Let me start off by saying an important part of your relationship with food is determining how emotions affect the way you eat. Delicious food is everywhere and eating it can be tied to your emotions. You know that as well as I do.
Emotional eating is real. Stress eating is real. Having a lack of an appetite due to your emotions is real. Choosing particular comfort foods because that’s what you had growing up is real. I’m not denying any of that.
Hell, we’ve all been there – sitting on the couch in comfy pants eating a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (because ice cream is easily a top 5 delicious food) not giving any fucks because we’re sad or stressed.
Sure, that ice cream gives us comfort in the moment, but it doesn’t come close to solving the actual problem. Those moments happen and they are not at all what I am talking about here.
So what am I talking about? Not every meal has to be tied to your emotions.
Sometimes you want to eat something simply because you know it’s a delicious food.
Eating it doesn’t mean you’re sad or mad or stressed or are reverting to some child-like state in an attempt to find comfort in whatever you’re about to eat. All it means is you want to eat said food because it looks and/or smells really good.
It does not always mean you have no self-control or are a glutton. Additionally, it does not mean you should get down on yourself after you’re done eating it.
While I am a big proponent for understanding why you eat the way you do, sometimes a surface level reason like a food being delicious is good enough. You don’t always need to have a deep-seeded “why” for the food you’re eating. It’s okay to enjoy food for exactly what it is sometimes.
If someone has ever made you feel like there needs to be a complex, emotional reason behind every single bite you take, I implore you to send them this article.
We don’t always have to give food this god-like emotional power. Sometimes we just eat things because we want to eat them and that’s okay.
Don’t believe me? Give me a follow on Instagram. You may have to view my stories here and there, but you’ll see that sometimes I just eat delicious food because I want to.
When the mood strikes and something sounds really good, I’ll spring for it.
No justification other than, “Hey a gooey cheeseburger with crispy bacon, tangy pickles, and a spicy chipotle mayo sounds really good right now.”
If you find this happening all the time then you may need to look inward and ask yourself why you get cravings so often. Every now and then, though? Don’t sweat it.
You don’t need to justify every single food.
All this being said, I’m going to go eat some Mac & Cheese. Why? No other reason than it’s damn delicious.
Interested in working together to get your fitness and nutrition game to a healthy place? Click here to start the process.
© 2020 Alex Andujar Fitness | Branding and Website by Katie Harrington Design