust!

 

WholeBody Trust: Intuitive Eating for a Peaceful Life Program is now open. Click here to learn more!

5 Ways to Enjoy Thanksgiving Without Food Guilt

It’s Turkey time!

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Thanksgiving?

Turkey? Stuffing? Pumpkin pie? Feeling stuffed?

What emotions come to mind when you think about Thanksgiving?

Gratitude? Overwhelm? Feeling disappointed in yourself at the end of the day for how much you ate?

Many people who are starting the Intuitive Eating journey, and even those who have been practicing for a while, struggle with Thanksgiving. The whole day is centered around eating, possibly leaving you uncomfortably full by the end of the evening. No wonder it’s a challenge for so many people!

I want you to know it doesn’t have to be this way. Thanksgiving does not have to be a source of anxiety at all. It can be a day full of love and gratitude for all the things in your life that you are thankful for.

But how? I’ve got 5 strategies for you!

1.Reframe Your Beliefs

If you go into Thanksgiving Day thinking you will “blow” it, then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your thoughts/beliefs inform your feelings, which inform your actions which inform your results.

Maybe in years past you went into the holiday dieting, and with the first bite of a food you deemed “bad”, you figured “I blew it, I’ll just start again after the holidays”. Well, now you are going into the holiday as an Intuitive Eater, or an Intuitive Eater in training. Therefore, changing your self-talk can greatly impact your beliefs and ultimately your actions.

Try saying this to yourself: “I am capable of enjoying the Thanksgiving feast while honoring my inner signals of hunger, satiety and satisfaction.”

2.Honor Your Hunger throughout the Day

It can be tempting to skip breakfast or lunch when you know that you have a holiday dinner ahead of you. However, this is forcing your body to ignore its hunger cues earlier in the day and when you finally sit down to dinner, you will be ravenous. Then what happens? You eat past the point of comfortable fullness!

Instead, enjoy a well-balanced breakfast and lunch and you’ll see how much more you enjoy dinner.

Hint: Skipping meals to save calories for a big dinner is part of the sneaky diet mentality. What other ways is the diet mentality sneaking back into your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!

3.Be Aware of Competition Eating

Family dinners with lots of people can be challenging! You might find that you take extra or larger helpings of food out of a fear that there won’t be anything left if you are still hungry. This is a form of “rebound eating”. Just the thought of being deprived leads you to “overeat”.

Here’s the thing! Even if you have a big family, there’s likely going to be enough food for second helpings should you still be hungry (who doesn’t have Thanksgiving leftovers!)

Try to resist the urge to overfill your plate. When you first sit down to dinner, assess your hunger level, and take the amount of food you think will fill your hunger. Keep in mind that if you are not quite satisfied when you finish eating, you can always take more. YOU are in charge!

4.Create A Colorful Balanced Plate

Some people think that nutrition is not considered in the Intuitive Eating philosophy. That is the farthest thing from the truth! Gentle Nutrition (Intuitive Eating Principle 10) takes into consideration taste and nutrition when making food choices.

When filling your plate at your Thanksgiving meal, consider whether most of the food groups are present. Protein, whole grains, veggies, and healthy fats all make for a balanced plate that will leave you feeling satisfied, energized and will keep your blood sugars stable.

5.Check-in with Yourself

Being around the family at holiday time can be a source of stress for many people. And this stress can be a disruptor to attuning to your hunger and fullness signals. Take the time before the big dinner to center yourself and focus on you. Then throughout the meal, take some time out to check in with yourself to assess how you are feeling. If you are feeling overwhelmed, take a few breaths to refocus your attention on your meal and to check in with your fullness cues.

There are lots of uncomfortable emotions that can come up this time of year.

If you’re struggling with emotional eating, I invite you to explore the Total Food Freedom: End Emotional Eating and Enjoy a New Relationship with Food Program, on sale now for BLACK FRIDAY!

Check out this killer deal (and see how you can get bonus time with me!)

Offer expires Friday 11/26/2021 at 6 pm EST.

Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

 

Mindful Eating: It’s More Than Just a Way to Eat

How familiar are you with the term “mindfulness”?

Mindfulness, and mindful eating, are terms that seems to be thrown around by many doctors, social media influencers and maybe even your friends these days!

But what exactly is mindful eating and where did it come from?

What is Mindful Eating? 

