How to Enjoy Food Without Guilt

😏 LOL newsletter membership 54

Welcome to the 54th issue of the membership newsletter. You can also join the membership plan to receive weekly long-form articles. Recent content includes:

From Neurons to Neural Networks: How Psychologists Ignited the AI Revolution

How to Use Your Imagination to Achieve Anything

When a Man Starts Going Bald

And also some novels for your weekend readings:

Sculpting the Angel in the Heart

Between Role-Switching

The Ones Who Couldn't Sit Down (Hito)

---

Have you ever had a moment like this?

In the office breakroom, colleagues are enthusiastically discussing their latest fitness achievements and new diet plans. They feel relieved for having "successfully resisted the temptation of cake" today, yet feel bad for having "indulged a little" during a weekend meal with friends.

Meanwhile, you've just taken a bite of a warm, flaky croissant. Before the happiness can even register on your taste buds, a voice in your head chimes in: "This is bad food, pure calories. How long will I have to run later to burn this off?"

And just like that, the croissant is no longer a croissant, but a "debt" that needs to be repaid.

This feeling is what we call food guilt. It's like a "calorie police" living in our minds, constantly monitoring and judging our every meal, bringing with it shame, self-blame, and even self-loathing.

I've met with clients who, I discovered, were waging a long and exhausting war with food. When their minds are filled with rigid rules and restrictions, eating is no longer about nourishment and pleasure, but devolves into a game of "reward" and "punishment."

But hunger and appetite are the body's most honest and natural responses. Why shouldn't we be able to enjoy them?

Today, I want to talk with you about how to free yourself from the "crime" of food, and how to make peace with it, and with yourself.

Listen to the discussions on food guilt.

Whose Voice Is That, Really?

Food guilt doesn't appear out of thin air. Before we can dismantle it, we need to see it for what it is and ask: Whose voice is that in my head, judging my food?