Happy Easter?

Happy Easter?

Or 4 days riddled with shame and guilt about the amount of Easter eggs you consumed?

How much did you overindulge over Easter weekend?

Do you feel like you lost control and devoured every Easter egg and hot cross bun in sight?

Do you feel like rubbish emotionally and physically now the chocolate glow has worn off?

Phew! Do you feel relieved Easter is over for another year and you don’t have to look at another Easter egg or hot cross bun for 12 whole months? 

As you emerge from your Easter coma, have a think about what food based holidays trigger in you emotionally and with your behaviour around food. The words GUILT and SHAME seem to be fairly common words clients are telling me over the past few days, along with feeling out of control with their eating. You don’t need an excuse or a justification to overeat just because everyone else does during these food based holidays.

However, when you have a love/hate relationship with food, holidays like Easter or Christmas that are based around eating are a mine field of emotions. If you are feeling the old familiar feelings of shame and guilt, or if you were/are hiding how much you actually ate over the weekend, you need to ask yourself what you gained from overindulging. Was it an excuse to lose control and then end up hating yourself? I don’t think any amount of chocolate eggs or hot cross buns are worth that feeling. My belief is that it’s never about the food – it’s about why you are using the food. What emotion are you trying to suppress or reinforce with your eating? There is nothing wrong with participating in life and enjoying these holidays, but not at the expense of your self-esteem and self-worth. If you eat anything from an emotional mind state, you are 99.9% most likely to not even be tasting whatever it is you are eating, let alone gaining any pleasure from it.

So let’s be practical here.

You don’t need to store up for winter by devouring everything in sight – they still make chocolate! The world hasn’t run out of it! If you feel out of control around ‘holiday’ type food, refocus on the 80/20 rule. For example, on a four day long weekend, make sure you eat 80% clean nutritious yummy fuel, which allows for 20% being able to enjoy the holiday food without feeling completely out of control. And you don’t have to consume every Easter egg before you go back to work! Put them away and live the TWC motto - Balance and Moderation with everything.

If you feel overwhelmed by the feelings of guilt and shame around eating, or you feel out of control and are struggling to get back on track, message me @ https://www.facebook.com/twcnz/ and let’s have a chat.

You are not alone in this!

Vanessa X