New Book 🎉
Before today’s Q&A, I wanted to share some exciting news: I have a new book that just came out yesterday!!!
It’s called The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook, and I co-authored it with therapists Judith Matz and Amy Pershing—longtime leaders in the field of diet-culture recovery, binge eating disorder, and trauma-informed care, whom I’m honored to work with.
We joined forces to create a workbook for clinicians and general readers alike that we hope will help you:
Break free from the diet-binge / restrict-rebound cycle
Recognize diets disguised as wellness plans
Better understand the role food plays in your life and in managing emotions
Unlearn harmful messages about when and what you’re “supposed” to eat
Dispel myths about weight, health, and fitness
And much more.
If any of that sounds interesting to you, check out the book on Amazon, Bookshop, or at other fine retailers 😊
It’s Q&A Time!
Today’s question is related to the new book, in that it’s about feeling like you can’t stop eating even when you’re uncomfortably full. It’s an expanded version of a Q&A that previously ran in my Food Psych Weekly newsletter, where I’ve written a lot about how diet culture often makes us think we’re eating “too much” when really we’re not eating enough. This question is also inextricable from wellness culture, in that it shows what happens when we mentally divide foods into categories of “good” and “bad,” “healthy” and “unhealthy,” “wholesome” and “forbidden”—and the long shadow those divisions can cast on our relationships with food.
Ask your own question here for a chance to have it answered in an upcoming edition.
Hi Christy,
I’ve been practicing intuitive eating for about a year now, and my relationship with food has healed so much (partially thanks to your podcast). However, even after destigmatizing all my favorite foods, I still have issues ceasing to eat when I’m full if I really love the taste of what I’m eating.
This goes for previously “forbidden” foods, of course, but also for foods that I always viewed as “wholesome.” For example, last night I roasted up two heads worth of cauliflower florets with salt and olive oil. Even when I was physically uncomfortable, I didn’t stop eating until it was gone. I wasn’t binge eating in the sense that I used to binge eat—there was no guilt, or frantic speed, or emotional distress from which I needed distraction; it just tasted really, really good. Afterwards, I felt emotionally fine but physically sick.
I’ve learned to respect my hunger, and it’s been revelatory. My question is: how do I learn to respect my fullness?
—Lana
Just a reminder that these answers are for educational and informational purposes only, aren’t a substitute for medical or mental-health advice, and don’t constitute a provider-patient relationship.
It’s great that your relationship with food has improved so much, and I’m glad my work was able to play a role in that! I can also understand why it feels like you still have further to go in your healing.
You probably already know this, but it bears repeating: There’s no rule in intuitive eating that says you can never eat to the point of discomfort, or that you must stop eating as soon as you feel physically full.
Intuitive eating isn’t the hunger-and-fullness diet. It’s about letting go of dieting altogether, and learning how to take care of yourself by eating enough food and a wide enough variety of foods to feel truly satisfied (and of course economic access plays a major role in how possible that is). The process of intuitive eating involves a lot of exploration, and that inevitably includes eating to the point of discomfort sometimes.
That said, when people are often eating past the point of comfortable fullness, there’s usually a reason.
In my experience, probably the top two reasons are 1) physical deprivation and 2) feelings of scarcity (aka psychological deprivation). Neither of these reasons are wrong or “bad”—in fact, they’re totally understandable, especially for people with a history of dieting or other forms of disordered eating.
Given your history, Lana—and some clues in how you framed your question—I think both of these reasons are likely playing a major role for you.
