No wonder we overeat!

11^th May 2013

“Why can't life's problems hit us when we're seventeen and know everything?”  A.C. Jolly

Yesterday was a bit busy for a Friday, it’s supposed to be my chilling day but I had a list of to do’s and spent a great deal of it on the phone so it was almost 6pm by the time I sat down to relax, we ended up going to bed really early because we were shattered!

So today involves doing stuff to but this afternoon I’m locking the doors and zoning out, I need some me time.

My diet wasn’t the best yesterday either, I succumbed to the reduced section in Waitrose but didn’t bother to ProPoint it till I got home and our Spaghetti Carbonara was 18pp!  That wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t eaten a 23pp baguette for my breakfast nor consumed wine for my tea and a packet of cheese and onion crisps (I made mom tell me where she’d hid them!)

I’m over it now, I’ve been permanently hungry for three days, definitely hormone related because I wake up ravenous, and today I haven’t woken up feeling that way so it’s back to realistic healthy meals and portion sizes!  

There was a time when the last three days would have thrown me into a ‘diet’ panic, I’d have tried my best to not give into my cravings the first day, maybe eaten lots of fruit to eat round the carb cravings.  Then I’d have beaten myself up on the second day because I was failing to stay on my ‘diet’, and by day three I’d have totally fallen of the ‘diet’ wagon and felt like a total failure and continued to be out of control with my eating habits for the foreseeable future.

These days I realise that it’s part of a monthly cycle I seem to go through, it isn’t the week that I’m actually on a period either, it’s a good 11 days before it’s due.  Because of a great little app on my phone that logs my cycles I’ve managed to identify the pattern and I indulge those cravings, if my body wants carbs, I give it more carbs, it seems to work for me.  The cravings pass, I don’t do too much damage and I get back to my regular way of eating pretty easily.  I listen to my body and my body thanks me for it. 

It’s the whole overeating/guilt/overeating cycle, if you can break that cycle it really helps because you’re more likely to repeat the overeating if you feel so bad about your lack of self control.  You should never feel guilty for wanting to eat, food essential for survival and your body damn well knows that and will do all it can to ensure it gets enough of it.  It doesn’t care what you weigh, it just wants some food today to give it energy.  And, to make sure you do eat it releases hormones and chemicals inside you that make you want food (clever thing isn’t it!).  So you should lose the guilt as research shows that you are more likely to repeat a bad habit if you add guilt to the mix. You should get angry with yourself for being hungry nor feel guilty for wanting to eat because both are natural behaviours and it’s just your body trying to help you survive!

Sometimes the overeating might be emotional, and you shouldn’t feel guilty about that either! Why not? Because food does sedate your emotions, we use food to dampen stress, anxiety and worry because it works. It’s not the answer but it does help short term, so ditch the guilt and look for other ways to cope with your emotional problems, there are other ways honest.

One last reason why you shouldn’t feel guilty about wanting to eat is that overloaded food environment Weight Watchers talk about, or as I put it everywhere you go you are encouraged to eat more and move less.  Food is everywhere; temptation is there constantly, I only went to have my hair cut yesterday and they put a biscuit with my coffee - so no you shouldn’t feel guilty for often thinking about food or even entertaining the thought of overeating.

Taking all this into consideration it’s not surprising that we go off track now and again and there will always be occasions when you don’t eat as planned, the trick is to ditch the guilt, accept yourself and your ways, realise you don’t need to be nor do you want to be perfect and love yourself.  You’re only human and it’s a natural behaviour to fancy a treat now and then, or have the occasional slip up.  Expect these things to happen, embrace them when they do and you will find getting back on track much easier afterwards.

Eat Gorgeous – BeYouTiful and give yourself a break. xx