One bite won’t hurt you.
You have to eat cake on your birthday.
I worked so hard to cook this meal for you.
We’ve all been through it and it’s not fun. Sometimes people get upset and it’s never easy but saying no to food that you don’t eat is absolutely necessary. Remember, your recovery is about you and not about pleasing other people.
While it may seem so easy to simply go along with the crowd, or sometimes your mother or grandmother who talk about spending so much time preparing your favorite food, there’s so much more to this decision than just the time it took for someone to cook.
To begin, think about the time and effort it took for you to get into recovery. Is giving that up really worth the few minutes of pleasure someone else will get from seeing you eat the food they prepared?
Now, add to this the idea that it’s not your job, nor do you have the power, to make anyone else truly happy or, on the flip side, unhappy, and you can see that trying to please someone else by eating addictive foods is dangerous, even life-threatening to your recovery.
Long after the temporary or shallow pleasure others may have is over, you will be left with the long-lasting and possibly deadly consequences of having binged. And, trust me, though you many not binge immediately after eating addictive foods, eventually that will happen. It’s not a reflection of your strength. It’s simply a fact of food dependency. Eating a food that triggers a physiological response in our bodies, causes us to want more and more of that food.
So, even though it’s not fun at the moment, saying no to food you don’t eat anymore will make the difference between food freedom and food obsession. As always, the choice is yours.