"Help! I Can't Stop Thinking About Food!"
When I was actively trying to lose weight, I couldn’t stop thinking about food. I thought about food so much, it drove me crazy. I was always thinking about when I’d eaten last, what I’d eaten, what I hadn’t eaten, what I’d wanted to eat, when I’d eat next, and what I “could” and “should” and “shouldn’t” eat.
I had so many food thoughts it was hard to focus on work. It was hard to focus on anything at all! I tried to distract myself, but I didn’t have enough willpower. No matter how hard I tried, I’d inevitably give in to to my food-obsessed mind and binge-eat all the things.
If you can’t stop thinking about food, it doesn’t mean you’re crazy. It doesn’t mean you don’t have any willpower. It doesn’t mean something’s wrong with you.
If you can’t stop thinking about food, it actually means your body is working properly. Here’s why:
“Food thoughts mean you need to eat.”
Food thoughts are just one way bodies manifest hunger. So if you can’t stop thinking about food, it probably means: you need to eat.
Food thoughts are not the only way bodies manifest hunger, of course. Bodies manifest hunger in a lot of different ways: getting a bit of a headache, the stereotypical rumbling in your stomach, or irritability (#hangry). My body manifests hunger through a feeling of emptiness right below my sternum and pangs in my belly.
But my body manifests hunger through food thoughts, too, and if you notice yourself thinking about food a lot, it’s probably how yours manifests hunger as well.
Food thoughts are an important part of your body’s communication to you that it needs fuel. And it makes sense that when you’re hungry, you start thinking about food. Just like when your body is tired you start to consider getting ready for bed. Just like when you need to go to the bathroom, you start thinking about how long it’ll be before the train gets to your stop, or when your meeting will be over, or where the nearest bathroom is.
Thinking about food when your body is hungry is normal! Food thoughts one of the tools your body uses to tell you it’s time to eat.
In fact, the more you think about food, the more likely it is you’re not getting enough to eat.
The number of food thoughts you have is inversely proportional to how much food you’re eating. If you’re eating enough food, you’ll just have food thoughts when it’s time to eat another meal. If you’re not eating enough food, you’ll have food thoughts all the time. The less you eat, the more you’ll think about food, just like when I was actively trying to lose weight and was completely overwhelmed and driven crazy by food thoughts.
So honor your body’s hunger, especially when it manifests as food thoughts! Eat some food. And eat enough.
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I talk a lot more about this in my training series. If you’re can’t stop thinking about food and need to figure out how to get that sh*t under control, I highly recommend Video 1 and Video 2. The training series is free, I just need your email to get it to you, so click below to sign up.
About holland Hettinger
Hi, I’m Holland Hettinger, and I help women stop binge-eating. I believe your life doesn’t have to revolve around food. Your mind can think about something other than what you eat. You don’t have to shrink yourself and hide your body. There is an alternative to food guilt and body shame. And none of it includes dieting, meal prepping, weighing yourself, or forcing yourself not to binge-eat for just one—more—day. (Insert sigh of relief here.) Through training videos, coaching emails, and one-on-one work, I teach women to stop binge-eating for good.