If you’ve ever felt nervous, worried or panicked about your post-treatment diet, you’re on what I call the food fear continuum. The sneaky thing about this continuum is that it seems to help (in so many ways!), while in reality, it’s a destructive concept that holds you hostage to your fear foods and prevents you from eating with peace.
The Food Fear Continuum
After working and talking with so many fellow hormone-driven breast cancer survivors who are confused about what to eat and what to avoid, I realized they’re all talking about food using words that were some variation of the same feeling. . .fear.
I heard those variations over and over and started to think, ”It’s like there’s this food fear continuum that women find themselves on and regardless of where they land, the fear is real and often, crippling.”
So I coined the term food fear continuum.
A continuum is a PROGRESSION of elements by minute degrees.
In my use of the term, the food fear continuum runs from low-grade worry all the way to paralyzing fear about food. The elements between those two are variations of dread, nervousness, stress, anxiety or panic.
I’m here to tell you that wherever you are on that continuum, you’re not there because of your fear of food, you’re there because of your fear of recurrence.
Is This Your Plan?
You’ve decided that if only you eat the right diet you’ll be able to avoid a recurrence. The trouble is, you’re not sure what the “right diet” is, and when you think you’ve figured it out you have trouble sticking to it.
Eating a restrictive diet is so challenging that you don’t know how you’ll keep it up until next Wednesday, let alone eat that way forever.
If that’s not frustrating enough, in the back of your mind you hold the belief that eating well isn’t really the solution, so you start second-guessing what you thought you knew.
Then there are those days when you’re stress eating, boredom eating or f-it eating, making choices that help you numb out or feel relief. Yes those foods are a great distraction, but you know they don’t do much for your nutritional health – yikes, cue the food fear!
What Food Fear Really Is About
Here’s what I want you to know about food fear; it’s a distraction that prevents you from coming to terms with all you’ve been through.
It’s also a false hope, holding out the promise that if you just keep yourself fearful of or panicked about food, you’ll keep yourself on the right track with your eating.
The reality is, it doesn’t work that way. In time, that food fear continuum begins to feel like a trap. And if, god forbid you start enjoying your food, you’re afraid you’ve let your guard down and in no time you’ll be eating foods that will make your cancer come back.
How to Get Off the Food Fear Continuum
In effect, that false hope is not doing you any favors, so today I invite you to consider stepping off the food fear continuum. How to do that?
With self-compassion, trust and courage. Notice I didn’t say anything about “eat this, not that”?
That’s because just knowing WHAT to eat isn’t the solution to stepping off that food fear continuum; it requires shifting the way you LOOK at food, THINK about food, and SUPPORT yourself in your relationship with food.
Now, tell me in the comments below, where are you on that food fear continuum, and. . .are you ready to step off?
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This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your dietitian or doctor for guidance specific to your needs.
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