Ep 166: The #1 Reason Why Eating Food Just for Fun Is No Fun!

Our mindset and thoughts affect how and what we eat. Many of us are used to giving ourselves excessive non-nutritious food as a treat from our daily lives. We associate eating junk food even when we’re not hungry as a fun pastime, without keeping in mind the long-term effects of these actions on our confidence, mental well-being, and physical health.

In this episode, we will discuss what comes to our minds when we think about eating food for fun. We will also discuss the methods to apply and questions to ask ourselves so we stop unconscious overeating. We have to think of other activities we can do for fun that don’t involve weight gain and an unfit mind and body.

Tune in to this episode and learn how to change the habit of overeating food just for fun, and the underlying thoughts that enable it.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Discover what goes on in our head when we overeat food just for fun.
2. Learn the thoughts we have to be aware of to interrupt our unhealthy habits.
3. Find out how we can empower ourselves to choose the path to a healthy mind and body.

Episode Highlights

Why We Think Food Is Fun

• A podcast listener wrote a letter about how her boredom and loneliness pushed her to eat food just for fun.
• There’s a difference between joy eating and eating for entertainment.
• Dr. Deb once associated eating as a central part of her trips and vacations.
• We have to eat to fuel our bodies at any point in our lives.

Food as a Necessity

• We shouldn’t put food in the fun category as food is necessary to fuel our bodies.
• However, this doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy food.
• The main idea is to stop making food a pastime when we’re not hungry.
• We may feel like eating food unnecessarily is fun, but we end up suffering in the long term when we gain weight.

What Happens in Our Brains

• We immediately think that eating excessive food will be fun, but we feel worse after it.
• Eating junk processed food is not only bad for our bodies but bad for our mental state.
• Being fit is not only about losing weight, but also about the mind.

Changing Your Mindset

• Dr. Deb’s listener decided to call her friend and have a fun workout instead of eating for fun.
• Her changed mindset empowered her and made her proud of herself.
• It is essential to be aware and recognize your thoughts as they come.
• The more you’re consciously deciding to be healthier and fit, the more automatic your brain decides it for you.
• Our brains think in terms of habits and patterns, so we have to wire them to develop healthy habits.

Interrupt the Unhealthy Habits

• When you’re not hungry and think about eating, ask yourself what really would be fun. Doing so would give you a much better result long-term.
• Eating non-nutritious food when you’re not hungry will never bring you a healthy and fit mind and body.
• Your thought has to be realistic, believable, and personally fun for you.
• Explore and find out what other activities could be more fun than overeating.
• The #1 reason why eating food for fun is no fun is because there’s no healthy reason to do it.

5 Powerful Quotes from This Episode

“I don’t make the eating part the central part of anything because number one, I have to eat to fuel my body no matter where I am. In the end, you have to fuel your body or it will not work.”

“These podcasts are about keeping food where it belongs. It’s not in the fun category, it’s in the ‘I have to eat in order to live’ category.”

“The number one reason why ‘eating food just for fun’ is no fun is because there is no healthy result from that. It isn’t really fun in the end.”

“She could feel proud and be on the way to not only a more healthy fit body, but also a healthy fit mind by thinking differently. The more that she starts seeing that and thinking that, the more her brain will automatically bring it up for her.”

“I want you to interrupt it and go, ‘what really would be fun for me, that would give me a much better result?’ And that is the number one thing that you can do to start changing the thought that ‘food is fun.’ Because there is no fun about eating non nutritious food when you’re not hungry.”

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Thanks for listening!

To transforming your life for good,

Dr. Deb