Stop Overthinking Food Choices
Do you overthink food choices? With every decision there are, what feels like, a million thoughts like… “Is this healthy enough?”, “Should I eat this?”, “Should I not eat this”, “Am I going to feel guilty afterwards?”, “But it’s not time to eat yet?”, “But I just ate”… Have you been here? It’s not fun!
And, it’s not productive. Overthinking is wasting a lot of precious time. And, making eating feel stressful. Way more stressful than it needs to be.
Overthinking boils down to you not trusting yourself. We talk a lot about trusting your body and yourself. It’s one of the core pillars I coach from. Overthinking food choices comes from you not trusting that you know what’s best for you. That you need some outside source to tell you how to eat, what to eat, how much to eat.
But, this is why diets are so attractive. Dieting makes eating seem easier. You have set foods, times, quantities. It takes away the guessing of all of these things. But it also takes away the belief in you being able to trust yourself. With each diet you go on, you’re literally getting farther and farther away from trusting yourself and your body.
Often when I talk with a new client, when we’re on our consult call together discussing where they are and where they want to be. How they want to see food differently and feel around food. They often talk about how they want to experience less noise around food. Basically, less overthinking. They want to feel confident making a decision. And be done. Is this you too? I can totally resonate. This was me. I totally didn’t trust myself and that’s why I restricted and dieted so much. It felt safer. It felt more structured. We crave structure and someone else to tell us what to do. It’s like it takes away the pressure of doing something wrong. With food, of eating something wrong.
So, what I want to help you do today is to calm the noise of overthinking with food choices. This is going to help you feel so much more confident. So much more calm. So much more relaxed. The way I like to often describe anything that keeps us from being able to listen to our internal cues (which overthinking does this because we get so overwhelmed with all the thoughts that they drown out our body’s cues and messages)... is thinking about it like static on the radio. We have to get rid of all the extra sound waves that are contaminating the beautiful music you’re listening to in order to hear the clear sound. The music. Same thing goes with being able to listen to your body.
Ok, so… here’s how to stop overthinking every food decision. It’s going to sound simple. It’s going to sound too basic. But I promise, this will change everything for you.
Here it is… let go of the belief that there is a right and a wrong decision. This is really about releasing perfection which every single one of my clients struggles with. And if you’re struggling with overthinking… this is you too. You believe that there’s a right decision and a wrong decision. And take it a step further, you believe that YOU are good if you pick the “right” decision and bad if you pick the wrong decision. This is keeping you thinking and debating and putting options into scenarios and humming and hawing about all the different decisions instead of just deciding. And being ok with it maybe being a “wrong” decision.
How I see this a lot is at restaurants… you want to eat the burger but you feel like you should eat the salad. And you go back and forth. But what about the dressing… is the dressing “good enough”. And how am I going to feel? Physically? Am I going to feel guilty? But I don’t want to feel guilty? But I actually want the burger. But all my friends are eating salads and I don’t want to stand out.
What if you were to just say, there’s no wrong answer. There’s no right answer. You could eat the salad. You could eat the burger. Neither is good. Neither is bad. They just are. They’re neutral.
Imagine with me… what would change if you really embodied this belief. That there were not right or wrong choices. Just choices. How much more time would you have? How much more would you actually enjoy what you’re eating and be able to just move on.
I see this also with intuitive eating. Now, there is a period of time where you do maybe put more thought into how and what you’re eating because you’re learning a new skill. You’re learning how to think differently about food. And so you may be thinking more with each food decision. But the goal is to get to a place where you just decide. You don’t have to think so much. Because food is just food. It’s not a big deal if you don’t eat the “right” thing. And thinking this way, thinking that you have to do intuitive eating perfectly is going to keep you stuck.
Can I be real with you… I’m not a perfect intuitive eater. Sometimes I overeat. Sometimes I eat foods that later I’m like, “I probably would have done better with this other food”. Being an intuitive eater if this is your goal is NOT about being perfect. It’s not about doing it “right”... there is no right.
When you accept this, when you let yourself fail, when you let yourself just get curious… everything is so much easier!
Let it go. Let go of the belief that there’s a right and wrong decision. Be free.
Be sure to listen to the podcast version of this post on the Redefining Health Podcast. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or Google
PS: This is what I help my clients do… I help them stop overthinking every food decision. I help them clear out all the mind drama that makes eating so confusing and complicated. I help them learn to work WITH their bodies instead of dieting. If you’re done with all the confusion and overthinking and are ready to eat intuitively, trusting yourself, we need to talk! I can help you get to this place! Schedule your free consult with me HERE.