What To Do If You Feel Guilty After Eating Something

By: Jennifer Rollin, LCSW-C, Therapist & Founder of The Eating Disorder Center

She is in recovery from an eating disorder and trying to challenge herself. Her therapist and her set the goal of going out to dinner and getting a burger and fries. She was terrified, but she did it. Part of her is feeling proud of herself but the other part is feeling extremely guilty. Her mind is spinning with fear about her body changing and telling her how “unhealthy” the food was. She is struggling with food guilt.

As an eating disorder therapist and founder of The Eating Disorder Center in Rockville, Maryland, which also provides virtual eating disorder therapy in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Florida, Pennsylvania, California, and New York.  We also provide recovery coaching worldwide. The following are some of my tips for what to do if you are feeling guilty after eating something, in eating disorder recovery.

​
What To Do If You Feel Guilty After Eating Something in Recovery

1. Remind yourself of some of your reasons to recover.

When you are struggling with guilt and anxiety after eating something. It’s important to remind yourself of why you are challenging food rules and anxiety around food in the first place.

Try to remember what your reasons are to continue on the path towards eating disorder recovery. Maybe you want to have kids one day and help them to have a healthy relationship with food. Maybe you want to fully enjoy your college experience. Or perhaps you are simply tired of constantly thinking about food and your body and want to be free from this. 

Whatever your recovery motivations are, you can make a list that you can reference whenever the eating disorder thoughts are loud in your head.


2. Recognize that feeling guilty or anxiety is uncomfortable, however it is also just a feeling, it does not mean that you have done something wrong.

In dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) we talk about dialectics, which is the idea that two seemingly opposite things can be true at the same time.

What this means is that it is possible to feel guilty or anxious without it meaning that you have done something wrong. Actually, feeling guilty or anxious in recovery may sometimes be a sign that you are making positive steps in your recovery and challenging yourself.

You have not done anything wrong and there is no reason to beat yourself up for eating something! All foods truly fit into a healthy diet (barring true medical conditions) and what is actually unhealthy is continuing to feel guilty and anxious around eating certain foods. Plus, living in an eating disorder is also generally not a “healthy” place to be.

It’s far healthier to give yourself permission to eat what you want, than to restrict yourself from food or from certain foods.


3. Think about some recovery affirmations or more helpful coping thoughts right now.

Here are some examples of affirmations you can tell yourself:

• When my body digests food, glucose looks the same-it doesn’t matter if it came from quinoa or cake.
• Calories are energy. Every time I choose something low calorie, I am choosing low energy too.
• All foods fit into a healthy diet (barring genuine medical conditions).
• Continuing to live trapped in an eating disorder is what is truly unhealthy, not any food that I have eaten.
• Having anxiety, guilt or fear around food is what is actually unhealthy.
• When I feel anxious or guilty and nourish myself anyway, I am taking my power back over the eating disorder and a culture that spews diet culture messaging at me.

 

4. Practice non engagement responses to the eating disorder thoughts.

While sometimes saying a coping response is helpful, other times it can be more useful to practice not engaging with the eating disorder thoughts.

Instead, you can simply notice “my eating disorder thoughts are loud right now” and then turn towards whatever actions you were doing in the moment before the thoughts came up.

You can practice noticing your thoughts without judgment and trying not to attach to them to resist them-simply letting them pass by like leaves on a stream.

I know this is not easy, but with time and practice-it can get easier.

We have around 10,000 thoughts a day. Many are on repeat or loop and not all of them are helpful. Plus, not all of them are “facts” or “true.”

You Deserve To Nourish Yourself

No matter what your mind or society may be telling you-you deserve to nourish yourself.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t moved or exercised today.

What you ate earlier in the day or week.

What your brain is telling you about the food.

You deserve to nourish yourself. And all foods truly fit into a healthy diet (barring genuine medical concerns, like a severe allergy, for instance).

Work to be proud of yourself for challenging your eating disorder if you have recently done so. I know it’s not easy and this discomfort is in the direction of your true values.

---

Schedule a FREE 15-minute consultation to explore how eating disorder therapy or recovery coaching can help you to find freedom.

🌟 Available in MD, VA, DC, PA, NY, FL, and CA for eating disorder therapy
🌍 Offering recovery coaching worldwide

---

The Eating Disorder Center is a premier outpatient eating disorder therapy center founded by Jennifer Rollin. We specialize in helping children, teens, and adults struggling with anorexia, binge eating disorder, bulimia, OSFED, and body image issues. We provide eating disorder therapy in Rockville, MD, easily accessible to individuals in Potomac, North Potomac, Bethesda, Olney, Silver Spring, Germantown, and Washington, D.C. We also provide eating disorder therapy in Arlington, Virginia and virtually throughout Virginia. Additionally, we offer eating disorder therapy virtually in New York (NYC), Florida, Pennsylvania, and California. We provide eating disorder and EMDR trauma therapy in Rockville, Maryland and virtually throughout Maryland and Virginia. We provide eating disorder recovery coaching via Zoom to people worldwide. Connect with us through our website at www.theeatingdisordercenter.com