Post Weekend Food Guilt Got You Down?
Are you a weekend warrior?
Do you find yourself restricting all week long just so you can eat and drink ALL the things on the weekend? You wake up Monday morning feeling guilty so you restrict until Saturday rolls around and you just keep repeating this vicious cycle?
Food is emotional and FOOD GUILT IS REAL. The worst part- Food guilt tends to be felt in secret. Nobody want to admit how gross they feel after a night out or after eating that dessert. When we break the “rules” we make around food we feel guilty and in turn criticize ourselves. All of a sudden we don’t like the way we look, we feel “gross,” or like we are no longer worthy, like we messed up and we need to punish ourselves to fix what we did “wrong.” It is conditioned in us to feel terrible and question our decisions around our food choices.
Here’s this.
What if we woke up the night after going out and focused more on the connections we made and how much damn fun we had rather than being so hyper focused on what we ate? What if appearance-driven social media didn’t exist? Or you didn’t surround yourself with people that made you re-think your choices? How would that feel?
Here are some ways to help you get over that food guilt and stop beating yourself up after a night out:
1. Remove all judgement around food choices - eating a certain food doesn’t make you a good or bad person. Food does not have morality.
2. Eat a nourishing diet full of carbs, protein and fat, don’t discriminate against one, if you're getting in enough nutrient-dense foods and calories during the week you won’t feel the need to splurge on the weekend.
3. Journal- when you feel that guilt arise, write about it, get it off your chest and move on with your day. Write down the things that you want to live by and when the guilt and shame starts to creep in you can recall your values. If ordering that burger and fries is what you want, own it, regardless of what everyone else is eating around you.
4. Honor your hunger- instead of delaying eating, eat when you are hungry this will prevent over-eating that only leads to feeling guilty.
5. Consider that perhaps something isn’t working for you if you constantly feel guilty around food maybe it’s the alcohol, maybe its the people you surround yourself with, maybe it’s the food choices? This doesn’t mean you need to stop going out, it just means its time to get real with yourself and eliminate what is not serving you. If you find yourself every weekend saying “I really need to stop drinking”- listen to that voice.
Developing a positive relationship with food is one of the most powerful things you can ever do. Once this relationship is made the restriction and food guilt will dissipate. For me, this took years but I am finally at a place where I know if I go out the guilt I feel the next day has nothing to do with the food I ate but more so the “rules” I put on the food I ate. I said f*** you to food rules a long time ago and it was oh so freeing!