When You Just Can’t Stop Eating

As doctors, we know what we “should” be eating to be healthy

But many of us (myself included) often find ourselves eating the complete opposite.

It’s not like when we are hitting the drive through <yet again> in a week that we are mistaking the food served in the paper bags as healthy…

Or… when we are digging deep into the back of the cupboards at 9pm to find the old halloween candy because we are so desperate for just something sweet before we go to bed that we are hoping some mini chocolate bars will improve our cholesterol 😆

We know these habits aren’t healthy.

Maybe you even worry that they are leading to chronic disease.

And yet we can’t stop.

Let’s be really clear – this isn’t due to lack of trying.  If you are like most physicians I work with, you have tried HARD but just haven’t been able to stop.

Here lies the problem…  We are smart, highly trained women trying really hard to change a simple habit and we just can’t find success.

What the frick gives??? 🤔

The issue is not with the food.

You do not have a problem with willpower.

In these situations, your brain is using food to fix an issue that food can’t fix.

When food feels so compelling that you just can’t stop, think of the eating as a symptom of something else.

Zoom out with your attention and get curious.

⛔  Stop shaming yourself (because it is super hard to feel like you suck and be curious at the same time)

Look for what else is going on.

🕵️   How are you feeling? 

🕵️   What has your day been like?  

🕵️   What’s bothering you?  

🕵️   What might you really need?

This is not a diet issue.  In fact, a diet will probably make this type of eating worse because it keeps you focussed on the symptom instead of the cause.

(Think if we just treated all abdominal pain in the ER with analgesia and never got curious about what was causing it – we would miss some big stuff!!  This is how you have been taught to manage your eating – when you only focus on what you ate, you are missing important stuff!)

This is a big topic, which is why I recorded a podcast episode to guide you through how to start feeling back in control around food.  Make sure you check it out – listen to the full episode below!