Taking the Emotion Out of Food

BY MATT BOYLES, (HE/HIM/HIS)

Are you trapping yourself with how you describe/think about your daily behaviour with food? I have a really simple adjustment you might like to try, to help you have an easier relationship with what you’re eating. This is especially relevant now as the world is beginning to open up again, while we’re getting to enjoy restaurants and dinners with friends again.

It is absolutely not your fault, but lots of people, when they’ve eaten what they believe to be more ‘healthy’ foods in a day, say they’ve had a ‘good’ day. Does that sound like you? And conversely, whether they say it out loud or not, it’s implicit that when they haven’t eaten like that, they’ve had a ‘bad’ day. (I’m putting lots of things in ‘inverted commas’ to indicate that I don’t believe these words are useful in these contexts).

The problem with this is that it sets you up for a fall. Will you be able to have ‘good’ food days forever? No! There will be birthdays and parties and celebrations and all sorts of things that include food we don’t eat all the time. And I want you to eat it and enjoy it – it’s such a crucial part of life. So if you don’t have a good day, then you’ve had a bad day and thus, you’ll feel bad about what you’ve eaten that day, how you’ve behaved. BUT! If you didn’t describe a day of food as ‘good’, then you wouldn’t describe eating other stuff as a ‘bad food day,' i.e., it takes the pressure off.

There is no good food. There is no bad food. There is just food, which is delicious fuel.

So I really want you to think differently about food. You might stick a bit closer to a calorie goal but that doesn’t mean you’ve been good. You might have just enjoyed lots of delicious food and drink over the recent holiday but that doesn’t mean you’ve been bad.

Taking the emotion out of food will FREE you. So change the language you use – you haven’t been good or bad … you’ve just been human. Try it this week and see how it sets you free.

MATT BOYLES is a regular columnist for Compete and an online Personal Trainer who specializes in working with Gay, Bi and Trans males. In addition to the more regular fitness and nutrition components he has layered in elements to support mental health, boost confidence and provide bucketloads of empathy. Find out more about Matt's sensible and holistic approach to health and fitness: www.fitterconfidentyou.net/onlinetraining.