Banish Food Guilt

Food guilt is an emotional response to what you have eaten. Lots of us naturally experience it after having a particularly indulgent day. On days like this food guilt often comes from that over full and possibly sick feeling after eating too much. This is completely normal as over indulging occasionally is fine. Food guilt is only a problem when you experience regret, shame, guilt and self hate at most meals whatever the content or size. In extreme cases food guilt is associated with disordered eating in such forms of binging and purging. Less severe food guilt can be helped by following the simple steps below.

Take pride in your food!

Take pride in the food you eat by making sure you put effort into every stage of preparation. Try to buy the best quality ingredients, this doesn’t mean the most expensive! See if you can buy your vegetables from a local market or a local green grocer. Even better is to grow them at home if you have the dedication. Use it as an opportunity to get out of the house into the fresh air. Most markets are cheaper than super markets and have less packaging etc so the environment will be smiling too! Hand picking your vegetables puts a personal spin on the experience especially if you have a favourite recipe for them in mind. Fresh fruits and vegetables that are locally grown don’t tend to have as long a shelf life. This is good as it’s likely to mean lower levels of pesticides are present. Having a short life means you have to eat them soon after buying them which prevents you from doing a huge shop with good intentions and then leaving them all to go bad.

Put effort into preparing your food!

Where possible try to buy your food as natural as you can. Chopping and peeling your veg gives you much more satisfaction than banging them into the microwave straight from the freezer or simply opening a can. Same with your meat, ready cut meats etc tend to be more expensive as more preparation has gone into them. Buying a chicken breast over strips put you into control. The breast, as it is, makes it easier to remove any visible skin to lower the fat content. It also means you can personalise portion sizes and remove any part of the meat that you don’t like, making it more enjoyable to eat.

Learn to cook your own food!

Learning to cook gives you a sense of achievement when each meal is served. It also gives you total control of what is in each dish e.g. fat, calories and salt. When you have prepared the meal yourself you concentrate more on the taste, it takes 20 minutes from your stomach to communicate to your brain telling you you’re full. When you concentrate on your food you tend to eat less as a result because you’re giving your brain time to react. Eating in front of a TV or other distractions means you sure more likely to eat too fast missing the point of fullness and overeating.

Dont buy the wrong foods!

You will personally know which foods it is that you reach for when you’re feeling down or guilty. Once food guilt sets in it can often spiral. These foods are often in packs making it easy to eat one after the other. It won’t solve anything so they are better kept outside the house. Even if food guilt isn’t something you particularly suffer with, comfort eating on junk foods is common. Don’t keep large amounts of these types of foods in the house. Buy a half pack of biscuits or individual packs of crisps. It will prevent mindless eating. If you really fancy some that’s fine but portion size them out and tell yourself that’s all there is. If you feel down, don’t! Go for a walk or chat to a friend to take your mind off it. Tomorrow is a new day. One bad meal won’t make you fat just like one salad won’t give you a six pack (sadly!). You can always make up for it tomorrow.

Enjoy eating with others!

Share your new skills with family and friends, eating properly at a table with company means you are likely to eat more slowly if engaging in conversation. If you experience food guilt at most meals eating with people can be scary but remember that everyone eats. The people with you and concentrating on what they are eating and not looking at you so don’t panic. Feel free to serve yourself a small portion if you aren’t comfortable with tackling a large plate. Being around other people who enjoy eating and are complimenting you on your cooking will give you a boost. Food guilt will be overridden with time as you see that eating is a sociable thing that everyone does. You can enjoy having a good balanced meal and feel no guilt. Food is fuel for your body so respect it.

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