Ep #230: “I Deserve This”

Hi! Today I’m going to talk with you about deserving to eat certain foods.

I wanted to do an episode on this topic because one of the thoughts that often comes up for people when it come to food is, “I deserve this.”

They might think they deserve to eat a Joy Food, or something they normally wouldn’t eat, or to eat more food than usual because of some reason.

They exercised, they had a hard day, they were super productive, they lost weight, those are just a few of the common reasons people use for why they deserve to eat something.

Now, sometimes this idea of deserving to eat something is harmless. People are justifying their decision to eat it and there’s no problem with them doing it.

But here’s when it can become a problem.

If there are reasons why you think you do deserve it, then there are probably reasons why you think you don’t deserve it.

So if there are times when you think you don’t deserve it, you might be overly restricting yourself and causing yourself to feel deprived.

You might want something and then tell yourself you don’t deserve it because you didn’t work out, were lazy that day, weigh more than you want to, gained weight, or some other reason why you think you don’t deserve to eat something you want to eat.

Now, to be clear, this is different from times when you make a decision to not eat something for reasons that you like such as you won’t feel good if you eat it.

There are plenty of times when I decide to not eat something because of how I think I’ll feel if I eat it.

But what I don’t do is tell myself I can’t eat it because I don’t deserve to, because I haven’t earned it.

I don’t decide what I eat or don’t eat based on whether or not I deserve it because I believe I always deserve it. There are not times when I do or don’t. I always do.

And so you do.

You deserve to eat what you want no matter what you did or didn’t do.

You don’t have to earn your joy food.

And if you have the belief that you do, you most likely got that idea from diet culture somewhere along the way.

And what’s so interesting to me is that even people who don’t really have any issues with eating have learned this way of thinking too.

I was recently out to eat with someone who I would consider to have a good relationship with food and be a quote, “normal eater,” and they decided to get a dessert. I told them that I would have a few bites and they told me I deserved it because we had been so active that day.

And you know what I told them?

I deserve it even if I wasn’t active.

A lot of the time this idea of deserving to eat something is associated with exercise and we’ve been taught that exercise will make it okay to eat more or eat something that’s higher in calories.

And when I stopped to think about what that person said to me, what I think it really was was that they were trying to justify their decision to eat that dessert.

It was like just wanting to eat it wasn’t a good enough reason to eat something so sweet and high in calories and fat. There had to be another reason.

But I don’t think there does.

You can eat what you want just because you want to, without any further reason.

It can just be something you enjoy, for no reason except that you wan to eat it.

You deserve it because you want it.

And there aren’t any times when you don’t deserve it.

Even if you binged, even if you already ate joy foods that day, even if you’ve overeaten every day for a week, even if you gained weight.

You still deserve to eat what you want.

You don’t have to not allow joy foods as a punishment or allow them as a reward.

If you want to have a better, more relaxed relationship with those foods, it would be helpful to not put moral judgement on eating them and to not tell yourself there are times when you can’t eat them.

And again, you may not be consciously thinking that there are times when you don’t deserve to eat them but if you are telling yourself there are times when you do deserve to then there must be times when you don’t.

But I also know that some of you do tell yourself you don’t deserve to eat them for various reasons and it’s just not true.

No matter what you do, no matter what your current circumstances are, you are always worthy of eating what you want.

Your worthiness doesn’t go away just because you binged or gained weight or didn’t exercise.

It’s always there.

And that goes for anything, not just food.

You are worthy of having everything you want and you deserve to have everything you want.

You deserve to have happiness, to be successful, and to enjoy your life, no matter what you’ve done.

And when you know this, when you truly believe you deserve to have what you want, no matter what, you won’t punish yourself by saying you can’t.

No more withholding food because you think you don’t deserve it.

Eat it if you want to or don’t if you don’t want to.

Make a decision that you want to make from a place of abundance, knowing that you deserve to have whatever you want, instead of from a place of punishment.

Let’s stop using food as a way to punish ourselves.

Instead, lets just use it as a way to fuel our bodies and to experience pleasure sometimes.

There’s nothing wrong with some food pleasure.

Enjoy it, for no other reason than because you want to.

Alright, that’s all for today, I’ll talk to you next time. Bye bye.