Decoding Your Relationship with Food: 8 Tell-Tale Signs

Do you view yourself as a normal eater? It's possible that your eating habits have become so ingrained that they feel normal to you, even if there might be underlying issues. You may not have identified as a disordered eater, as many of the signs are accepted as normal with in our culture.

Often, I’m approached by people seeking help for weight loss when they are struggling with problematic eating behaviours that need to be addressed. Focusing on weight loss

So, what sets apart normal eating from disordered eating or eating disorders? It’s Eating Disorder Awareness Week so I’m shining a light on the differences of something that is often complex and misunderstood.

ARE YOU A DISORDERED EATER? 

You do not need to have all the signs to suffer with disordered eating. Here are 8 signs that you may be: 

1.      You restrict your food, be it counting calories, avoiding food groups, or engaging in severe dieting

2.      You experience some bingeing episodes (but do not meet diagnostic criteria for Binge Eating Disorder)

3.      You find yourself excessively exercising in order to change your body size

4.      You sometimes vomit after eating (self -induced)

5.      You use laxatives or diet pills in order to change your body size.

6.      You experience a degree of body image distortion

7.      You make judgments about yourself and your value based on your body size, weight or shape

8.      You are persistently preoccupied with food, dieting, eating and your body

The path of disordered eating may be a precursor to an eating disorder. Both are on a continuum, making it easy for someone with disordered eating to transition into eating disorder territory. Individuals might also cycle through various eating disorders in their lifetime.

The eating disorder charity BEAT estimates that 1.25 million people are currently suffering from an eating disorder in the UK. This is only the only the tip of the iceberg representing those who have been officially diagnosed. Many others remain undiagnosed, so the figure is likely to be higher.

Eating disorders are not limited to a specific demographic; they can affect individuals of any background, ethnicity, gender, age, or body size. Contrary to the common misconception, someone need not be underweight in order to have an eating disorder.

WHAT DOES A BALANCED RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD AND BODY LOOK LIKE?

· You exercise for fun and health

· You have a good body image – accept it without trying too hard to change it, or evaluate it

· Your overall eating patterns are balanced (perhaps you miss the odd meal or occasionally overeat)

· You do not obsess over food, eating, diets or your body

· You might emotionally eat sometimes- but this is not your only coping mechanism and it does not cause you distress.

Do you long for a happy relationship with food, but are feeling lost on where to begin? Grab my FREE guide Breaking the Cycle - Your First Steps to Healing Your Relationship with Food, to kickstart your journey today

This invaluable resource will help you:

✔️Know when you’re really hungry and when you’re not

✔️Learn when to eat that’s best for you

✔️Know the best snacks to help you stop craving and feeling out of control

The link between disordered eating & digestive distress

If you experience digestive complaints, how does this affect what and how you eat? Perhaps it preoccupies your mind whilst you try to understand what can alleviate the symptoms?

If you also struggle with eating challenges, perhaps you have not considered the role this may be playing in your gut symptoms including bloating, acid reflux and abnormal bowel movements.

WHAT’S THE CONNECTION?

Forty-four percent of people with IBS type symptoms are disordered eaters and 98% of people with eating disorders have co-occurring gut disorders. It is no consequence.

Digestive symptoms correlate with psychological distress; due to eating behaviours that disrupt digestion, changes in the physiology of the gut and an imbalance in the microbiome (the eco system of our gut).

Food restriction leads to delayed gastric emptying and a feeling of premature fullness along with nausea and bloating. The villi (the small finger like projections lining the gut that allow absorption of nutrients), become flattened.

Low food intake or purging often leads to constipation. Unsurprisingly, purging also results in a weakened oesophageal sphincter and GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease). Acid reflux and symptoms of IBS are often experienced by binge eaters.

A VISCIOUS CYCLE…

This often leads to a vicious cycle, gut discomfort and pain resulting in further food restriction in order to manage symptoms. Digestive complaints may also lead to the desire to eat ‘perfectly’ even when the diet does not relieve symptoms.

This causes rigidity and fear when eating certain foods. Disruption of digestive processes also impacts appetite cues, so it can become challenging to feel hunger and/ or satiety. Commonly, strict adherence to diets can also lead to binge eating.

