Have you ever been so distracted by thoughts about food, you couldn’t focus on work or found your interactions with others suffered because you felt hangry?
As a dietitian and health coach, I’ve helped patients navigate this overthinking by exploring its route cause and coming up with personalized solutions. There are many reasons someone may find themselves hung up on planning what to eat, questioning their decisions, or trying to white-knuckle it through the day, but I see it come up the most for people with a history of disordered eating or for those who are on weight loss diets that don’t provide the right balance of nutrients. More recently, I’ve seen those trying to do intermittent fasting (IF) but who may not have received much guidance on what to actually eat during their eating window really struggle with this.
One of the first steps to breaking free from the overthinking is figuring out what, specifically, you’re struggling with and coming up with a regimen that works for you in the context of your lifestyle.
I spoke with Dr. Will Cole, leading functional medicine expert and best-selling author of Ketotarian, The Inflammation Spectrum, and the new Intuitive Fasting: The Flexible Four-Week Intermittent Fasting Plan to Recharge Your Metabolism and Renew Your Health (Rodale). A big part of the work he does with his patients and what he shared with his audience centers around what he describes as “the head and the heart stuff”—helping people heal their relationship with food and with their body as they improve their physical health.
“It’s like a mantra at the clinic here,” says Dr. Cole. “You can’t heal a body you hate. You can’t shame your way to wellness. You can’t obsess your way to health.”
Here are some steps to help you tune in to your body and fuel yourself properly so you can stop overthinking food so you can actually focus on your work.
Tuning in to your body and noticing its patterns helps you find a natural rhythm with your eating.
Jessica Cording Nutrition
Ask Yourself If It’s Physical Hunger—Or Something Else
Checking in with yourself when you notice you’re fixated on food is an important first step. I often use a hunger-fullness scale with my patients to help them get in touch with the difference between physical hunger and wanting to eat to soothe uncomfortable emotions.
If you’re fasting, finding the right regimen for you and learning how to modify is key. In Intuitive Fasting, in addition to meal plans and recipes, Dr. Cole shares “metaphysical meals”—mindful practices that are designed to help readers tune in to their body and nurture their relationship with food. “I brought in things like meditation, breath, journaling, getting out in nature or just being in stillness, rooted in your body.”
Taking a flexible, intuitive approach to fasting, he explains, is very much about, “how do we lean in and leverage the benefits without falling prey to the potential pitfalls of doing too much too soon? There’s a balance and a rhythm where you can harness the health benefits because you’re using it in a measured, balanced way.”
Make Sure Your Blood Sugar Is Balanced
Blood sugar management is a huge piece of the picture. The proportions of protein, fats and complex carbs we eat impact our blood sugar control, which directly impacts how satisfied we feel as well as our energy, mood, hormone function, and more.
“Most diets fail,” says Dr. Cole, “because in people who are metabolically inflexible, their blood sugar is all over the place. They’re hangry and irritable because they’re depending on carbohydrates and sugar and starches for fuel. And when you just decrease their calories and they’re still in sugar-burning mode, you’re basically adding kindling to the fire, and when you decrease the amount of kindling, they’re miserable. The light’s going to go out.”
Making sure there is enough healthy fat and adequate protein for slower burning energy, Dr. Cole explains, “is like putting a log on the fire” instead. For those fasting, “you can just go longer without eating because you have that. That’s what metabolic flexibility means.”
Release Shame
Be kind to yourself, and allow yourself to be curious rather than critical about what you’re experiencing. “What worked for you today, isn’t necessarily what’s going to work for you a year from now on a different point of your health journey,” says Dr. Cole. “Let’s check in with the rhythms of our body to find out what serves us.” Some things will, and some things won’t. Give yourself permission to let go of what doesn’t. Shame belongs at the top of the list of what doesn’t serve you.
Journaling can be a useful tool to help you feel more connect to your body and build awareness of … [+]
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Notice Patterns And Identify Triggers
Do certain people or situations set you off? Is there a day of the week where your schedule impacts what you can eat or at what time you eat and it sends you on an overthinking spiral?
When people start the healing process, explains Dr. Cole, healing their body, healing their relationship with the body, healing their relationship with food, they may start thinking about their patterns more. “They may ask, ‘Why do I eat? Why do I go towards the things that I go towards? Am I eating because I’m distracted, bored, or stressed?.’ They start to grow in awareness and intuition.”
Know When To Seek Help
If your overthinking feels insurmountable or is accompanied by feelings of hopeless or severe depression, you don’t have to struggle alone. Not that you ever have to struggle alone, but these are clues that you would benefit from working with a licensed professional such as a dietitian, doctor, and/or therapist.
