Dealing with food at Halloween when you have disordered eating

Halloween is almost here – you might be heading out to Halloween parties this weekend. You might not be going to any parties, but you might have bought treats from the supermarket.

We know that food can be pretty tricky when there’s more of it or when it takes centre stage. We always share tips to cope with food at Halloween.

This year, our five tips are:

1. Try not to compensate

By compensating, I mean making up for food – self-indued vomiting, laxatives, overexercise, or restricting. But if you DO compensate (because let’s be real, you might) try to give yourself a break. Not a holiday break (but wouldn’t that be nice!?) but a self-compassion break.

As in: “I know that I purged, but things have been pretty wild with food” or “I recognise this happened – but I was taking care of myself how I knew how”

2. Food FOMO is real

FOMO is “fear of missing out.” Remind yourself that it’s normal to feel a bit wild around foods that are *literally* all up in your face.

3. Eat regularly

Our go-to tip, as always. Eat regularly before being around treats.

Regular eating is your foundation: without this, everything might crumble. Read all about the RAVES framework. If we’ve worked together 1-1, you probably know about this. RAVES is really great at explaining *how* to eat for recovery.

4. You can choose to ignore this year

We know Instagram is filled with “eat the Halloween sweets” – but hey, you don’t need to eat them. You can choose to eat them or not.

Maybe things are feeling too hard right now, you’re worried you will binge on them, or they’re too scary. Whatever reason, do what feels right to you.

5. Take the focus off food

Halloween doesn’t need to involve food.

You can spend time with friends, dress up your pets, watch Halloween films, or do some spooky activities.

Shannon spoke more about Halloween treats on The Ease With Food Podcast.

Listen to this episode here:

Halloween treats episode

Have a happy Halloween.

Team Ease Nutrition Therapy x

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