Covid19: A Reality Check on Your Relationship to Food, Exercise and Your Weight

I wanted to touch base with you, heart to heart. This pandemic is real, it’s affecting all of us and is forcing us to completely change the way we live life. It essentially has flipped our worlds upside down. I hope that you, your family and loved ones are safe during this challenging time and that you have the support system around you to navigate these unprecedented (this is THE word of the year isn’t it?!) times.

The collective energy right now is that of fear, worry and anxiety. Uncertainty is always uncomfortable because we’re hard wired for safety and comfort. Whatever you’re feeling right now, just know - you’re not alone, you’re just human. And with the uncertainty and isolation this pandemic is bringing, many of us are looking to social media for some lightheartedness and coronavirus memes, and there’s truly some hilarious stuff out there.

But I’ve also noticed an interesting trend - an increasing number of jokes around gaining the “quarantine 15”, coming out of this whole situation either ripped AF or 30kg heavier, and accidentally finishing your entire stash of iso snacks in one night. And whilst they probably all made us chuckle, it has also made me realise just how pervasive and omnipresent diet culture really is.

There’s nothing like a pandemic to highlight just how terrified people are of gaining weight.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m by no means undermining how people are feeling about this. I’m the first to understand just how stressful this new reality can be for people who are struggling with wanting to loose weight, or who struggle with binge or emotional eating. It’s actually what I’m working through with pretty much all of my clients in my one-on-one sessions at the moment.

And it’s completely understandable why this time is causing us so much stress. We’re spending a lot more time confined at home, in some cases isolated from friends and family, with lots of free time. For someone struggling with binge or emotional eating (like I used to), this situation can be a recipe for disaster.

I think you know what I’m talking about…

You may be stocking up a week worth of food (because that’s what you’re told to do), but then you find yourself binge-eating everything in one night rather than spacing it out.

You may be finding excuses like “No-one will see me anyways”, so you give yourself permission to go on a binge feast for a week.

Or perhaps you’re stressing about not getting enough movement in and are consequently restricting your food intake.

I completely get it. There was a time where binge eating and worrying about weight consumed my life…I can’t imagine how bad it would’ve gotten during a time like this! But there is a silver lining to all of this. This is a real opportunity for us to explore how we REALLY feel about our weight, our body and how healthy our relationship to food really is.

Is this whole situation impacting you more than you thought it would and is shedding light on some food struggles that you haven’t fully worked through?

Maybe it’s showing you that you’re more addicted to exercise than you thought you were?

And maybe it’s showing you that you’ve been exercising for all the wrong reasons all along?

This time where we are more inclined to use food as a coping mechanism (emotional eating, binge eating, restricting our food intake) and where we don’t have access to our usual workout routine may be the reality check we needed. There’s a huge difference between being inconvenienced by this new normal, and feeling anxious and downright terrified by it.

You don’t need to have an eating disorder or struggle with disordered eating to be experiencing these feelings. You don’t even need to consider yourself a binge eater or emotional eater. If you are struggling in your relationship with food and body during this time, use this opportunity to become super honest with yourself and explore your relationship to food, body and weight.

There already is enough stress and worry in the world right now and the last thing I want you to do is be all-consumed with food anxiety, binging and exercising like a maniac.

If you feel like your reaction to the new circumstances is disproportionate and your food and body image struggles have ticked up a notch, here’s what you can do do:

Know that emotional eating is not a sin

When we become stressed, anxious, or worried, it’s only human to gravitate towards food to cope with our emotions. You are not alone in this, it’s a natural response. The best thing you can do after emotionally eating is to be kind to yourself, show yourself compassion and to take the time to explore why it happened.

If your friend came to you and explained that she’s been emotionally eating, you wouldn’t scream and swear at her and call her stupid, would you? So please don’t do that to yourself.

Realise that anytime you find yourself emotionally eating, it doesn’t actually have anything to do with food. It’s your subconscious sending you a signal to say “Hey you, listen up, I’m feeling something and I want you to pay attention to it!”. Consider what your body/mind was trying to tell you and what you actually would have needed in that moment.

Journal, journal, journal

I saw a meme on Instagram the other day that said:

I really hope this self quarantine ends before I run out of drawers to organise and actually have to start feeling my feelings.

Can you relate to this?! In our normal life, it can be easy to distract ourselves from feelings we don’t want to feel because there’s always a million other things to do. Now that we are forced to slow down, many of us might be worried about being confronted with those feelings we’ve so successfully swept under the rug. I wholeheartedly encourage you to actively, consciously use this time to face your emotions. Allow yourself to feel the fear, the worry, the confusion. And one of the best ways I know how to do that is via journalling.

Over the last weeks, I’ve seen a big spike in people downloading my free 14-Day Emotional Eating Journal Guides, and I’m so glad so many of you are resorting to journaling about your emotions. This is the time to slow down, go inwards, take time for ourselves and explore our souls. To be still. Contemplate. Explore. Question. Pivot. Reassess. On top of the free journaling prompts in my eBooks, I invite you to ponder on and journal about the following:

Ask yourself:

*✻ What do I need right now?*

*✻ What can I learn from this situation?*

*✻ What am I perhaps asked to let go of?*

*✻ What am I unwilling to let go of?*

*✻ What is this situation teaching me about my relationship to food, body and exercise?*

**Throw away the f*%cking scale**

Now is the time to practice social distancing from the scale. I understand that during times like this you might feel like you need to control and check your weight more often (sweats are more forgiving than jeans, I get it), but honestly, what good does it do?! Nothing changes when you step on the scale other than the knowledge of a number. You are so much more than that number. If you are currently weighing yourself every day or even ‘just’ a couple of times a week, please be honest with yourself - do you have a healthy relationship to your scale? Is it serving you right now? If not, I invite you to go cold turkey and get rid of the scale altogether. If that seems too daunting, perhaps you can start with placing the scale somewhere where it’s not easily accessible, like at the top of a closet. Take baby steps, whatever you need to do, but get honest with your relationship to the scale and find ways to reduce the dependency.

Explore your relationship to exercise.

I want you to continue moving your body during this time, no doubt. Personally, moving my body is one of the most important things for my mental health, and I’ve found that to be true especially during quarantine. But I want you to find ways to move your body that actually feel good, make you happy and that give you a sense of groundedness and deeper connection with yourself. I want you to see exercising as a self care practice that can help with your journey of body acceptance and body appreciation. Move because you love yourself, not because you’re trying to burn calories!

Before you set up a quarantine workout schedule filled to the brim with Insta Live workouts, influencer’s eBooks and Youtube videos, check in on your relationship to working out first: