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Does eating make you feel anxious? Like, deciding between grilled chicken and pizza gives your anxiety a dose of caffeine?
The enemy is at work and he has strangled us with thoughts about dieting, body image, and contradictory eating recommendations.
That’s not how it was meant to be.
Food was created to be a blessing and (with God’s strength) you can calm your anxiety about eating.
God tells us that we should keep our minds on things above and that means it is possible to stop fretting about food. Because, when we’re worried about these worldly things, our minds are distracted from what matters most! (See the enemy’s plan there?)
What is anxiety about eating?
You can spot anxiety about eating by its primary mode of operation, a lack of peace. If you catch yourself doing any of these things, you may have some anxiety about your eating:
- Spending an unusual amount of time picking out what to eat.
- Staring, overwhelmed, at a grocery store shelf unsure of what to buy.
- Feeling stressed about what is the “right” food choice.
- Avoiding a social event because something that’s being served might not fit what you’re allowed to eat.
Also, this obsession and anxiety about eating is truly a plan of the enemy to keep us involved in ourselves and out of fellowship. A stray sheep is certainly not what we want to be…
You love the Lord, and His priority is people. Your heart’s desire is to align your priorities with His. But when you’re so wrapped up in thoughts about food and body image, it’s hard to do.
That’s why you need to nip this anxiety in the bud and find peace with food.
1. Diets Cause Anxiety About Food.
When you’ve been on a variety of different diets, each of them will have named something different as the “bad” food. If you remember the nineties, you recall that fat was bad. Then, we entered the new millennium and now carbs bear the brunt of the blame.
No fat, no carbs… Wait a minute!
Now you feel guilty for eating two of the three major food groups. That, my friend, will cause a lot of anxiety.
Think about the plethora of diet rules we encounter. We hear that we should only eat certain portion sizes or only eat during certain times of the day.
Eventually, after we’re hanging on to ALL of these rules, there’s a constant buzz and fear around food. We’re feeling anxious about what or when it’s okay to eat. This kind of internal environment will drown out our physical cues and our actual physical needs for food.
2. All-Or-Nothing Thinking Causes Anxiety About Food.
If you’ve dieted for very long, it can be hard to break out of the diet mindset. Your diet plan says this is the way you should eat. Because it’s an unrealistic expectation, you decide, “If I can’t eat this way, I won’t bother at all.” <– that’s all-or-nothing eating!
That’s how we get in a push-and-pull relationship where we’re either on a diet or off a diet. We’re eating “perfectly” or we’re bingeing.
That’s a difficult place to be and it continues to increase worry and anxiety about what’s on our plate (or what’s not).
3. Self-Reliance Causes Anxiety About FooD.
As Christians, we know that the source of our strength is not found in ourselves. What a relief that God is the Power we plug ourselves into!
When we’re doing a diet in our own human strength (which is fleeting and limited), we’re going to struggle. We’re not meant to carry that burden on our own. It causes a lot of anxiety as we try to do something that we’re unable to do.
4. WeighT-Focus Causes Anxiety About Food.
The world is completely obsessed with our physical, outward bodies. Having a lower weight or a smaller size is a “badge of honor.” And, in some circles, gaining weight is considered the worst possible thing.
When we step back and look at the world with an observational eye, we can see that the focus on weight and size is rather ridiculous. This constant focus adds such an intensity to our food choices because, in our minds, our weight is related to our diet. And that, you guessed it, causes even more anxiety about eating.
That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to the messages that you receive in your life on a daily basis. Maybe they come from your own self-talk. Or they may come from social media, magazines, or even friends.
Try to develop a low tolerance for this kind of unhelpful input because of where it sends you.
How to End Anxiety About Eating
Negative thoughts can come up multiple times a day or even multiple times a minute! Here are some tools that you may need to use frequently. And the more often you use them, the more they become your habit!
Keep doing them until you’re doing them most of the time. Then, you’ll start to do them even on a bad day. Even when you’re in a moment of food stress, these tips can help you find peace, quickly!
Calm Anxiety About Food by Noticing Your Expectations
When you wake up in the morning and start the day, how are you expecting yourself to eat? You may have a “fairytale of perfection” painted in your mind.
You’re going to eat all your vegetables and only consume organic foods. Oh, and no added sugar and zero carbs, of course. Then, you pack your lunch, and it looks like it’s made for a toddler. There’s hardly any food.
You plan to do X, Y, and Z and not deviate at all. Period.
Are your expectations realistic?
When you notice that you’re setting the bar too high, it can help you calm down. You realize that there’s not a necessity to meet that bar. It’s not even somewhere you need to go.
