Can’t stop eating? Here’s why
I’m seeing a lot of ads for weight loss BS right now featuring click bait headlines like “Can’t stop eating?” and I have, predictably, something to say about it.
There’s a diet-culture paradigm at play here we need to address: eating is bad, and if you’re doing it too much, you should figure out how to stop.
Why doesn’t this work? Why is the diet industry one of the most profitable in the world, worth over $200 billion? Why ARE we all so out of control around food?
Eating is THE most visceral, basic, necessary survival instinct we have. If we don’t eat, we die. Our bodies and brains are programmed to seek out food, and gravitate toward the highest-energy food sources we can find. We MUST eat.
But now we live in a culture that tells us eating is bad, and we should control ourselves around food, and we shouldn’t eat certain things that are readily available, and we should be able to deny our strongest survival instinct.
What is this doing to us? You can probably see the results of this dissonance all around you: yo-yo dieting abounds, diet talk is everywhere, doctors are prescribing weight-loss, and millions of women spend much of their time and energy trying to change their size. Only to repeatedly fail and blame themselves for being weak or not having enough willpower.
We feel so crazy around food because our brains are responding to the threat of deprivation, or actually starvation. You’re not crazy, weak, or out of control if you really want to eat foods that taste good. You’re a normal human.
The more you try to control yourself around food and deny yourself the pleasure of eating delicious things until you’re full, the more appealing those things will be. Telling yourself you can’t have something will automatically make you want it more. It becomes the forbidden fruit.
Instead of trying to “stop eating” or telling yourself there are things you can’t have, try focusing on thorough nourishment. Try eating a wider variety of foods – including chocolate – and making sure you’re fully satisfied. Try dissolving the power food has over you by giving yourself permission to have it, and really enjoying it.
Try resting more, moving more, hydrating more, laughing more, and connecting more. Try filling yourself up and nourishing yourself in EVERY way, and maybe mindlessly inhaling multiple slices of pizza while zoned out in front of the TV won’t be as appealing anymore.
If you feel like you Can’t Stop Eating, ask yourself why you would want to. Maybe a better question is why food has become so important in your life, and what you need to add into your daily experience to create more balance and peace for yourself.
Love, Teddey
