Comfort Eating, The Big Taboo.

Will you hide the wrapper after you eat that cake, alone?

You know the feeling, you’re a few weeks, into a new healthy eating plan you feel on top of the whole world and then THIS happens…

One morning you wake up, it’s raining, you slept past your alarm, there’s no coffee left, NOTHING looks good on you, you’re now late for work, your boss pretty much hates you, the girl at the desk next to you is a two faced bitch, you get a hateful message from your mum, there’s no money in your account to pay your phone bill today, you just realised you skipped breakfast and you’re so hungry and damn it did you even remember to feed the dog?!!

And it’s only 1pm!!! You’re feeling fuzzled and stressed and all you want to do is pick up a pizza and 3 tubs of Ben & Jerrys (different flavours of course) and go back to bed for the night.

Sound familiar? We have all been there! A little mishap first thing in the morning and your day seems to spiral out of control with so many annoyances!

When we feel stressed out, all we want is to be comforted. This can be a hug, a smile from your other half, a few minutes on the phone with your bestie, but for many, and don’t deny this, we find that comfort in our food! “I am sooo stressed today, I NEED that large pizza meal”

That’s ok, we all need balance and we’re all human BUT the real problems begin when the guilt sets in. You binge on sugary food and then feel guilty;

 “Why can’t I stick to a plan”,

 “I am useless”,

 “Why do I even bother trying”,

 “Everyone else is able to do it but I can’t”. 

 You beat yourself up and almost joke about it a little to your friends when they ask “How’s that diet going?”, when most of the time deep down you’re really giving yourself a harder time than you’ll let on. This makes it worse. You feel alone and kinda embarrassed!

This continues over time, you start and stop different healthy eating plans,  you get into more regular cycles of binging on food and then you start hiding it. Have you ever bought something, ate it, and hid the wrappers incase someone saw you give up on yourself AGAIN?

Here's another trick, and don't feel bad when you read this, it's ok! So, you go to do your grocery shopping and buy two freshly baked chocolate donuts, for your niece, you have one niece that visits weekly, she doesn't even really like donuts but you buy them anyway, sure a wee treat won't do her any harm. You go home, she's out with her friends, so you eat one of the donuts, your mindset has changed suddenly, you're now thinking, "Ah, she won't want both of them". Your niece lands home and turns down your thoughtful little gift. What do you do? You then eat the second donut too! Didn't we already know deep down, you bought them for yourself but used your niece as a cover up?

The girl in the office that goes out and buys a box of cupcakes for everyone because she's having a bad day, when really she wants one just for herself but feels embarrassed to eat one alone, she also kinds wants to put you off your new healthy eating plan (you're looking too good in those new skinny jeans)

This may be new to some and sound a little strange but it’s a daily reality for too many girls AND guys.

I’ve been there before, I had an unhealthy connection with food, it wasn’t pretty. Looking back, I was a comfort eater from a very young age, too scared to speak up I would make my way for the biscuits, biscuits never let anyone down, those biscuits were my friends!

My worst period was from the age of 20-23. Nothing to do with self-image, it was a sheer need of comfort. One evening a few years back, directly after the gym, I bought a large chocolate cake, I ate half for dinner instead of my steak and salad and ate the rest of it the next morning instead of my eggs. Actually, I may have ate the eggs too! My mentality was, if I eat the “healthy” meals I can just add in all the crap food on top of it and just forget about it once I eat it. Not sure why this incident sticks out in my head the most, probably because I remember how disgusted I felt at the time.

If you feel you are in a viscous circle at the minute regarding your food and emotional eating then it’s time to speak up. First of all look at the people you are surrounded by, do you have kind, genuine, supportive people in your life or are you surrounded by self centered and egotistic know it alls? A lot of the time, we really just need to get rid of the weeds in our lives that make us feel crap, those weeds that make us reach out to food/alcohol and drugs for that 5 minutes of comfort that we should be getting from other sources!

Don’t let years go by. Find someone you can open up to, it can be a professional or maybe you just need a friend, or your personal trainer!

Balance is key in life, but if eating that chocolate is making you feel worse, you need to sit and have a wee think about what’s going on. Don’t be your own worst enemy, go easy on yourself.

You CAN change your lifestyle and you WILL. You may just have a few issues to sort out to get you on the right track but I promise you, you can do it. Start getting excited about all the possibilities! Nothing on this earth feels as good as feeling good about yourself and your choices. Think about it.

As always, I’m here for any comments or questions you have, thank you for reading!

Love,

Lisa Dee

 :) x