If you have eating challenges and are experiencing distressing digestive symptoms, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Book in a complimentary call HERE to see how I can help

You can also come and join me in The Food Freedom Collective community – a free group to support you on journey to find freedom around food and your body

If any of these resonate then this community is for you :

💠You are on and off diets all the time

💠You find yourself binge eating

💠You are an ‘emotional eater’

💠You restrict food in order to lose weight

💠 You can’t stop thinking about your weight, appearance or food

💠 You feel overwhelmed and confused no longer knowing what you ‘should’ eat

With weekly live videos and daily support

8 Tell-Tale Signs about Your Relationship with Food

Do you think of yourself as a ‘normal’ eater?

Perhaps you’ve not been at peace with food for so long, that your eating feels normal to you.

Maybe you have never considered yourself to be a disordered eater. After all many of the signs are accepted as ‘normal’ within our culture.

I am often approached by women seeking help for weight loss, when it's in fact their eating behaviours that we need to address. So, what are the signs of dysregulated eating? And what is the difference between ‘normal’ eating, disordered eating and eating disorders?

Dysregulated eating is complex and often misunderstood and so in the run up to Eating Disorders Awareness Week, I would like to help clarify.

Are you a disordered eater? 

You do not need to have all the signs to suffer with disordered eating. Here are 8 signs that you may be: 

1.      You restrict your food– counting calories, avoiding food groups, severe dieting

2.      You experience some bingeing episodes (but do not meet diagnostic criteria for Binge Eating Disorder)

3.      You find yourself excessively exercising in order to change your body size

4.      You sometimes vomit after eating (self -induced)

5.      You use laxatives in order to change your body size or diet pills.

6.      You experience a degree of body image distortion

7.      You make judgments about yourself and your value based on your body size, weight or shape

8.      You are persistently preoccupied with food, dieting, eating and your body

Eating disorder sufferers will go on a journey and the signs of disordered eating may indicate that they are heading in this direction. Eating disorders and disordered eaters are on the same continuum - it is very easy for a disordered eater to slip in to eating disorder territory. It is also possible for people to experience several eating disorders in their lifetime, they often morph from one to another.

The eating disorder charity BEAT estimates that 1.25 million people are currently suffering from an eating disorder in the UK. This is only the only the tip of the iceberg representing those who have been officially diagnosed. Many others remain undiagnosed, so the figure is likely to be higher.

Eating disorders are common in individuals between 14 and 25 years but you may be surprised to hear that they have been seen in children as young as 6 and in people in their 70s. They can affect people regardless of their background, ethnicity, gender, age and body size. One of the biggest misconceptions being that someone must be underweight in order to have an eating disorder.

So what does a balanced relationship with food and body look like?

·         You exercise for fun and health

·         You have a good body image – accept it without trying too hard to change it, or evaluate it

·         Your overall eating patterns are balanced (perhaps you miss the odd meal or occasionally overeat)

·         You do not obsess over food, eating, diets or your body

·         You might emotionally eat sometimes- but this is not your only coping mechanism and it does not cause you distress.

If you are struggling with an unhealthy relationship with food and your body or believe you may be suffering with an eating disorder, please reach out for help.

I work with a limited number of clients to offer one to one support over a minimum of 3 months and would be happy to have a chat with you to see how I can help. If you would be better suited to work with another practitioner, I will let you know, and sign post you accordingly.

Book in a complimentary call HERE to find out how I can help.

You can also come and join me in The Food Freedom Collective community – a free group to support you on journey to find freedom around food and your body.

Bored or reward- what triggers your emotional eating?

Emotional eating triggers are often complex. Perhaps you’re bored, stressed, sad, lonely or anxious. Commonly having a hard day at work can lead to that need to reward yourself for getting through it.

For many, emotional eating has become a coping mechanism – a relief, distraction or escape. Yet it seldom brings comfort- the benefit is mostly short lived. And commonly feelings of shame guilt and self-loathing follow – not the reward you were looking for.

Eating a packet of biscuits is often the automatic response rather than working out what you really need. This might be to de-stress, find stimulation or get some rest. Mostly this survival mechanism has become a habit. Chances are, you have been conditioned to reward yourself with food, often from early childhood. And many of us are almost completely out of touch with our own bodies –which is what makes it so challenging.

