Today was a crazy, stressful day. The firm I work for just moved to its new permanent location, and a lot of things are in flux, we don’t have internet, and I lost a key to a locked filing cabinet (I know, I’m fantastic). I had to run several errands today, and during the course of running these errands, I passed by many fast food restaurants. I could practically HEAR the french fries in McDonald’s yelling as I drove by, “Erin, come in and eat us! We will make you feel better! We’ll take all your stress away! We are piping hot and tasty!” (Who knew McDonald’s made such articulate food?) Quite the battle was being waged in my head, and I could have easily zipped through a drive thru and gotten a milk shake or some fries. I wanted to.

BADLY. 

But I didn’t. I can’t tell you how many times stress or anxiety has tempted me to eat, or more specifically, overeat. I tell myself that a little bit of “comfort” food will make me feel better and that it’s not a big deal because it’s just a few french fries.

It’s all lies. That food hardly ever makes me feel better; usually I just feel guilty. It’s not good for me. It’s chemicals on a plate. (Tasty, tasty chemicals, but still.)  And not only is it not good for me, but it doesn’t solve my problems. Eating french fries wouldn’t help me find the missing key or make our internet magically start working.

Eating food does not solve problems. More often than not, it just creates them.