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Kristen Dorr's avatar

I find that I have a Jekyll/Hyde mentality. I have an afternoon/evening where I tell myself in the moment that my food choices are worth it, I just need the break from kids, life and stress. But when it’s all done I feel guilty. I can tell myself it’s fine and worth it but the guilt still comes through. And I know an all or nothing relationship with food won’t work because I’ll feel deprived and go all in. I still have some work to do on the relationship and forgiving myself. Thank you Melissa for continuing to write about your food freedom and whether it’s worth it. It gets me a step closer every time I read something like this.

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Melanie Davis's avatar

I’m not sure what I think about this in terms of how it could apply to me... obviously great for you and whomever it helps. I’m overweight (and have been my entire life) and have found I have felt the healthiest (physically and emotionally) when I’m doing some kind of abstaining, and I really struggle with food freedom because I find a lot of things, “worth it,” or at least my bar for what crosses that threshold isn’t low enough on an ongoing basis to develop optimal physical health. But I don’t feel shame or guilt about that any particular food on a given day. But I’m often unhappy with the build up overall. I don’t have a great conclusion here, I guess individually comfort eating is whatever, but the regularity I do it with doesn’t serve me, so in doing it less... how much is too much, when does it cross from serving me in the moment to not serving me in retrospect? I have no idea.

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