Mindful eating is rooted in the Buddhist concept of mindfulness and is a form of meditation that helps you recognize and cope with emotions and physical sensations.

In order to properly shift into the mindset of mindful eating one must use, or adopt, the concept of mindfulness in order to reach a state of full attention to the eating experience, cravings, and physical hunger and fullness cues.

It can be more clearly defined as—paying attention to your eating experience by utilizing all of the 5 senses (seeing, tasting, hearing, smelling and feeling), while also observing and taking in the emotional and physical responses that take place before, during and after the eating experience.

Mindful eating is NOT a diet, or just a way to eat—but it is mindset. It has nothing to do with calories and macronutrients nor does it focus on weight loss. The intention is to help savor the eating experience and encourage full presence during a meal.

Mindful eating is process oriented verses outcome driven. It focuses on the journey, or process of the eating experience, which is better understood as process oriented. This is compared to dieting or following a meal plan which focuses on meeting objectives, or meeting a goal (realistic or not), also known as outcome driven.

The overall goal of mindful eating is to shift your focus away from thinking about food externally, or unconsciously, to exploring, enjoying and remaining present with food and the eating experience. It’s all about bringing awareness to each plate or bite of food.

Five Fundamental Concepts of Mindful Eating:

  1. Eat slowly with no distraction.
  2. Look inward to hear hunger/fullness signals.
  3. Learn to differentiate between the different types of hunger (biological hunger and emotional hunger) and act on those feelings appropriately.
  4. Consistently engage all five senses.
  5. Learn strategies to cope with any guilt, shame, anxiety (any negative feelings) around food and eating.
  6. Take stalk of how foods make you feel.
  7. Have a real appreciation for food and the eating experience.

Although these concepts may seem totally out of reach, mindful eating is something everyone can benefit from and get involved in!

The Benefits of Mindful Eating: 

  • Reduces stress
  • Increases enjoyment and appreciation for eating and food.
  • Improves digestion
  • Aids in decreasing disordered eating behaviors (binge eating, emotional eating, etc.)
  • Allows you to take charge of your food, instead of feeling that food “controls” you!

4 Ways to Get Started

  1. Prioritize mealtimes. Give yourself plenty of time to organize, prepare and eat your meals. Rushing mealtime can not only hinder your ability to hear what your body is telling you (i.e., hunger/fullness), but also doesn’t give you time to appreciate and be present with your meal. And plus—no one likes to be rushed!
  2. Check in & ask yourself questions. Don’t be afraid to set your fork aside and ask yourself—
    • How am I feeling at this point in my meal?
    • Are there feelings of pleasure, regret, stress, anxiety, disappointment?
    • Are there any memories being brought up while I’m eating this meal?
    • Where is my hunger/fullness level at?
    • How is my body feeling right now?
  3. Use your five senses. As mentioned, mindful eating encourages to utilize your five senses.
  • Before eating your meal, really look at your food. Take note of the color, the smell, the look, overall appeal, etc.
  • During the meal, check in with the textures, tastes, temperatures, etc. What is sticking out to you? What do you like? What do you not like?
  • After the meal, reflect on your experience. What do you like? What did you not like?
  1. Be aware of your desire or intention. Although this will take some practice, being able to identify your desire or intention for eating is very important. Believe it or not, there are many different types of hunger or reasons for eating! We eat because we are hungry (of course) but also when we feel happy, sad, bored, excited, anxious, nerves, and so much more! Try to identify your desire to eat and act on it appropriately.

 

Beware of The Mindful Eating Diet 

Many people begin the process of mindful eating and turn it into another diet of rules. And when they “break” the rules, they spiral into the guilt-shame cycle. This is especially true of those who’ve dieted for quite some time. This is why it’s so important to shift out of the diet mentality and change your beliefs around food, eating and your body. Otherwise, a beautiful practice such as mindful eating, becomes yet another diet.

 

Need help breaking the spell of diets so you can truly enjoy mindful eating? Pop your name and email below and get started in my free 3 day break the spell of diets online experience.

 

 

I’ve Been “Bad” Today, So I Might as Well…”

If you’ve ever dieted (and you likely have if you’re reading this blog), this statement probably sounds too familiar to you. It goes like this:

I’ve been bad today, so I might as well…

  • “Start again tomorrow.”
  • “Start fresh on Monday.”
  • “Just try to do better tomorrow.”

The “start again tomorrow” mentality is your diet mentality speaking and comes from eating what you consider “bad” foods, and/or not exercising and/or binge eating etc.

Typical Scenario:

 You are being really “good” on your diet, eating healthy all day long. But then, you were triggered by a fight with your partner, and you ended the night in a pint of ice cream. You now say: “My whole day is ruined.”

You feel as though the entire day is “ruined” because while you ate “clean” or “healthy” for the whole day, you canceled all that out with what you ate at night. When you reach this point, you feel defeated and focus on all the “damage” you’ve done. This in turn has you completely abandoning your “healthy eating” habits while engaging in a free-for-all with the foods you’ve deemed “bad”. Until of course, you “start over”.

Starting Over Cycle

The above scenario triggers the responses I mentioned above, which are:

  • “I’ll figure it out later”
  • “I’ll start fresh Monday”
  • “I’ll start again tomorrow”

However, once “tomorrow” or Monday comes, the cycle will repeat itself.

Healthy eating all day > indulge in a “bad” food > free-for-all >“I’ll start again tomorrow.”

This cycle is deeply rooted in diet mentality and can be very dangerous to both your mental and physical health.

Getting Out of the Trap

While you understand this trap you fall into, and you promise yourself you won’t do it again, it inevitably happens.

So how can you NOT fall into this trap?

  1. Get rid of the diet food rules: Yes, the first step is to stop dieting and to throw away all the rules you have around food. Oftentimes, you are fully aware that these rules haven’t served you well, yet it’s a scary thought to give them up. I get it! That’s why support is so important, you don’t have to do this alone. Click here to join my free Facebook community and get help throwing away the rules.

 

  1. Stop trying to eat perfectly. There is no one perfect way to eat! When we strive to be perfect, the moment you deviate by even one bite, you are ready to throw in the towel. This is called the “what the hell effect” (sound familiar?)

 

  1. Acknowledge Nutritional Needs Diversity (yes, I made that term up!). Basically, everyone has unique nutritional needs. No two people are the same, so trying to follow a set of rules and eating pattern that is dictated to you will always lead to you falling “off the wagon” (diet language), and “I’ll start again tomorrow.” The key is to figure out what feels best in your body to meet your unique nutritional needs.

The diet mentality runs deep. But you CAN chip away at this mindset. Have confidence in yourself and have patience!

And, of course, reach out for support if you feel it’ll be helpful:

Free Facebook Group: Intuitive Eating for a Diet Free Life

Free Session: www.talkwithbonnie.com

 

Intuitive Eating and Diabetes Management

Can I be an Intuitive Eater and manage my diabetes without following strict dieting rules?

This is a question I hear quite often.

As a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist, I help people with diabetes manage their blood sugars after a lifetime of dieting to guide them to a place of eating for enjoyment, abundance, and health.

The short answer is YES! You can eat in an intuitive way while having diabetes. You can leave the food rules of diet culture behind.

I explain how in this short video below.

 

 

If you have type 2 diabetes and have been told to lose weight to bring your blood sugars and A1C down, please know that there is a more gentle approach than dieting.

Check out my Healthy Living with Diabetes Program, and download my free eBook: 5 Keys to Manage Diabetes without Dieting.

 

If you’d like to set up a consultation to discuss further, email me at Bonnie@BRGHealth.com

 

 

Practicing Intuitive Eating During Challenging Times

We all experience challenges within our lifetime. These challenges often make us stronger. Yet, while we are in the midst of the challenge, we often feel the very opposite of strong.

If we stop and think for a moment what those challenges are, we see there are many. Divorce, job loss, relationship turmoil, and illness to name a few. Everyone reacts and acts differently in these situations. But what I’d like you to think about is how does it affect your Intuitive Eating practice?

If you’re just at the beginning of your Intuitive Eating journey or you’re a seasoned Intuitive Eater, when life throws us curve balls, it can impact how intuitive we are in our eating and food decisions. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so important anymore. You might be thinking:

  • “I don’t care, I’m just going to go through the drive -thru”, why does it matter?”
  • “I deserve to eat xxx, I’m so sad.”
  • “I can’t deal with paying attention to my eating during this time, I just don’t have the head space.”

