How To Stop Obsessing About Food So You Can Be Happy Right Now
Here's how to stop fixating on food.
Getty Do you find yourself obsessing about food? It’s a painful way to live and it’s a big issue for many, but it seems to be more common for women. A shockingly large percentage of women suffer from eating disorders.
I suffered for many years obsessing about food. I thought I would never be free from it, but I am now!
In order to stop being obsessed with food, you need to learn how to make the choice of being "S.A.D." or "H.A.P.P.Y." I’ll also offer you an easy experiment to try if you often obsess about food at social gatherings.
The “new normal” of social gatherings is still unknown. But let’s assume that social gatherings with food isn’t going to be a thing of the past!
Learn to stop obsessing about food and feel the freedom of being a woman. Women are sensual beings. Food is a sensual experience.
Do you have a love relationship with food?
To have a love relationship with food… ask yourself if you want to be "S.A.D." or "H.A.P.P.Y." They are acronyms for two different types of diets you can choose.
H.A.P.P.Y. stands for: “Healthy, Aware Person Purifying Yourself.”
HAPPY also stands for Healthy Aware Person Perceiving Yourself. When you can perceive yourself on a deeper level, feeling your feelings, you’ll stop obsessing about food.
Instead, you’ll feel your vitality, joy, and how amazing you are. You’ll become aware of the divine energy coursing through your body. This leads to general well-being or you being happy.
S.A.D. stands for: "Standard American Diet."
If you want to be sad, eat the Standard American Diet of packaged and processed foods. How often do you eat at a fast-food restaurant? Do you eat organic? How much sugar do you eat?
Sugar feeds the obsessive-compulsive cycle, making it more difficult to stop obsessing about food. And overcoming emotional eating isn’t helped by poor diet choices and bad lifestyle habits. No wonder so many people suffer from chronic depression.
The standard food supply has become toxic.
Our society is going through a big transformation which includes a health crisis. We may live longer, however, we must ask ourselves if it is a life of quality.
Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, inflammation, and other degenerative diseases are on the rise.
This rise of degenerative diseases during the 20th century may be a lesson to indicate there is something out of balance in your modern lifestyle. No wonder you aren’t feeling pleasure… Your body is inflamed!
And the chronic inflammation doesn’t help overcome food obsessions. It becomes a vicious cycle of feeding the disease.
Gaining back your health and freeing yourself from obsessing about food is a complex problem.
People closely associate food with socializing and connecting with others.
If you want to be with others and they're not into healthy eating, it can be challenging. Drinking alcohol to toast the bride and groom at a wedding or eating sugary foods such as a cake for someone’s birthday celebration are “normal” ways to celebrate.
It’s a double-edged sword for those suffering from food obsessions. Staying connected to people you love and not being challenged by having to be around certain foods that trigger you.
I will always love a big decadent piece of carrot cake, but is it good for me? Can I love myself enough to enjoy a very small piece or a few bites as opposed to more than my body wants without falling back into the cycle of obsessing about food?
Ask yourself the same question for those foods that trigger you. If you have food issues, socializing becomes similar to a recovering alcoholic hanging out with his alcoholic friends in a bar.
You need to have the willpower of God to expose yourself to such environments.
Building new brain pathways by creating new experiences is helpful.
If you find it hard not to obsess about food in social situations, make new brain pathways of connection with this experiment.
Next time you are planning to go to a social event where you know you’ll be triggered by the food, set an intention to shift your behavior. Before you arrive, set an intention for connection, as opposed to getting excited about all the delicious food that will be there.
Make it your priority to connect with people, instead of obsessing about food.
Don’t position yourself near the food. Make eye contact with the people you talk with, listen attentively to them, ask questions, and open your heart to them. This can be quite fun.
Use your tendency to obsess in a positive direction; obsess about being connected and present with people. Be there for them energetically. Observe them as if though it is an assignment from your psychology class.
If you begin to obsess about food, go back to your intention to connect with people and give them your undivided attention.
You’ll walk away from the event feeling more love, and you won’t wake up the next morning regretting having had too much food or alcohol. You’ll have widened a new pathway in your brain, and that is good for you.
Chronic or regular behavior patterns are literally pathways in our brain like big highways and byways. This experiment helps you to create new “highways” in your brain.
You may not be perfect in this new pathway; give yourself a break and be gentle on yourself if you can’t execute this concept perfectly. For sure, it will help, and it will open your heart… to you.
Obsessing about food is a disease of numbing out. Learn to tune in and be present instead and your life will transform.
Anna-Thea is an author and Divine Feminine Educator. If you are suffering from obsessing about food make sure you check out her book Empower Yourself by Loving Your Body. It will offer you many tools to overcome your struggles.