Boredom and Recovery

To the compulsive overeater who has only known a high/low relationship with food, healthy eating will seem boring, and like the “false” relationship. This needs to be honored for meaningful change to happen.

The high/low relationship is the cycle of HIGH (eating euphoria) followed by LOW (depression and despair). We want out, but it’s the only way we know. Through this lens, healthy eating is “other” – boring, uncomfortable, colorless.

When we diet, we sustain the cycle but try to control and manage it. This doesn’t work, because the cycle feeds on resistance (low) /progression (high).

Recovery is releasing the cycle completely. We no longer see the “high” of overeating as something pleasurable and important – but as something indicative of the abusive relationship we had with food. We also see the “lows” for what they are – a source of fuel for the euphoria to come. 

But what seems boring, is actually the removal of emotional color from food (an unproductive source of emotion) and putting it back into places where we truly want it to go – creation, relationships, dreams, and goals! This is where that color dazzles, shines, and lights us up.