How’s Your Relationship….

with FOOD?

People think of relationships all the time.  Friendships, boyfriends, relations with their colleagues, but rarely stop to think about one of the most complicated of them all, FOOD.

There are several key qualities to a successful relationship.  Communication, honesty and a connection just to name a few.  It might seem weird to think about but our relationship with food has every one of them.

Food may not be able to talk out loud, but it does communicate with our bodies.  It tells our bodies to release enzymes and hormones that help breakdown the food we are eating, let us know we are full and even when we are hungry.

Honesty? Let’s be honest with ourselves.  We can knowingly eat something even though we are full and might get that Thanksgiving dinner full feeling, but we eat it anyways.  Or a lot of the time people say ‘I know this is not good for me but I’m going to eat it anyways.’  I mean, let’s be honest here too.  We can eat it if we don’t eat it every day.  It’s not going to kill you.  Don’t be a cheater and be honest with yourself.

Oh, and a connection.  How do we possibly have a connection with food?

We connect with food on an emotional level.  It’s almost like people use it as a crutch to keep their minds busy.  AND people OBSESS over it.  It’s an unhealthy fixation with food.

Who wants to be in an obsessive, cheating, my way or the highway relationship?

The main thing to think about to have a successful relationship with food is to not become obsessed.  It’s easy to overthink, ‘cheat’ on our diets, or do whatever and not listen to what our bodies are telling us.

Instead, don’t create a diet relationship with food.

There is no need for ‘cheating’.  There is no guilt associated with it.

Create a relationship based on good communication.  Let your body communicate with the food you eat.  If you are full, don’t eat more.  If you are hungry, eat a little snack and wait to see if you are still hungry.

And don’t fall into the trap of obsessing.  If you are constantly thinking about something you will always have that something on your mind.  You will think about it repeatedly and create an unnecessary craving.  That craving leads to the act of eating, and most likely that craving is so powerful it trumps any potential for stopping.

Additional information about our relationship with food can be found at https://www.recovery.org/pro/articles/learning-to-control-your-relationship-with-food/.

*This does not promote lapse in a prescribed diet to treat specific disease state.