When working with clients, the aim is to build in more appropriate ways of making yourself feel better by prioritising self-care and turning to non-food related rewards instead. We all deserve and need time to do positive things for ourselves - without feelings of guilt. 

It can be a really empowering exercise to take a look at what you might normally do to reward yourself and think, are these helpful or do I need to replace them. And then spend some time to identify some activities that you can build into your daily life.

What would you like to spend more time doing? 

What would make you feel good?

What would help you relax or de-stress?

Here are a few examples:

·         Listening to calming music

·         A few minutes of yoga/ pilates

·         A gentle walk in peaceful surroundings

·         Reading a favourite magazine

·         Sitting quietly in the garden

·         A soak in the bath

·         Phoning a good friend

·         10 minutes of quiet relaxation

Use this as an opportunity to improve the quality of your life and build in new ways of feeling joy and enriching your experience of life. 

The simple steps to take:

1.    Identify when you are using food as a reward or to make yourself feel better.

2.    Choose a few alternative things you can do instead to make yourself feel good (that do not involve food).

3.    Try out the new choices - see what works well for you.

4.    If something doesn’t work, change it or add to it until you find the right solution.

5.    Keep practising it until it becomes automatic. You might find you don’t always manage - this isn’t about berating yourself. Instead observe without judgment what might have happened and try again next time.

FREE DAILY SUPPORT 

If you are you struggling with your eating and your relationship with food + your body, head over to The Food Freedom Collective free group, for daily support and weekly live videos to tackle your challenges

If any of these resonate then this community is for you :

💠You are on and off diets all the time

💠You find yourself binge eating

💠You are an ‘emotional eater’

💠You restrict food in order to lose weight

💠 You can’t stop thinking about your weight, appearance or food

💠 You feel overwhelmed and confused no longer knowing what you ‘should’ eat

Why stress affects how we ingest our food

Part of the work I do with my clients is to teach and support them in eating to regulate their blood sugar (glucose) levels. This helps to optimise energy, improve sleep, regulate fat storage and reduce cravings. However, the crucial work alongside this, consists of the mindset work; coaching to shift the feelings of guilt and shame, when they do eat the foods that are less helpful for blood sugar control.

We know that harmful thoughts about ourselves and the food we are eating lead to feelings that trigger the stress response. The stress hormone cortisol is released from the adrenal glands and leads to the liver producing more glucose. Some of this glucose is converted to energy (to be able to react to a threat quickly) But if we don’t need to use this energy, as the perceived threat is in fact a harmful thought, much of this glucose will be stored in our fat cells.

A remarkable study published recently illustrated just how our thoughts can have a physical impact on our physiology. In this study two groups of people were observed, drinking the same drink with the same amount of sugar. One group knew they were consuming a drink containing 15 grams of sugar, and the other group believed they were consuming a sugar free drink.

The outcome was fascinating. The group who knew they were drinking a sugary drink had a greater increase in blood sugar levels than the group who believed they were drinking a sugar free drink, illustrating how our perception alone is enough to impact our body’s physiological responses.

So, where the diet and fitness industry would have you believe that it’s all about counting calories and restriction, I beg to differ. Focusing on the where, why and how within a framework of coaching, cognitive work and solid evidence-based nutritional science is where it’s at.

If you are stuck in a diet mindset, have realised that dieting and restriction doesn’t work for you and want to understand why, then take a look at my free download - ‘What the diet Industry doesn’t want you to know’. Using evidenced based weight science research, it exposes the biggest weight loss myths and will help you discover the truth about dieting

Lara's story; journey to food freedom + life transformation

I had the pleasure of working with Lara who had been battling with an unhealthy relationship with food and her body for many years of her life.  

Lara kindly offered to share her journey and some of the work we did together that especially helped her to overcome her challenges. Lara said that the experience was life - changing and she is now free to pursue her dreams and live life to the full. 

