Food is good

For now quite precisely a year, I’ve struggled with food and my eating behaviour. It never evolved into a serious eating disorder, I think, but it did screw with my mental health and perception of my body significantly.

For a few months, though, I’ve been getting better. Going to the gym has definitely helped, because my food issues mostly stem from dissatisfaction with my body, and now that I’m actively working on it (and beginning to see results!!!), I feel less of a need to starve myself to look thinner.

There’s still often these moments where I want to “punish” myself for eating too much or “bad things”. When I desperately read nutrition labels to find the food with the least calories. In order to fight that last problem, I’ve forced myself to shift away from checking the calories, and rather making sure there’s not an unnecessary amount of sugar in there and, if possible, some good protein to keep me full.

The other issue is harder to fight. Some days, you just eat more, or you can’t maintain a 100 percent healthy diet for whatever (valid) reasons. Sometimes, you just gotta reward yourself with a bit of chocolate. It’s all about finding balance. Technically, at least, because practically, I frequently start to panic because I think I’ve eaten wrong and will lose all I’ve worked for.

Which is bullshit of course.

Even if I ate more or less healthy, that doesn’t magically make my progress evaporate.

And for the most part, I only FEEL like I’ve eaten too much anyway.

And I’ve discovered that simply going over what I’ve actually eaten helps a lot with that paranoia. 90 percent of the time, I then have to admit that it wasn’t nearly as much as I thought, and often just in the normal, daily range.

So that’s my tip for today. I don’t know if it’ll work for others too, but it works for me, and so I want to share it.

You’re not alone in this.

Peace out,
Emilia