This is how you feel right now, in this moment— it won’t last forever!
Shira Savit, MA, MHC, INHC
One major component to healing our relationship with food is changing the way we relate to ourselves.
When it comes to our struggles with food and weight, it’s so common to be hard on ourselves. The Inner Critic, as it’s often referred to, causes us to feel guilt and shame. The IC might sound something like this: Why can’t you just control yourself?! You really need to lose that weight once and for all. You should be embarrassed by the amount of food you just ate. You keep sabotaging your diet; there’s something wrong with you.
What’s ironic is that when we criticize ourselves, we’re often triggered to eat even more. When we feel badly about ourselves, we often turn to food for comfort, and then, of course, feel even worse about ourselves, all over again.
Using the F.R.I.E.N.D. acronym I developed, we can dampen the voice of our inner critic — even for a moment — and experience positive feelings toward ourselves. Over time, new neural pathways grow, and feeling good (rather than ashamed) becomes more familiar. Love and acceptance opens the doorway to growth and lasting change.
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