I get it! Sometimes when what you are going through is so overwhelming, it’s easier to move away from being present, to distract yourself from what’s going on around you, and to just zone out.

But how do you feel afterwards? How does being distracted and not paying attention to what you need impact how you handle this curve ball? Most of the time, it makes it more difficult.

Here are 3 ways to stay true to your Intuitive Eating journey during challenging times:

1.Engage in self-care: Sit down and brainstorm how you can take the best care of yourself during this time. What is it that you need? Connection with others? Time to relax and unwind? Boundary setting? Spiritual connection? Movement? Once you tap into what you need, make a plan and block out time each day to meet those needs.

2.Practice self-compassion: Ask yourself how would you speak and/or what would you do for a friend who was experiencing this challenge. Then extend that same compassion to yourself. This is the hardest thing to do if you’ve never practiced self-compassion. Being kind and gentle with yourself has been shown to decrease anxiety and depression and enables you to be more present with yourself in a soothing way.

3.Nourish yourself consistently: Your appetite might be affected when you are under stress. For some, they turn to food to numb out and to protect themselves from feeling pain. For others, they turn away from food as the stress response decreases appetite and they just “don’t feel like eating”.

It’s most important in these situations to consider nourishment as a self-care act. Even though your hunger signals might be blunted during times of stress, you still need to eat. Remember, the Intuitive Eating principle of Honor Your Hunger is NOT A RULE. There are times when we need to eat, even in the absence of hunger. And this is one of those times.

Consider setting an alarm to ring at various internals during the day as a reminder to eat. When things settle down, you will likely see that your hunger signals have returned.

There are always going to be difficult times. Taking the best care of yourself during these times will help you get through it.

If you are experiencing something tough going on in your life now, let’s connect to see how I can support you.

Thinking of you…

 

3 Ways to Stop the Food Shaming

Do you find yourself feeling “guilty” or “bad” after eating certain foods? Do you categorize these foods as ‘fattening” or “cheat meals”?

Or are you the one judging others based on what they eat?

Either way, you may be experiencing food shame. The concept of classifying food as “good” or “bad” and then judging others, or yourself, based on what you eat is called food shaming.  This can negatively impact your health.

Food-shaming is criticizing or judging someone (or yourself) for eating something that doesn’t match your definition of what food is “good”.

Examples of food shaming include judging your girlfriend for choosing pizza over a salad or making comments to your partner who has skipped breakfast, or shaming your colleague for being a vegetarian.

Food shaming can also be internal, when you shop at the grocery store and deprive yourself of buying ice cream because it’s “bad”, or you beat yourself up for purchasing the chips.

This is just a short list of the common types of food shaming that happens every day. The reality is that we need to watch what we are saying to others and to ourselves about food choices.

When You Shame Yourself for Your Food Choices

Judging yourself and speaking negatively about your food choices stems from influences and messages that you receive throughout life. These messages come early in life from parents and build throughout your years from the media, friends and even healthcare professionals.

Food shaming can lead to further problems down the road. Food shaming can create such a strong fear of what to eat that you become so rigid that you risk your physical and emotional health from either malnutrition, disordered eating, or eating disorders.

3 Ways to Stop the Food Shaming

  1. Embrace Intuitive Eating: Learning to break the spell that diets have over you and dismantling diet culture messages will help you relearn to trust your food choices again. Tuning into your physiological cues to eating is only one part of the journey. Developing a strong backbone to the culture you live in while learning to neutralize all foods will help you stop the food shaming.
  2. Acknowledge and Reframe Negative Self-Talk: When you find yourself going down the rabbit hole of negative self-talk around what you ate, immediately push pause, and recognize your inner critic at work. Let your inner critic know that you hear her but don’t value what she has to say any longer. Reframe into a more positive accurate statement that is aligned with who you are and the goals you have set forth for yourself.
  3. Remove All Judgement Around Food: When you label foods as “good” or “bad”, you essentially are giving power to these foods and placing them on a pedestal. This is why when you have a trigger and reach for these foods, you tend to overeat on them followed by judgement, guilt and shame. By removing the labels from all foods and taking the conditions off these foods, you neutralize them and they lose their allure.

Defend yourself from food shaming by breaking the cycle of dieting, stop labeling foods as good and bad, and reach out for support when you need it. You don’t have to do this alone!

Over time, you will find yourself more at peace with food so you can live your life to the fullest!