Takeaways & Reflections | Our Food Relationship & Eating Our Feelings

What is your relationship with food? Would you say it's healthy? Does it leave you often feeling shameful? Does the self-critic lurk out from the shadows after you've eaten something that isn't deemed "healthy?"

I know I've left a drive-thru at times wondering why on earth I ever stopped, as I just feel like physical crap after eating something I know isn't serving me. Perhaps that is my intuition and my inner-knowing saying "I told you so!" Or, perhaps it's neither good nor bad; rather these are labels that, as a society, we've placed on food? Either way, shame is often a large part of our food relationship.

We often "eat our feelings," as the saying goes (which seems to be a buzz phrase nowadays), and then feel shameful for doing so. We may then eat, even more, bingeing and stuffing, only to feel like physical crap later or, as my guest from last week's podcast shared, develop an eating disorder.

Our food relationship starts in childhood. Whether you were forced to clean your plate, food was used as a reward, you grew up with food insecurity, food was part of a punishment, or became a means of control in body image - I guarantee that many of the patterns of behavior that existed with food in childhood, still exist in your adulthood. At the root of it, however, is grief.

I don't think this is a topic talked about as it relates to grief. So, I'm happy to share this week's episode and, I encourage you to listen to last week's episode as well. I will be talking about this again this fall with a therapist who struggled with an eating disorder as well. We dive into the topic of food and kids more in that episode coming up. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, after you listen to this week's episode, I encourage you to give some thought to how you feel about food and your relationship with it. Is it a means to survive or is it a means to thrive?

RESOURCES:

EP 94 Hannah Howard | Food My Perfect ObsessionEP The Manifestation of Grief

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