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In our Healthy & Whole series, we’ve been talking about barriers to embracing healthy eating: no time, fear, and lack of inspiration. Now, we’d like to tackle some more personal barriers, starting with guilt.
Guilt and food are so intertwined in American culture, it’s hard to know where one ends and the other begins. How often have you heard a conversation about food that starts with, “I really shouldn’t have eaten that [brownie, cookie, ice cream, french fries]! I’ll go to the gym tomorrow to make up for it.”
My examination of guilt in my life started around the time that Alex and I decided to be more thoughtful and intentional our eating habits. I began to realize how long I had lived out of a paradigm of guilt — for example, I ate out of an obligation to eat what I thought was “healthy”. I started counting calories, and then became guilt-ridden when I ate more than my daily allotment. I would turn to comfort food when I felt emotional, feel guilty, and then eat more to make myself feel better.
Outside of eating, I also lived out of guilt in decision-making. I would become paralyzed from making a decision because I was already guilty that I would make the wrong choice. I did certain things because I felt it was my “duty”, just to avoid the guilty feeling afterwards. I would try very hard in relationships, and then be guilty that I wasn’t measuring up as a good friend, daughter, or spouse.
Once Alex and I began to realize how much guilt can become a burden in both food and daily life, we decided to take a stance on guilt and start removing it from our vocabulary.
We intentionally try not to talk about guilty pleasures. Instead, we focus on freedom. Since we’re free to make our food choices, there’s no need to live out of guilt. We eat whole foods not because we should, but because we love them. There’s room for the occasional splurge because there are no rules.
Believe me, it’s taken me years and years to get here. Food and guilt used to have strong control over me. But little by little, I’ve been learning how to embrace eating with a new-found freedom – the freedom to wholeheartedly enjoy delicious, whole foods, the freedom to embrace splurges in moderation, and the freedom to give myself grace and truly love myself and the choices I make.
How about you? Have you struggled with food and guilt? Do you see certain foods as “good” or “bad”, and does this hold you back from embracing a healthy way of eating?
So very true. We shouldn’t bring emotion into our eating decisions. And you’re right that since we do make a choice, guilt shouldn’t be a factor.
Great post!
Thank you! Of course it’s easier said than done, but learning there was a choice behind guilt was transformative for me in my decision making, both food and un-food related. Thanks for writing!
I love this post of yours. Emotions and food are so often confused in the western world, where as if you travel to European or Asian countries food is not synonymous with good or bad but celebration and Privilege.
One day I hope all people take this view.
Thank you! Yes, it is amazing how complicated food and emotions have become in our culture. Looking to European and Asian philosophies on food has been helpful when examining our own!
Wise words- thank you
This is great! I think there are really two kinds of guilt we face — guilt to ourselves (“I did something that I am ashamed of/not happy with/feel I shouldn’t do”) and guilt to others (“I don’t want others to know I did this/ate this because they will think this bad thing about me”). I think both are equally destructive. Thank you for talking about this and the FREEDOM we have to do what we want — but hopefully make wise choices.
Yes! Guilt is so complicated. I love your thoughts on the different types, and couldn’t agree more.
This post hits home with me, probably most of us. I’m so tired of guilt. Freedom sounds so good. I’m slowly working my way there. Eating, just food in general is so distorted in this country. It’s sad. Food should be enjoyment, celebration. Thank you for your work to bring us good recipes, but more importantly, thank you for posts like this. You are more of an encouragement than you could realize.
Thank you for your kind words! This is so encouraging. The ability to embrace food as enjoyment and celebration is a tricky thing to learn in our culture – thank you for verbalizing that and striving for freedom!
YES. Screw guilt; eat food. I am somehow the rare western female with no body issues w regard to food–I don’t know how that happened, but I’m happy it did! I guess the whole diet/body industry just always seemed like bullshit to me. Real food, on the other hand, is excellent.
You go, girl! That is awesome and encouraging. Thanks for your ability to see truth in a world that can many times distort it.
Great topic, and very timely for me. I can especially relate to the part about hesitating to make a decision because of pre-emptive guilt. We have choice in food selection, and I guess also in whether or not to feel guilty. It makes perfect sense, but not until I saw it in black and white. Bravo to you.
Yes! It was a breakthrough for me when I realized I could choose my guilt instead of thinking it was caused by other things or people. So glad this way timely for you! Thanks for writing.
Great point, Sonja! I’m enjoying reading your posts!
Thanks, Brittany!
It’s hard to avoid food guilt, but it’s really all about balance for me. I usually try to eat healthy meals, and then indulge in a snack in the afternoon. I could do better, but I could also do worse :)
Agreed, balance is truly the key! I used to try to be “perfect” all day, but that wasn’t sustainable. Glad you’ve found what works for you!
Food guilt is a very tricky and serious subject. I’m recovering from an eating disorder, so food for me was plagued with guilt, deprivation, and punishment following “splurges”. I hesitate to even discuss food at length anymore because it really is just a necessary component of life like air and water; yet, it shouldn’t be given more lime light than it’s due. An overemphasis on “healthy” can truly become an obsession. I appreciate the balanced perspective you offer and pray it will help others who may be slipping into the all too common category of distorted food views.
Thank you so much for this comment and for sharing your story. As wonderful as it is to celebrate food and eating, it is a slippery slope into distorted food views, as you mentioned. I too have struggled with giving food more importance than it deserved, and it is only out of a more balanced perspective that I am able to enjoy it in a healthy way. Prayers to you on your recovery.