For the love of FOOD 2 September 2022 – Posted in: Lifestyle

Why do you eat? Was the blanket answer because you need food? I mean that’s a reason to eat but that’s not why most people eat. Heck, that’s not why I eat, or at least before I actively studied my relationship with food.

I started paying attention to my own eating habits when I had an emotional eater live with me. When she first moved in she was healthy eating as she was on a weight loss journey. As soon as she started having some stressful issues arise it was back junk food and, as I refer to it, ‘eating like a thief’. What shocked me was that there was no middle ground, not like when you have a cheat day but continue on your journey the next day. This was like an addict needing a fix and food was definitely the drug. This went on for weeks!

So I got to thinking, do I treat food like a cure too? and I realized to some extent I do. When I’m bored, when I’m happy and want to celebrate, or if I’m sad and need a pick me up.

But that’s not how food is intended for us, we have to start having a better relationship with food where it’s purely for our sustainability. And of course we can indulge occasionally, but not as a substitute to processing our emotions.

I often say to my friends a lot of us could benefit more from therapy than we think. They always shut me down of course, but most of us aren’t good with processing our emotions. It then affects our relationships with other things. Especially people and food!

Next time you’re about to order a pizza, think- ‘Is there something I’m trying to suppress or am I actually hungry?’.