For a long time, the idea of being left alone with certain foods, especially the tempting ones, felt like a recipe for disaster. It was a constant battle against overindulgence, a struggle to stop eating when full, and even to resist eating when not truly hungry. The presence of those foods nearby was enough to trigger an almost automatic eating response.
It’s a common sentiment – “I just can’t trust myself around [insert favorite treat here].” Maybe you’ve said it yourself. I know I used to. But constantly repeating this phrase, reinforcing the idea of mistrust, only strengthens that very lack of trust in yourself when it comes to foods around you.
Choosing to Trust Yourself with Food
Here’s the crucial point: trusting yourself around food, even when surrounded by tempting options, is fundamentally a choice. You can choose to believe in your self-control, or you can choose to succumb to doubt. Continuously telling yourself you’re untrustworthy with food becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This feeling of being untrustworthy around food isn’t an unchangeable fact; it’s an opinion, likely one you’ve unintentionally gathered evidence to support over time. This accumulated “evidence” might make it hard to believe you can be trusted. But beliefs are malleable. You have the power to reshape this belief and actively build that trust within yourself.
The key to building this trust is to start small, with manageable steps.
If you can consciously choose not to eat a particular food, even just once, in a single moment of temptation, you’ve already proven to yourself that trust is possible. Repeating this small act of self-control, again and again, strengthens that initial proof. Gradually, with each successful instance, trust begins to solidify, and your belief in your ability to manage foods around you grows stronger.
Think about building trust with another person. How do you do it? You look for consistent evidence that they follow through on their commitments. If you genuinely want to trust someone, you focus on the moments where they demonstrate trustworthiness, rather than dwelling on their mistakes. Over time, these small pieces of positive proof accumulate, building a solid foundation of trust.
Now, flip the scenario. Imagine someone doesn’t trust you. What would you do to demonstrate your trustworthiness? You would actively work to consistently follow through with your promises and actions.
Trust, in any context, boils down to proving that you can do what you say you will do. With food, this means proving to yourself that you can say “no” when you intend to. If you commit to showing yourself that you are capable of resisting food when you choose to, that self-trust will flourish, and your belief in your own self-control will become stronger.
Small Wins, Big Changes in Food Trust
It only takes succeeding once to begin shifting that negative belief about yourself and food. Every time you show yourself that you can exercise self-control, that you can be trusted around tempting foods, and that you don’t always give in 100% of the time, you are rewriting your internal narrative.
Personally, I realized I rarely binged when I was around other people, even if the urge was there. I would always wait until I was alone. Recognizing that I could resist the urge in social situations became a crucial piece of evidence – proof that I could say no.
Often, we overlook these moments of restraint, especially when they happen in public. We might not see them as “wins” because the pressure of social norms can be a factor. But saying no, regardless of the underlying reason, is still a victory. Don’t let these small victories slip by unnoticed and unappreciated. These are the very moments you need to acknowledge and remember, collecting the proof you need to believe in your ability to trust yourself around all kinds of foods.
Ultimately, remember that you are the one who decides whether you can be trusted around food or not. Believing you can or believing you can’t will each lead to vastly different outcomes. Choose wisely which story you want to tell yourself about your relationship with the foods around you.
