The Rush for the French Fries

Were you ever eating with another person, or group of people, and found that you were eating so quickly for fear there wouldn’t be more food available if you wanted another portion?

Yesterday, my daughter Lauren spent the day with her friends. She has another few days before camp begins and they decided to walk to the local pizza store. The girls each ordered their respective slice of pizza, and one order of fries to share.

They placed the fries in the center of the table. And, here’s what my daughter reported.

Everyone was eating so fast, hurrying to eat the fries for fear that they would run out really quickly or one of them would eat more than the other. I explained to my daughter that this is a form of “rebound eating” and happens when one feels like they are in competition for the food and fears food deprivation.

I found it interesting that Lauren mentioned this to me, as she clearly noticed that something was wrong with this picture.

There are many reasons and different scenarios that you might find yourself in where you resort to overeating, even binge eating. More than likely if you are a yo-yo dieter or emotional eater with a list of forbidden foods, this happens quite often when you finally give in and eat something on your forbidden food list.

The key is to realize that no one food has the power to help you lose weight or gain weight. I know, there are a lot of so called “experts” on the internet telling you, no let me correct that…shouting at you, to “avoid these 5 foods at all costs” or something similar. They make you think that if you avoid those foods, your skinny jeans will fit you perfectly and your prayers will be answered.

Not so.

Take the power back from the food! You are in charge of your food choices. When you do this, you will see your forbidden food list begin to shrink, and you might even surprise yourself and realize that you don’t happen to even like those foods that plagued you for so long.

Your turn to take action: Share with me below a time when you felt you were in competition for your food and you feared deprivation.