Published on
Updated
Reading 2 min.
in collaboration with
Vanessa Bedjaï-Haddad (dietitian nutritionist)
Medical validation:
January 24, 2024
Do you often find yourself thinking only about eating, even after having a hearty breakfast? Know that many tips exist to free yourself from these food obsessions. Vanessa Bedjaï-Haddad, dietitian-nutritionist, reveals some of them to us.
Thinking back to the croissant you had for breakfast in the morning, feeling sorry for the chocolate you shouldn’t have eaten, impatiently waiting for aperitif time to grab the sausage… It’s hard to let go when food turns into an obsession. So, how to free yourself from it? Here are some practical and concrete tips to remedy this.
Don’t deprive yourself too much
Deprivation does not allow you to free yourself from your food obsessions. On the contrary, it fuels them, explains Vanessa Bedjaï-Haddad.
“Depriving yourself too much is never a good idea! Restrictive diets inevitably induce frustration, hunger and fatigue which ultimately lead to snacking that harms the efforts already made.“, she says, before adding: “We have the feeling of having failed, of not being able to do it, we feel guilty, we become demotivated. And ultimately, we end up with more kilos than we started with… Which clearly maintains the obsession.”
On the contrary, our expert recommends a more balanced approach:
“It is by implementing healthy habits and without excessive and unnecessary deprivation that we will find a routine that allows us to lose weight without the risk of gaining it back.”
Avoid feeling guilty
After devouring a bag of candy, guilt often rears its ugly head. Big mistake, according to our expert.
“It’s often the feeling of guilt that makes you slip… The fact of saying to yourself “I’m not hungry, I don’t need it, so why am I eating chocolate, bread, cheese? However, when you want something that makes you happy even if you are not really hungry, you have to embrace it and appreciate it. Assume that you just want to treat yourself with a little chocolate for example“, explains the expert.
She adds that certain phrases should be banned:
“No “fucked for fucked up”, no “I finish the box like that, then there’s no more”, no “I’ll let go and start tomorrow”. Obsession is often directly linked to guilt. Taking responsibility, letting go, ultimately allows you to free yourself from certain obsessions“.
Establish an eating routine
Another tip to free yourself from food obsessions: establish an eating routine.
“It is reassuring and important for the body and the mind but while leaving room for desires, which you just have to welcome and accept to end up knowing how to manage them.“, reveals the nutrition expert.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
Don’t try to go too fast
To avoid rushing for the first pain au chocolat in the office, the objectives must be progressive.
“You shouldn’t want to go too fast, especially when you’re trying to lose weight. If we set the bar too high, we risk breaking down and starting over again,” warns Vanessa Bedjaï-Haddad. “Rather than going on yet another diet, where we remove all the “pleasure” foods, learn to manage these foods, measure them, compensate for them. Instead, rethink your routine by implementing a healthy and serene diet, and give yourself time.” weighs our expert.
The goal is not to live daily in constraint but to adopt a healthy lifestyle in the long term.
“Eating a balanced diet and moving around should neither be a duty nor a constraint, just a way of taking care of yourself“, she concludes.