Why Food Guilt is Actually a GOOD Thing

But first, in case you don’t know me, my name is Madison Surdyke. I am the leading authority in helping women in the control that food has over them so they can take back control of their lives, leveraging the power of their own brains.

Let me tell you why food guilt is actually a good thing. We all know food guilt sucks, right? But what most of us don’t know is that it’s actually the underlying belief that sucks; the belief that there even is something to feel guilty about. We wouldn’t have the guilt if we didn’t have the belief that there was something to be guilty about.

Negative Emotions Are Proof We Are Telling Ourselves a Lie

So, whenever we have this seemingly negative emotion of guilt, it gives us the opportunity to look at what that belief is. And, because it’s a negative emotion, that is proof that we are telling ourselves a lie. So, whenever we’re telling ourselves a lie, it produces a negative emotion in our brains and our bodies. That is actually a good thing because it gives you the awareness of…

“Okay, I have this negative emotion of guilt.That means I’m telling myself a lie. What is that lie? Let’s turn it around!”

It gives you the opportunity to become aware of that belief, the lie, you’re telling yourself that is making you feel guilty.

Some of these underlying beliefs that might be leading to the guilt are:

“Pizza is bad, I should eat less.”

“I shouldn’t eat this, I should eat that.”

“I should work out more.”

“I need to work out tomorrow to make up for this.”

 But if we didn’t have these underlying beliefs, the guilt wouldn’t be there. So instead of looking at the guilt and feeling guilty about feeling guilty (that’s not helpful); it’s more helpful to be like…

“Okay, this guilt is proof that I’m telling myself a lie.”

“Now, what is that lie that I’m telling myself?”

“How can we start shifting that around?”

Awareness Gives You the Opportunity to Ask Yourself a More Productive Question

The point of this is not to make you feel bad that you’re telling yourself a lie – we all do it. It’s actually a good thing because it gives you the awareness that you need in order to shift out of that belief

and choose a more empowering belief.

So, what we can do here is, when we feel food guilt, we can say…

“Okay, what is the lie that I am telling myself?”

Maybe you ate pizza and you feel guilty. Maybe the lie that you’re telling yourselfis “Pizza is bad.”

So instead, when you notice yourself saying “Pizza is Bad”, you can catch the lie you’re telling yourself. You now haveawareness, and with that, you can ask yourself a more productive question, because our brains are literally designed to seek answers to any questions we ask them.

It doesn’t even happen on a conscious level. If we can ask ourselves a question, our brains will start going to work to find answers without us even having to do anything.

Our Brains Are Wired to Seek Answers to Any Questions We Ask Ourselves

For example, if you’re thinking…

“Pizza is bad, I should not have eaten that. Why did I do that? What’s wrong with me?”

Then, your brain is literally going to start looking for all of the reasons and evidence of why something is wrong with you. I think you can imagine how that’s going to feel like. NOT good, right? You’re probably gonna feel even more guilty. You’re probably gonna feel even more like there’s something wrong with you. Those are not productive questions.

What we want to do here, is when we become aware of those beliefs that are leading us to feeling guilty or are leading us to negative emotion, we want to ask ourselves a more productive question so that our brain starts looking for more empowering answers.

Some questions you can ask yourself are…

“What is this trying to teach me?”

“What lie am I believing about myself?”

“What might be a more empowering belief to adopt?“

“Is there another way to see this?”

“What can I do in this moment to feel good?”

These are all these better questions you can ask yourself.

And, guess what? Those better questions lead to better answers.

And then guess what? Those better answers lead to you feeling better.

That’s really the point of this. That’s why, food guilt is a GOOD thing because it shows you

the lies you’re believing about yourself, your food, your body, your health, your weight – and it gives you the opportunity to, literally, in that moment, rewire your brain.

What do you think might change if you start viewing food guilt in this new way?

What might change in your life? What might be possible for you? How would that feel?

Do you really want to keep believing the lies about food that you’re telling yourself and keep feeling guilty? Or, do you want to ask yourself better questions that lead to new, more empowering beliefs, to actually feel good and be able to enjoy the foods you love without guilt and without restriction?

I know what I’m choosing.

But obviously your choice is yours and as a coach, that’s what I am here for, to ask you these better questions, and to help you come to your own answers on your own because your brain is literally designed to do that for you.

That’s why I believe we all have everything we need within us to have a healthy, balanced, free, peaceful relationship with food and our bodies.

Want to learn more about how to eat in a balanced way without guilt or restriction?

If this resonated with you in any way and you want to learn more about how you can eat in this balanced way without guilt or restriction, and feel totally confident in your food choices and in your body so you can just live your life and focus on the things that are more important to you,, I would love to help you get started.

The most common question I get is…“But where do I get started?”

I got you! I have a free 3-STEP GUIDE to food and body freedom, that you can download here.

It will help you get started with the most important first steps and help you start rewiring some of those beliefs. Also, there will be a couple of other steps that are going to be really, really powerful in starting this process for you.

What I mean by this process is the process of going from overwhelmed, stressed, and thinking about food all the time — to being able to just live your life in a way that isn’t centered around food, that isn’t controlled by food, and you can just have balance and freedom and not have to think about food all the time.

To get started, download my 3 Step Guide to Food and Body Freedom by clicking here!