Is using food to cope with your life a bad thing?

Chocolate, mac and cheese, french fries, chocolate chip cookies…a few of the favourite comfort foods we remember from our childhood! I don’t think you’d be reading this if you turned to cucumber for comfort. Unfortunately, there is no magic pill that would change your taste buds. So what now?

Food is a fabulous vehicle to bring more awareness to your life. To help you find new ways to enjoy life. Food and alcohol are common things people use to numb themselves. Some do this at extreme levels and others at very mild levels.

Using food to cope is perfectly fine. It’s how you feel about it that is key. If you feel out of control, angry and frustrated and would like to find new strategies and solutions for dealing with life then it’s time to ask new questions. In other words, getting caught up in feeling bad about your habits is not going to resolve it.

The key question is “what do I want?”. Meaning, “how do I want to feel about my relationship to food?”

Right now, you likely think enough negative thoughts. “I have no will power”, “I’m such a pig”, “I hate myself”. You have probably experienced feelings of guilt, depression and sadness as you eat things you think you should not eat. This creates quite a downward spiral and is often followed by an attempt at resolving it by making huge promises you can’t keep, like, “I’m never eating that again”.

So what is this loving approach we have? First, let’s start with an appreciation for the comfort foods that make us feel better. Come on, think about how cool that is! Food can indeed help us in difficult times. “But they only make me feel better for 5 minutes and then I feel guilty”, you say. True. That is likely due to the amount you ate, not the actual food, and the belief that you should not be eating those things.

Many of our clients come in and want to go from A to Z with out actually going through B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, and Y (that was fun to type out with no mistakes!). For some, going from A to Z and everything in between may take 12 months and for others 10 years. You have a particular relationship to your body and food. You have beliefs, thoughts and a history as well.

We want to have fun along the journey and not just focus on the end result. The amount of time it takes to make peace with food is not the point either. We want to enjoy learning new things about ourselves, discovering new ways to enjoy life. Learning to thrive in life, to find a place of joy, peace and delight with food is the pathway. No doubt, for many it’s a constant battle. But you can’t find peace and happiness at the end of your journey if all you have along the way is self-hatred and an internal war.

Start with what IS working for you. Then, ask yourself “what would I like to be different?”. From there you can start to focus on how you’d like to feel. Our program can be part of that journey. You can upgrade your life one step at a time and enjoy the process. We promise, it is possible to feel at peace with food.

Note: Though our coaches guide clients to evaluating their thoughts and beliefs, we do not offer professional counselling at Vital Body. Some clients do the protocol along with a psychologist or counsellor as they start on the path to creating a healthier life.