A Little Food Therapy to Bring Back Joy

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Transcript 

 Hello, there! I thought I would take this episode to chat about a little exercise that my therapist actually did with me when I was still seeing her in person. And it might not sound like it applies to food right away, so hear me out.

But we were sitting in her office and she just asked me to look around the room and pick a couple of objects that just spoke to me or that I was particularly drawn to. It didn't really matter why, but to pick the object out and then describe why I was drawn to the object. And I think, I don't know, it was like a lamp. I liked the lamp for some reason. I think it was like a cool design or maybe the colors were nice. I don't know. And to talk about like the kind of feelings that the object invoked in me.

This was kind of like the beginning of my food healing journey and I wasn't very good at identifying and describing feelings at all. And so this exercise was really, really hard for me, but now I feel like looking back that exercise was really pivotal in my journey to healing my relationship with food. And here's why.

At that time, I really thought foods were either unhealthy or healthy. And if it wasn't healthy, then I felt guilty and I felt like I needed to either binge and just go all in and eat for the rest of the day, or I needed to exercise for like hours and hours to burn off what I had just eaten.

And the idea of just like things being there just for pleasure translated into me eating foods that were just for pleasure. Like that concept was so wild for me.

And I know that starting with food is not always an easy first step. So if you're stuck in that black and white way of thinking of food as healthy or unhealthy, start with things that are not food.

Look around, pick some objects that appeal to you, and then try to figure out like why you like them and what types of feelings they bring. Is it joy? Is it peace? Is it inspiration?

And as you get better at that, then start trying it with food and like pick an item on a menu at a restaurant. Not because it's the healthiest item. But maybe it has a food that you have been interested in trying for a while, or maybe the spices sound really great in it, or I don't know. But you see what I'm saying?

So try that. Start small, start with things that are not food related. And then after you get really comfortable with that, and you start to be able to identify the feelings that come up with them, switch it to food and see how it goes.