Taking Control – How to Stop a Food Spiral

It’s not all about taking control.  It’s about finding a balance between what you want and what your body actually needs.   Food spiraling happens to the best and most seasoned “healthy” eaters, we all have our vices and there is not a single person out there who is 100% all the time, nor should there be. Learning to feed your body what it needs is a process, it isn’t something most of us can do over night and because it is a learning experience it takes practice, patience and kindness.

Navigating this thing people call intuitive eating or eating in moderation comes naturally to some of us, but for the rest of us it is a constant factor in how we navigate the grocery store, restaurant menus, the XL popcorn at the movies, among other things.   Hopefully I haven’t discouraged you away from continuing to learn and try, because it DOES get so much easier!  

Like anything the more you practice the better you get.  You can’t expect to eat one salad and all of a sudden be some type of food moderating mastermind, but eventually those ups and downs won’t be so up and down, and those internal struggles will feel more like an itch.  Until then here are 5 tips to help you develop that patience and kindness:

1. Take a moment to breath: aren’t we just always breathing? Right, I know this sounds like a ridiculous suggestion, but by taking that one second to set down that tub of peanut butter or look away from the super processed yet still enticing food in the snack aisle at the grocery store you are giving your body a moment.    Behavioural science has taught us that it takes approximately 3-5 minutes for our body to reset and get off that “YOU NEED TO DO [insert any impulse here]” train and to allow your body a second to talk to itself.  It will let that rational side of ourselves step back into the light and might just give you an opportunity to re-assess if you actually do “need” to do “this”.
2. Accept that what has happened happened: this isn’t a free pass to just throw your hands up in the air and think to yourself why bother.  What I am suggesting here is that you give yourself a break! I mean really, I am positive you wouldn’t dare use the language you are using on yourself with another human being, so why in the world are you talking to yourself like that? 
3. Take a step back and analyze what happened: It happened, take a moment acknowledge what happened, back track and see if you can pinpoint a “trigger” which may have spike stress, anxiety, boredom, etc causing you to spiral, then learn from it.  In the future what could you potentially do to help alleviate the intensity of that type of trigger? Figuring out what, if anything, triggers your food spirals will help you to navigate differently in the future.
4. Think of a solution:  was there anything else you could have done…realistically?  Don’t waste your time here thinking up all the “it would have been better if I had just been better at this” kind of scenarios.  Realistically next time what could you do when you are starting to feel that trigger to help distract yourself or encourage your mind towards something positive, towards something that will make you feel great? This doesn’t need to be anything ground breaking, maybe just stepping outside and breathing fresh air for 5 minutes would wake you up better than say that Mars bar from the canteen downstairs.  Or maybe turning on the kettle and steeping your own tea would keep you out of that coffee shop shoving its moist looking chocolate cakes in your face.   It doesn’t have to be fancy, it just has to be something that will work for you.
5. Keep positive: what good does it do to get down on yourself and call yourself names because you ate an entire family sized bag of chips *cough* yeah I’ve done that*cough* If you need to go back and read Step 2. It happened now what?  Beating yourself up and getting dark about what has happened won’t change the fact that it happened, and that negative type of self talk believe it or not won’t deter you from doing it again in the future.  Creating an all or nothing mentality around healthy balanced eating creates stress, anxiety and tension all three of which are more likely to promote any type of spiral, food or otherwise, not deter from it.  BE KIND TO YOURSELF!

​Give yourself a break, think of these hiccups as lessons, know that every time you experience a food spiral there is something new to learn about yourself and your journey. When you are ready pick yourself back up and get back to chasing those goals!