For as long as I can remember I have had a fascination with deviant human behavior.
I'm absolutely voyeuristic.
I want to explore and understand what people want to hide most from the world and if I can, observe like an unobtrusive scientist.
I believe this long held fascination of mine is why I studied psychology and became a psychotherapist.
I have had the opportunity with both my patients and my training clients to explore some fascinating private behavior but none intrigues me more than the private eating behavior of myself and the women I train.
This behavior transcends all body shapes and fitness levels.
Whenever I reveal one of my own personal encounters to other women there is an immediate sense of validation and they begin to tell me their tales of putting soap on the left over Publix cake so they don't consume anymore butter cream frosting.
I find comfort and most importantly humor in their relating to my experience and it pulls me out of my shameful self-talk.
Now it's not the normal everyday dieting behavior that interests my voyeuristic self.
It's what we do in private that I want to lift the curtain on.
I understand the shame we attach to eating spoonfuls of brownie batter and cookie dough.
(I heard the calories don't count if you eat it while standing) This behavior is not abhorrent and it's not pathological.
In fact, it's the normal eating pattern of every single woman I know.
These cravings are non-negotiable and often hormonally induced.
They do not occur every day or even every week.
My hope is that women find validation and humor in this article and understand that this type of eating behavior is as normal as driving a car.
Here is a list of behavior I have engaged in as well as contributions from some of my clients.
1.
Placing a Publix cake in the trunk of the car meant for dumpster.
Getting out of bed going to the garage with fork in hand and eating cake out of the trunk of car.
(this happened three days ago to one of the leanest and fittest women I train) 2.
Putting soap on left over cakes, cookies, pop tarts so that I don't go back and eat them out of the garbage.
3.
Having my husband take cake/any food culprit to the big trash because I will eat cake out of garbage.
I have done this before.
4.
Eating the fries out of my children's Chick Fil A bag on the drive home and eating my Char Grilled salad with light dressing in front of them acting like "I don't eat waffle fries" 5.
This is from the same client who ate the cake out of the garage: "I took the milk and Honey Nut Cheerios to the basement so my husband wouldn't see me and ate the entire box.
The next morning my daughter asked for a bowl of cereal and I told her we never had any" 6.
"I was so hungry and had no snacks in my car so I ate my 10 month old daughter's teething biscuits.
" 7.
"At my sons 10th birthday party I had his friends put their leftover half eaten cake plates on the counter and not in the trash and I ate the left over cake off their plates.
I then had my husband take the leftover cake to the big trash.
" 8.
"Last Halloween I was craving Kit Kats, so I snuck into my kids room with a small flashlight after they went to bed.
I rummaged through their plastic pumpkins digging for Kit Kats.
I found them and ate them all.
" 9.
Ate my son's entire leftover birthday cake and told my eight year old son that the dog ate it.
10.
Skipping meals to make up for all the kid's leftovers I ate off of their plates.
Please share your experiences with this behavior so we can find the absurdity and humor in our shame.
I am really looking forward to reading your experiences! Courtney Simon, MA, NASM