Do You Use Food As A Reward?

I’m on day 5 of a juice detox. I don’t like diets and I don’t like feeling hungry. I don’t tend to have big meals but I graze through the day on small meals and healthy snacks.

This year I’ve slipped lol

Small Snacks Creeping In

I started to buy a banana loaf in with my groceries. And a scone, and a rice salad each week. And then I might have the odd bit of chocolate if my housemates had bought some.

But because I wasn’t going out and buying sugary stuff, I told myself I was doing ok.

I don’t drink coffee, and I have about one cup of tea a day, and then it went up to 2 and 3.

Emotional Support

I used food for emotional support, if I had to face something I would nibble on a snack to give me extra energy or calm my nerves.

If I go anywhere in the car I always take some kind of food, just in case.

This week has probably been one of the hardest weeks of my life because my dear friend of 26 years passed away. But I had already bought the fruit and veges and had started the plan when she died.

Cravings

Half way through the detox I started to think about fish n chips. All that fat. And it was funny because I eat fish n chips about twice a year.

I realised just thinking about it gave me a satisfied feeling. What if I could just imagine I had eaten something stodgy without actually eating it, and create that satisfied feeling for myself?

I had feared it would make me feel like I couldn’t resist eating something fatty. But it didn’t.

Reward/Punishment

I thought about all those messages you get as a child. *Eat your vegetables before you can have pudding*. And realised, veges were never seen as the reward. They were seen as the punishment and something to be endured.

I do like vegetables ,but what if the veges were the reward?

The junk food we eat is depriving us, not the healthy food. I think its only when you detox from the addictive foods that you realise how they were only emotionally satiating because they were attached to some kind of reward system.

What if you could internalise that feeling you get from the foods you crave, without eating the food?

Try it now, think of the thing you would love to eat, and imagine yourself eating it. its that satisfied, calm feeling you’re wanting.

You want that feeling of something hitting the spot. And that can only come from within you.

This is one way to emotionally nourish and nurture yourself without using food to do it.

PS: Digestion requires alot of energy, and so giving your digestion a break from food bombarding it allows your body to use that energy to start repairing what needs to be repaired, at a cellular level.