MakE Peace with food

Do thoughts about food consume your mind? Do you see food as negative or positive? Do you punish yourself with food by not eating or by eating until you feel uncomfortably full? Does fear feel familiar when the topic of food comes up?

Do you ever beat yourself up because eating seems too simple to everyone else but you? 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, lean in closer and pay attention; you may be struggling with unhealthy eating habits.

Not everyone who struggles with food meets the diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder, but that doesn't mean that your struggle with food is not real or that it does not need attention.

Though the origin of eating disorders varies, it is often the case that eating disorders start with untreated distorted habits that begin to interfere with our day-to-day lives and then eventually interrupt everything we do.

These unhealthy habits interrupt our thoughts, distort our actions, and eventually damage our relationships with others; in severe cases, they affect our physiological health, and medical attention is required.

Clinicians know that eating disorders are more complicated than most people think. Eating disorders can be genetic, triggered by our environment, and prone to develop after a traumatic event.

There is more going on beneath the surface of our battle with food. Did you know your brain is strategically designed to keep you safe and alive? Did you know your brain has learned to recognize food as essential for survival? When we starve ourselves, the brain goes into "scarcity" mode, and it encourages your brain to binge because it does not know the next time food will be available. This "scarce mode" is one of the many ways in which our unhealthy behaviors around food hijack the brain into believing that we need to go into "protection mode" rather than "at ease" mode. When we take the time to understand how our mind and body are connected, we can initiate the journey to adopt healthy eating habits.

Struggling with food is emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausting. So, if you or a loved one would answer yes to any of the questions presented earlier, know that your struggle is valid and that you deserve a safe place to process

I hope that you rally up a team of people who are knowledgeable and can support you on the journey to recovery!