It’s hard to admit and scary to talk about publicly but I felt the need to share as the topic of food obsession and emotional eating is common among people but not discussed enough. Here’s my [success] story of overcoming food obsession and changing my relationship with food.  

I would obsess over food. Constantly thinking about my next meal.  When I wasn’t thinking about food, I’d be shaming myself for what I did eat (or wanted to eat).  

I felt out of control.  Food held power over me.  I was trapped in an emotional eating cycle.  I tried fad diets, calorie counting and restriction, aggressive workouts to out workout a bad diet, and always seemed to end up where I started.  

Frustrated, confused, and at a loss of what to do to make it stop. 

Overcoming Food Obsession:  Food choices have a lot to do with it. 

I can vividly remember the days I’d grab a box of Girl Scout cookies – thin mints (still the best), plop down on the couch, put on my favorite television show, and take down at least an entire row of those cookies.  And sometimes the whole box.

Of course they were frozen first.  How else does one eat thin mints?

And this was AFTER eating nothing but the finest… Top Ramen, beef flavor.  All washed down with a can of Coke.

That’s not even including the Kraft Mac’n’Cheese box once a week, fast food burgers and fries, Chinese take out, Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, or fruit roll-ups my family would go through in any given week.  

In my late teens I ate that all. the. time.  Without thinking

My diet until about age 25 was complete junk.

But I didn’t know any better.  

Food choices play a big role in being obsessed with food.  The way processed food is made makes it highly desirable in our brains.  I was eating all the above without knowing how it was affecting me. Unknowingly, I was creating and enhancing my food obsession with what I consumed.

Food obsession, emotional eating, and overeating can look different:

• Mindlessly munching – usually watching TV or IG Stories
• Lack of portion control – overeating a prepared meal
• Binging on a takeout 
• Stress eating “feel good food” 
• Eating past full at a restaurant (because it tastes so good)
• At the office “get as much as you can before the co-workers come” eating
• Emotional eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s after a hard day
• Starving, so eating as fast as you can until you’re way past full
• Impulse buying a candy bar in line at the grocery store 
• Filling an emotional or psychological void 
• Boredom eating at work or at home
• Drunchies = Drunk munchies
• Munchies = Real munchies
• Late night snacking
• Gorging dessert bc you finally let yourself have some and omg it’s so good

Been there, done ALL of that. 

From the time I set out, it took me a solid 5 years to form a healthy-ish relationship with food. 

It’s taken me another 2 years to find a balanced eating approach where I don’t beat myself up for eating pizza, ice cream, or an extra helping of rice. 

I went from eating junk and binge eating, emotional eating, and overeating. Then to fad diets, over restriction, calorie counting, extreme exercise, food obsessed, accompanied by guilt and yo-yo dieting. To today, where I have a pretty solid grasp on what I eat, how to properly fuel my body, and live a foodie life where I still enjoy eating out, without the side of guilt.  

Changing my relationship with food has not been linear.  

Some days I felt like I’d finally figured out my system. Other days I couldn’t stop myself from eating junk or overeating any food (even if it was healthy). 

To this day I still have moments of food obsession.  After all, we need food every day. You can’t cold turkey quit food, that’s impossible.  So naturally, finding that balance takes time. Some days I feel like I’m nourishing my body with the fuel it needs, other days I feel like I could eat all the cheese, bread, or donuts I can get my hands on.  

I’ve learned I’m a foodie at heart. I love good tasting food. 

Trying to live a fit lifestyle and have a lean and toned body while being a foodie is a bit of a difficult combination. But not an impossible one. 

Something else I haven’t even really touched on yet is my love for wine. Honestly, I used to drink wayyy too much. Every night it wasn’t uncommon for me to open a bottle of wine, if not a second. Looking back I really feel like I used wine to fill a void. Sort of the same way I used food. I’d use it as a buffer to reality.  It’s like something wasn’t being fulfilled in my life that wine (or food) took the place of. 

The over drinking only created more overeating, leading to feeling like crap the next day. Maybe I’d get my shit together for one day but then the cycle would repeat itself. 

This blog post isn’t for my over drinking story but you can check that out here if you’d like to know more about how I quit over drinking

So how did I finally overcome my obsession with food and overeating?

Long story short a lot of trial and error, a lot of frustration, a lot of failure.  But, a lot of learning as well.   

There were times I was truly hungry and just didn’t know how to fuel myself properly.  

Because I wasn’t well educated on how to eat, I was probably nutrient deficient in multiple ways, which means I was overeating some things and under-eating others.  Did you know most people are nutrient deficient in at least some way?  

But that’s not the only reasonI had a food obsession and emotionally ate.

Overcoming food obsession:  Realizing I was trying to fill a void with food. 

I remember one Super Bowl, I was legit nervous to go to my friend’s party to watch the game because I knew there would be endless amounts of food.  Tasty, carb-y, processed, fattening food. And I knew I couldn’t say no. 

Once I had one bite, it was over.  I had the taste. My cravings would ensue.  My mind would fight the urge. I would obsess over the taste of whatever I had just eaten.

It went something like this:

After tasting the gooey on the inside, crunchy on the outside chocolate chip cookies.  I can’t have anymore! But they are steaming, fresh out of the oven… Just a bite. The battle continued… Until, I eventually caved.  Then again, and again.

I wasn’t hungry.  I didn’t need any more cookies.  I didn’t need any more calories! The cookies couldn’t provide me with anything I really needed.  

This happened more often than I’d like to admit.  If it wasn’t cookies, it was donuts, pizza, fries, you name it.  There was clearly a psychological issue going on. I was trying to satisfy a hunger that couldn’t be satisfied with food.  

Looking back I can see that now because I have so much more going for me these days. 

“I was trying to satisfy a hunger that couldn’t be satisfied with food.”

I have a great job that I am successful in, an amazing husband, wonderful friends around me, and I’ve found a love for health and fitness that fulfills me in a whole new way.  Writing this blog and helping others with living healthy truly gives me purpose I hadn’t found elsewhere. Generally life is good. 

A big epiphany I had was that food can only do one thing. 

Overcoming food obsession:  Food can only fuel your bodily functions. 

That’s it. 

Food is fuel. 

We can try to use food in other ways to fulfill us emotionally, spiritually, socially, however, but the truth is it’s not going to ever fill any other need. 

Once I accepted that food is fuel everything else fell in place. 

I realized that eating a cheeseburger wasn’t going to provide me any other fulfillment other than it tastes good in the moment.  And simply just tasting good and providing a bit of joy from that is actually OK. 

But I couldn’t expect food to do more than that. 

A cheeseburger cannot give you true fulfillment of purpose or joy.  It’s a short-lived moment in time that tastes good. Understand there is a difference there.  

What can give you purpose and fulfillment is finding what type of service to others you want to give in your life and doing that every day. 

I love coaching. I do it every day in my 9-5. I do it with nutrition and writing my blog. It gives me joy and happiness food could never provide. 

Food will not bring you happiness and joy. 

Food will not give you a bigger purpose. 

Food will not be your friend. 

Food can only provide you fuel to live and meet your biological needs. 

Once I had my epiphany I could create a better plan. 

Something to ask yourself… What else are you trying to use food for in your life? 

If you obsess over food or emotional eat, uncovering your triggers is an important component in overcoming food obsession and emotional eating.  

I’ve put together a list of ways I reduced my obsession with food, stopped emotional eating, yo-yo dieting, and finally found a healthy relationship with food.  Download the list below.