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Behind the Food Chatter

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Eating is about nourishing the body when it’s hungry.

 

It’s not about:

 

“I’m bored, a snack sounds good.”

“That was really good, I’ll have some more.”

“I do not want to finish this project, I’ll have some nuts.”

“This is overwhelming, I want peanut butter.”

 

When we make food and eating about things that have nothing to do with it this offers an opportunity to wake up to our life and consider how we have constructed it.

 

Try this:

 

Next time you notice that you are thinking about food or your diet or your weight or your macros or anything related to food and eating, and it is not mealtime, and you are not physically hungry, ask yourself why.

 

Maybe it’s because you’re bored, tired, nervous, don’t feel like doing something, feel unattractive, etc, whatever. Now you know, and now you can do something about it because your focus is back where it belongs: on you and on your real life.

 

Sometimes the doing simply involves making space for your experience, allowing and accepting without trying to change it right now: allowing the loneliness to be there without pushing it away; embracing uncertainty without trying to figure it out; meeting sadness with grace and compassion.

 

Just as it is important to see what’s behind the action of eating when not physically hungry, it is also important to see behind the thoughts of eating and food and weight.

 

Consider all the things you could be doing and thinking about if your time and energy were focused on your real life, on the things and people and activities and relationships you enjoy and value and that bring you joy.

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