Eating in a Re-Opened World

It’s Okay to Open the Blinds and the Cupboards

As the temperatures rise and the mask mandates and gathering restrictions are lifted, mixed feelings could rise alongside them. Food anxiety revolving around emotional eating may rear its head as plans for bbqs, pool parties, camping trips, and Sunday brunches once again begin to fill our calendars. If the lingering guilt from emotional eating, or the anxiety of not being able to control yourself in front of other food around people, is keeping you from joining the re-opened world, we need to gently shift our focus to a different obstacle. The type of food going into our body isn’t the problem. 

While we lived through an entire year plus a couple of months of uncertainty, fear, anxiety, and loneliness, we each found our own ways to cope. Finding comfort in foods during a global pandemic is a normal way for your body to cope and is not as bad as the media makes it out to be. The emotion you were trying to satiate through food, can quickly morph into guilt and so on and so forth in a vicious cycle. Simply acknowledging emotional eating, it’s triggers, and simple rewiring of the brain using some tools from Intuitive Eating will help make our social gatherings enjoyable and stress free. 

Trust Yourself

Also, give yourself some grace. You lived through a pandemic. All the emotions that came with the experience, the media’s claim of the “Covid-19” like the “Freshman-15” added another level of unnecessary stress. So, we are slowly going to let those mental roadblocks go. The three main principles of Intuitive eating include: 

1. Unconditional permission to eat when hungry and what food is desired

2. Eating for physical rather than emotional reasons

3. Reliance on internal hunger and satiety cues to determine when and how much to eat

Refocusing our thoughts around these principles help reduce the occurrence of emotional eating and alleviate any anxiety that potentially follows. Remember food should be enjoyable. As social creatures, we crave being around those who make us feel good, and this year especially we could use as much of that as we can get. Most social gatherings center around food because it’s enjoyable and adds to the company. 

However, if the idea of grazing on open snacks makes your stomach clench and you start mentally preparing for how to avoid certain foods or only eating to look a certain way, start smaller. Try going to a restaurant first, it helps because you can minimize a few elements that make intuitive eating hard if you’re still learning to listen to your body. It minimizes distracted eating, or eating while involved in another task such as watching TV. During emotional eating, we aren’t necessarily listening to our hunger and satiety cues, we are listening to other emotions. If we eat at a restaurant, especially if we are with a friend, we are able to slow down in between bites. Just checking in with yourself in those few moments will help you relearn to listen to your body. It’s smarter than you think.

Give Yourself the Permission to Enjoy

They key to Intuitive Eating and the enjoyment of food revolves around self-compassion and being kind to yourself. When you attend these bbqs, pool parties, and other social gatherings, the only thing those around you are going to remember is the fact that you were there. They aren’t going to remember what food was on your plate. It’s hard to rely on internal ques if the voice inside you is constantly talking down to you or questioning your own decisions. So maybe take a step back and ask yourself, if I wouldn’t think it’s okay to say this to someone else, why can I say this to myself?

It’s hard to be compassionate with ourselves or trust after a year that made us question everything. It’s okay if you have days that are harder than others. You take it one day at a time. Enjoy the food and do your best to not let guilt creep in. It never belonged there in the first place. We see you, we want you to enjoy your gatherings, and we are ready to see you trust yourself.

Piece Written By: Kayla Payette

I'm a recent UNR alum with a degree in Journalism. I'm going back to get a masters in dietetics in hopes of becoming a Registered Dietitian. Food and words connect people and I hope to use both of these and connect with people. I have a passion for eating, learning, and my dog Suki. I'm excited to keep learning and helping others.

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Written by Danielle Musto

Hey there, I’m Danielle! HSH’s Office Manager and RD-to-be! I love food, fitness and having fun with both. I’m super excited to be here with you sharing all the ways I love to make food FUN!

Learn more about me and the HSH offerings here.