I used to hide my issues around food and felt deeply insecure about them. For years, I did not tell anyone that I had a problem with controlling how much I ate. I ate in secret, felt ashamed, and lied about how much I was eating. I was constantly fighting a battle against myself – a battle that few people knew I was fighting. I was embarrassed.
When I started telling people stories about how I feel and act around food, some people actually began confessing their own food sins and we would laugh about them together.
You Are Not The Only One With Food Issues
It often feels like we are the only ones going through something, but we forget that there are thousands and maybe even millions of people who have gone through and are going through the same thing. You only have to look at the rising obesity rates in the world to realise just how many people struggle with overeating and food addiction. Perhaps you are one of them and know exactly what I am talking about when I say that it feels like you have no control over your eating.
If you often feel like you are the only person who is obsessed with food and feel embarrassed about certain habits that you may have around food, just know that you are not alone.
Find Someone To Talk to About Your Food Struggles
Do you have any friends or family members that you know are going through similar struggles with food as you are or have similar food habits? Could you start opening up about some of the things you are going through?
Perhaps they will start sharing their own struggles and habits with you. I found great relief when I realised how many people around me had similar food habits and started judging my food habits a lot less than I used to. Talking about my food struggles was crucial in terms of accepting them and starting to build strategies around them.
Confessions of An Overeater
Let me give you an idea of some of the embarrassing things I have done to get my hands on food and satisfy my seemingly insatiable need for something sweet. As a health nerd, it kills me that some of my behaviours of the past involved quite a lot of junk food, but here they are:
- Went home early after a dinner party, just so that I could have an hour to binge on a pack of cookies in peace before anyone came home and could see what I had eaten.
- Ate all the chocolate in the cupboard and secretly replaced it without my husband realising that it went missing (I am confessing to the crime, but nobody needs to know how many times that has happened).
- Bought some chocolate as a present for someone, ate it, and then had to replace the gift. This has also happened more times than I would like to admit, and I still do it from time to time.
- Spent countless parties hanging around the snack table, and even bought more junk food on the way home. When I am at a party, and there are things I can eat, I will still come up with reasons why I need to walk past the food table.
- Ate so much at buffets that I could not breathe properly for hours afterwards.
- Ate an entire box of doughnuts in the car by myself.
- Drove to three different stores to get different ice creams.
- Skipped the gym and gone on a sweet safari instead.
If you have strange food habits, I hope you can see that you are not alone.
