Once I Open the Bag, I Can't Stop!

I wonder if you can relate to any of this story?

Ever since she was a kid, Kendra loved barbecue potato chips. They reminded her of summer pool parties, lakeside picnics and backyard cookouts.

When she began dieting in her 20s, she rarely let herself eat them. Her beloved salty snacks had been put on her “bad” foods list.

However, making the chips a forbidden food backfired. Depriving herself of them only intensified her cravings.

Soon they became one of Kendra's "trigger foods."

When she would break down and finally eat the chips, her eating felt out of control.

Once she started crunching away on them, she couldn’t stop. She ate with a sense of urgency, barely even tasting them.

Halfway through the bag, she’d tell herself, “What the hell. I’ve come this far, I might as well keep going since I’m never letting myself have these again. By polishing them off now, I'll be able to get back on track tomorrow.”

As she licked the barbecue seasoning off her fingers, Kendra would be overcome with tremendous guilt and shame.

These feelings, coupled with the overeating, provided her with false evidence that she simply couldn’t be trusted with the chips. She vowed to never let them cross her lips again.

But she couldn’t stop thinking about them!

The Habituation Effect
Feeling obsessed with your forbidden foods is a natural outcome of dieting and deprivation. Telling yourself you can’t have something often makes you want it even more.

When you make foods off limits, whether it’s chocolate, ice cream, bread, chips or fries, it elevates their desirability, reward value and power.

In order to make peace with the chips and stop her restrict-binge-repent-repeat cycle, Kendra needed to experience the habituation effect.

Habituation means the more you eat a particular food, the less appealing and enticing it becomes.

As its novelty and allure wears off, the food becomes neutral. It’s no longer a big deal. You desire it less. (You’ve probably experienced this with leftovers.)

Forbidden-food rules, food restriction and dieting prevent habituation. Lack of habituation, combined with the fear you'll never be able to eat a certain food again, commonly results in intense cravings, overeating and binge eating.

Unconditional Permission to Eat
In the past, Kendra would only allow herself to eat barbecue chips on special occasions since she always ended up losing control and overdoing it.

In order to habituate to the chips, she started to eat them every day, sometimes a few times a day.

At first, Kendra was scared to have the chips around all the time. As she feared, she did continue to overeat them for a while. However, although she didn’t trust herself yet, she did trust the process and stuck with it.

By giving herself unconditional permission to enjoy the chips whenever she wanted and however much she wanted, Kendra was able to neutralize her relationship with them.

Eventually, her desire for the chips diminished. Sometimes she completely forgot they were in her cupboard! When she did want them, she was able to eat an amount that felt just right, completely guilt-free.

Encouraged by the outcome, Kendra slowly started eating her other forbidden foods, gradually rebuilding her self-trust while enjoying a more peaceful, relaxed relationship with food.

It's Okay If I Eat This Because We're in a Pandemic

Does the following sound familiar?

“I’m letting myself eat whatever I want right now because we’re experiencing a global crisis. But once this is over, I’m not going to eat this way anymore.”

If you can relate to this, it’s completely understandable. It’s how diet culture has conditioned us to think.

Only Under Special Circumstances
Diet culture tells us we’re only allowed to eat certain foods under special circumstances.

It makes us believe that it’s okay to eat cake at a weekend birthday party but not on a regular ol’ Tuesday.

It drives us to think we can eat whatever we want on vacation as long as we get back on track once we’re home.

It tells us we can eat our forbidden "bad" foods during a pandemic, yet they must become off-limits again once it passes.

And, it's all a bunch of B.S. The truth is:

You have the right to eat all the available chips, cookies, brownies and bread you desire today—and every day of the year.

You don’t need a special reason, other than it’s what you want.

Diet Mentality vs. Non-Diet Mentality
If you’re feeling the need to justify your food choices during this challenging time (or at any time), you’re likely operating from a deeply ingrained diet mentality—one that includes a lot of rules and beliefs regarding what’s okay and not okay when it comes to eating.

Your experience is much different than if you’re operating from a non-diet mentality—that is, if you’re eating intuitively.

If you’re an Intuitive Eater, you truly know you have unconditional permission to eat whatever you want, whenever you want and however much you want (of course, depending on what food is currently accessible to you).

You don’t feel the need to give yourself special permission to eat certain foods during certain times because you know you can eat them anytime they’re available.

As a result, you don’t have a pandemic permission list.

It’s Okay Now—and Later
If your eating feels off-kilter right now, I encourage you to have compassion for yourself. The entire world is off-kilter right now, so it makes sense that your eating would feel this way too.

If you find yourself thinking “It’s okay if I eat this because we’re in a pandemic,” you are right. It is absolutely okay.

If you want to move toward greater peace, ease and freedom with your eating, you can start by following this thought with “It’s also okay for me to eat this when we’re not in a pandemic.” Because it is. 

Are You Fixating A Lot On Your Body These Days?

Are you fixating on your body a lot these days?

Do you have a strong urge to diet and lose weight?

Or maybe you’re afraid of gaining weight.

If so, it makes sense.

When life feels out of your control, when you’re feeling anxious, scared and helpless, it’s human nature to search for something that gives you a sense of control.

In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, stocking your pantry and cupboards with multiple weeks worth of food and personal care products likely made you feel a bit in control—something we’re all grasping for right now as we try to navigate this life-altering global crisis that is largely out of our control.

But now that we’re a few weeks in and still facing an unprecedented level of uncertainty, it’s understandable to seek other things that give you the illusion of control.

For you and many others, this might mean trying to control your eating and your body.

Okay Body, Okay Life
Like shopping and stockpiling, focusing on your weight feels accessible, doable and reassuring. If you have a history of dieting, it's an especially calming, familiar place to turn to when faced with so many unknowns. 

Diet culture, after all, has conditioned us to believe—from a very young age and without our consent—that if we can just control our eating and our weight and feel good about our body then everything will be okay and life will be easier.

So it’s completely understandable why you would fixate on your body as a way to cope with the difficult, distressing and overwhelming emotions you’re likely experiencing right now.

Not Really in Our Control
Yet, despite what diet culture has led us to believe, we do not have complete control over the size and shape of our body.

It’s not simply a matter of “eat less and exercise more.”

The human body isn't that simplistic.

Your weight is impacted by multiple complex factors, including your genetics, environment, and social and economic conditions.

And research shows that the vast majority of people who lose weight eventually gain it back, and many gain back more than they lost.

If this has been your experience, it’s not because you failed or lack willpower and self-discipline.

When you deprive your body of food, it thinks it's being subjected to a famine and will do everything it can to survive. This includes triggering numerous compensatory processes, such as hormonal changes that increase your appetite and decrease your metabolism

Weight-Neutral, Sustainable Self-Care
So rather than focus on something that is short-lived, unsustainable, exhausting and potentially harmful to your physical and psychological wellbeing, I encourage you to direct your precious time, energy and headspace toward more meaningful, fulfilling pursuits.

This includes weight-neutral, sustainable and pleasurable self-care practices that help you ride this emotional roller coaster with greater ease and feel better in your here-and-now body.

I also encourage you to be compassionate, gentle and patient with yourself.

Times are tough. Trust that you’re doing the best you can.

If you're struggling and would like support, please feel free to reach out. Thankfully, I'm still able to support my clients via video during this challenging time.