Betty Crocker Clinic

The above title refers to a hilarious episode of Sex and the City in which in a moment of weakness, Miranda calls up Carrie and exclaims: “Your good friend has just taken a piece of cake out of the garbage and eaten it. You will probably need this information when you check me into the Betty Crocker Clinic.” After hanging up, Miranda then proceeds to dump dish soap all over the trash-ridden chocolate cake.

What we women do to stop ourselves from eating.

I’ve had my share of strategies to stop myself from eating that “one last” chip, or french fry or cookie. When I used to hit up my university’s dining hall my friends and I would pour soda on our food to make us stop eating it, I’ve covered my leftovers with threatening post-its, and I’ve taped that wonderful phrase “nothing tastes as good as being thin feels” to my fridge, to my door, and to my mirror. And by the way, to whoever first uttered that phrase, I beg to differ.

The topic of these “stop eating strategies” was touched upon in the notorious and controversial Marie Claire article (The Hunger Diaries). While I think the author of the article gave an extremely biased, poorly researched, and unprofessional view of the 6 bloggers (especially Caitlin Boyle, whose Operation Beautiful is incredibly inspiring), I have to agree that food sabotage simply is just not healthy. There is clearly something bigger going on when it takes threatening messages or literal spoiling of food to stop eating. I already admitted that I was an avid food spoiler myself, but I’ve recognized that there has to be other alternatives. For me, it was trying to create a healthy relationship with food, one in which I did not want or need to ruin what I was eating. I had to convince myself that I am lucky enough to have food every day, and that I don’t need to stuff myself with as much food as possible because it will be there tomorrow.

These days I find myself cringing as I watch my friend buy a $5 pastry, take 2 bites, and then throw it away. Her explanation is simple: if she doesn’t throw it away, she won’t stop eating it. Does anyone else see a problem with this?! There are poor and starving people all over the world! I have a feeling that my healthy-food-relationship-epiphany was sparked from the 5 months I spent in South Africa; I couldn’t believe that I used to buy expensive food, then waste it because I just “couldn’t stop eating”. It was time to get a grip. I think that people who rely on food sabotage as their #1 weight loss/management tool need to take a real look at themselves and what they’re doing. For anyone who wants to create a healthy relationship with food and more importantly, themselves, the pathway is not through spoiling, destroying, or threatening.