Is this an expectation that you would put on your daughter, niece or best friend? Would you expect someone you love to live up to these expectations?
Are your expectations all about you?
The Lord is the source of our strength. If your perfect day of eating is all about your willpower and your strength, your focus is not in the right place. This will cause you a lot of anxiety.
Calm Your Anxiety About Food by Aligning Your Expectations with the Lord’s.
Let’s paint an accurate picture of what your day of eating may actually look like…
It’s probably not going to be perfect. You’re probably going to have some moments where you feel like you’re at a fork in the road– will you make a “good” or “bad” food decision?
You can rely on the Lord in those instances to know how to react. If you eat something that doesn’t feel right, how are you going to cast your anxiety and care on Him?
Draw the picture in your mind so that you can start living a story that lines up with what you’re capable of. This is ultimately how He wants you to live on a daily basis.
We don’t make changes in sweeps. We can’t go from A to Z overnight.
When you start a new diet– “today you’re eating junk food and tomorrow you’re eating perfectly organic fare.”
WHAT???
This makes more sense…
You can begin to align your expectation with the Lord’s when you embrace small, sustainable changes instead. He doesn’t expect you to change everything overnight. Why should you?
He created our brains. He knows our habit-wiring and that we’re best equipped to do little things (that add up to big results!). (Remember the mustard seed of faith?) We can integrate those little changes into our lives by focusing on one thing at a time.
Step one is to pray about what God would have you work on.
Calm Your Anxiety About Food by Changing Your Definition of Success.
If your only definition of success is eating perfectly or eating in alignment with ten different diets that have contradictory instructions, that’s a recipe for eating anxiety.
The question begs to be answered: What is success to YOU?
When we come back to the “small habit change,” that can be your measurement of success for the day. Aim for a habit that you’re confident you can nail. But also expect that it’s not going to happen every time or all the time.
> Find relief in knowing that perfection is not required for progress.
> Look to align your expectations with the Lord.
> Find your value in something other than how you eat or how much you weigh.
If your value is hinged on these things, there is a lot hanging in the balance based on your food choice. If you make poor food choices, it’s no wonder you feel awful, because your identity is tied to those decisions.
Align your worth and value with what God has for you– what He said about your value when He hung on the cross. Then, food becomes just…food. It becomes something you want to work on with Him.
Not because you have to follow a diet but because you want to be more like Christ. Then, you can lock arms with the Holy Spirit and do this “food freedom thing” day in and day out.
There is no better way to calm anxiety about eating (or any area of your life)– than to focus on the perfect love of our Lord because perfect love casts out fear.
I pray that the Lord will bring that love into your relationship with food and your body…so that you can ditch anxiety about eating once and for all.
Podcast episode show notes
What can you eat? What should you eat? With so many diet rules out there, how are you supposed to figure out what to eat? And even when you do, you feel guilty about it anyway.
Diets have made planning your plate stressful, which leads to not eating enough or overeating. From restriction to binge eating, dieting is robbing you of peace and joy.
In this episode, discover how to walk in freedom from those diet side effects with a few simple truths that can help you stop the cycle.
Links mentioned:
- 10 Reasons Why You Can’t Stop Overeating
- For a deep dive, check out Grace Filled Plate Platinum and be sure to get on the waiting list
You may also love:
- Courses [A Chew the Word Study]
- Episode 7: You’re Changing TOO Much!
- Episode 12: How to Eat Less by Tithing Bites
- Episode 24: What You NEED to Know About Diet Failure
Get a FREEBIE:
- Get your FREE Faith [is greater than] Food Email Course
Rather watch? Catch the video on YouTube.
Brandice Lardner is a Certified Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach, Amazon #1 Best Selling Author, Homeschool Mom, and Jesus Girl whose mission in life is to help women ditch the diet mentality and find peace with food and their bodies so that they are better equipped to do the great things God has called them to do.
Martha says
Such wise counseling! I’m keeping a weight loss journal beginning with these words!
Brandice says
That’s great to hear, Martha! So glad the Lord is speaking to you through these posts!
James says
I’m really Struggling with food it has become like a friend to me So close in my thoughts 🙃 most of what you’ve said reflect my life. I really love God but food separates me frm him I think I should check on myself and start Asking God for guidance. Thank You
Brandice says
Thanks for the note, James! I get where you are coming from- it does weigh heavy on our hearts. But, please know, Jesus did for you knowing every struggle you’d ever have. He’s there, ready to help you through these challenges and they can be the way you grow closer to God as you bring Him in, rather than waiting to “get it together” before asking Him in. Praying for you now, James!