Can't Stop Thinking About Food?

If I were to list one of my top areas of focus when it comes to supporting my clients, it is helping them stop obsessing over food! Wait, you might be thinking, so if I LET GO of some of my control over food, I will actually eat more healthfully, normally and balanced? Yes! That is exactly what I am saying! Thinking about food 24-7 is not normal - it does not produce healthier eating and we can't bully ourselves into making the 'right choice' when it comes to food. Hear me out. Do you struggle with your relationship with food, engage in disordered eating behaviours, delay your eating, have off-limit foods, make 'diet versions' of foods (I'm looking at you protein mug cake) and feel like you're stuck in a never ending cycle of dieting, bingeing or feeling a mid-afternoon crash? Then read on!

Avoiding foods in one form or another, is often a prominent behaviour in individuals struggling to find a happy, healthy and normal relationship with food. This type of dieting has the intended outcome to limit what is eaten and is often motivated by a desire to lose weight, prevent weight gain or fatness, or by a wish to maintain strict control over one's eating (cough cough clean eating cough cough). Dietary restraint, as the name suggests, involves many limits, rules or criteria about what is/isn't eaten and often leads to eating that is quite inflexible, rigid, anxiety-provoking, and inadequate for physical, psychological and social health and well-being AND is often followed by periods of feeling completley out of contorl, guilt-ridden and egnaging in chaotic eating behaviours that are often far less balanced than the cookie or pasta dinner you were avoiding in the first place. Sigh. I HEAR YOU and I CAN HELP

Let's break it down:

Dietary Rules Typically Involve Parameters Around:

What food is eaten e.g. "good foods/bad foods" "dos and don'ts" (no sugar, no carbs, clean foods)

When food is eaten e.g. not eating past a particular time, ignoring hunger, or delaying eating until later in the day / saving calories for later

How much food is eaten e.g. eating less than a particular calorie limit, less than others, less than you need

Why: an attempt to eat more clean, less or control eating (If I avoid I wont eat / want)

Why is Eating With Restraint Problematic?

It is a major cause of preoccupation with food *(obsessing over food)

with so many rules about eating, it can feel impossible to make a decision, it can affect concentration and many aspects of day-to-day life (thinking about rules), difficulty reading, watching tv, participating in conversations, "feeling present"

It is anxiety-provoking

restraint and rules make eating an emotional and uncomfortable experience

it often comes with anxiety before/during/after eating, rule-breaking such as eating sugar becomes a source of guilt, regret, feelings of failure, etc. which then comes with attempts to compensate to "make up for the rule breaking"

You might find yourself: engaging in self-induced vomiting, laxative use, over-exercise, or 'tightening up on pre-existing rules (which then makes future eating even more difficult)

OR you might say to heck with it and eat A LOT of these restricted foods or "fall of the wagon" for a bit (all-or-nothing thinking)

It restricts the way you eat

eating becomes rigid, inflexible, rule-bound, "stuck", complicated, etc.

social eating, eating foods others prepare, eating at restaurants, eating on the go,

eating for convenience, eating enough, responding to hunger, etc. ALL feel impossible

It is a major contributing factor to binge eating or diet starts Monday thinking

you are left feeling hungry, vulnerable, unsatisfied, deprived (physically and psychologically)

breaking rules might be responded to by all-or-nothing behaviours such as "I ate one, I might as well have the whole box" or "I will get back on track Monday"

True dietary restriction (under eating) is not the only reason one binges PSYCHOLOGICAL restriction is a major contributing factor

@NICKYOTTORD WWW.OTTORD.CA NICKY@OTTORD.CA

Okay, so now what?

We start to work on adopting a more normalized, flexible and intuitive relationship with food. We explore your food rules, avoided foods, look at your overall eating pattern and start to address WHY you might struggle with these foods.

For example, if you struggle with eating in a chaotic way after work or in the evening, we start to look at your eating in the first part of your day and assess for adequacy, balance and satisfaction

OR if you're stuck calorie counting and feel extreme guilt when you 'blow it' we untangle this, provide education and work through the restrained eating

We give a bit more trust to our body:

-hunger

-fullness

-satisfaction

Which allows you to become:

-more flexible

-more aligned

-more intuitive

-AND experience DEEP HEALTH

Sound Familiar? Feeling Stuck? Let's work on your overall relationship with food so you can ditch the food guilt, feel more intuitive with your eating, stop the never ending cycle of dieting and bingeing, and stop obsessing over food.

As a Registered Dietitian who has been supporting clients with their relationship with food since 2013 in Nova Scotia, Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, I can offer some clarity, understanding and guidance to ditching diet culture and working to adopt a more healthful, peaceful and normalized relationship with food.

Get started today

Prepared by N. Otto. (2021). Adapted from C. Fairburn. (2008). Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Eating Disorders. New York; The Guilford Press.