I'm delighted to share that having worked together over two years ago, Lara has sustained her progress and balanced approach to food and her body. She was able to overcome the stress of the pandemic by using the tools and skills she had learned , rather than falling back on her eating behaviours as a coping mechanism. Lara was keen to talk about overcoming her struggles in order to give others hope that they too can transform their life. 

If you are struggling with your eating, don’t battle with it alone. It is possible to find food freedom and create balance in your mind and your life.
I work with people just like you, who need a new approach to be free of chronic dieting and restriction, emotional eating or bingeing and live life to the fullest!

Book in a complimentary call HERE to find out how I can help.

Please also come and join us in FOOD FREEDOM COLLECTIVE, FREE Facebook community- a safe place where you can feel supported without judgement, comparison and shame. I do live videos in the group each week to discuss a new topic to support you on your journey and I share, food ideas, motivation and supportive practices daily – it’s free to join!

Would you love to be able to make peace with your body and build a happy relationship with food? Click the button below to join.

Ending her daily struggle with food; Kelly’s story

I consider it both an honour and a blessing to do the work that I do. Working with women who are at war with their food and themselves - whether it be the result of chronic dieting, emotional eating or a diagnosed eating disorder, is so rewarding. It’s when my clients are able to acknowledge their breakthroughs and discuss their lightbulb moments- that the magic truly happens!

Kelly was no different – struggling with bulimia on her own – feeling too ashamed to open up, even to those closest to her. I am delighted to say that she put the work in and made amazing progress – She no longer binges and purges and has a much healthier and robust relationship with food. She is now able to enjoy her food and at the same time nourish her body with what it needs.

THIS IS WHAT KELLY HAD TO SAY ABOUT HER RECOVERY EXPERIENCE:

"I came to Marcelle about my eating disorder, after suffering on and off for around 6 years. My biggest challenge was actually seeking the help as it was something that I thought I could deal with alone; especially as I hadn’t told any members of my friends or family.

At first, I was a little apprehensive about seeking help from Marcelle as I wasn’t sure what could actually be done about my disorder, as it’s not something a lot of people talk about and you never hear about any other success stories. I was also relatively nervous around divulging with someone about my disorder as it was something that I was seriously embarrassed about it.

Marcelle was so lovely and helpful from the off. She was very understanding of my situation and was able to give me advice that helped me from the beginning.

Marcelle was able to help me change my perspective and guide me through each step of the process. She has provided me with methods that I will always be able to implement both now and in the future if I need it.

I would just like to thank Marcelle again for the help that she’s provided and would highly recommend her services. Seeking her help is something I will never regret."

If you are struggling with your eating, don’t battle with it alone. It is possible to find food freedom and create balance in your mind and your life. I work with people just like you, who need a new approach to transition to a balanced approach to eating and live life to the fullest!

Book in a complimentary call HERE to find out how I can help.

Please also come and join us in FOOD FREEDOM COLLECTIVE, Facebook community- a safe place where you can question, share, learn + feel supported without judgement, comparison and shame. I do live videos in the group each week to discuss a new topic to support you on your journey and I share, food ideas, motivation and supportive practices daily – it’s free to join!

Make peace with your body + build a happy relationship with food

Have you been on and off diets for years of your life?

Are you ‘in your head’ 24/7 worrying about what you will eat, what you have eaten, your weight or your shape?

Do you constantly compare yourself to others or avoid social situations because of how you feel about your body?

Perhaps you binge eat and feel out of control around food?

Maybe you turn to food as a way of coping when you feel stressed, frustrated or down?

Or could it be that you feel shame or judged by others?

.......you are not alone

In case you don’t know me, I’m Marcelle Rose, registered nutritionist, emotional eating coach + eating distress specialist.

I’m on a mission to help women make peace with their body and build a happy relationship with food so they can live their fullest life.

I would love you to come and join me in my Facebook community The Food Freedom Collective

Where you will find:

• Information surrounding the myths and misconceptions surrounding food and eating

• How to cut through the diet culture crap

• Mindset help and support

• Motivation and steps to get off the diet rollercoaster for good

• Discussion and information on how to work through specific challenges

• Tasty and nutritious meal and snack ideas + inspiration

And be part of a supportive private community that gets you without feeling shame or judgement

because you do not have to battle this alone

And what’s more it won’t cost you a penny!