Sharing meals can create positive food experiences when travelling. Photo / 123RF
Sharing meals can create positive food experiences when travelling. Photo / 123RF
Pastries, sausages and a lot of nutella.
Michelle Hall was 17 years old when her battle with food began, while she was living in Germany on an exchange programme.
"Up until that point I'd always been pretty healthy, pretty fit and active but I went over there pretty naive," she says. After experiencing trauma during her time abroad, she began turning to food as a coping mechanism. Then followed years of emotional eating, significant weight gain, yo-yo dieting and poor mental health.
"Any time I was faced with stress, I would just eat again. So you could put me on a meal plan and over a certain amount of time I'd lose some weight, but as soon as something started happening, as soon as my mental health deteriorated, food became my thing."
Hall isn't alone in her story. It's a very human experience to eat to feel better, but difficult relationships with food can also be a sign of underlying mental distress.
When travelling, that relationship with food can become a bit more complicated as we are away from routine, and faced with exciting new food experiences.
Eating and nutrition psychology coach Michelle Hall, from Sage Wellness. Photo / Supplied
"Often we are all-or-nothing when we are at home," says Hall, who is now a nutrition and eating psychology coach. "Then you go overseas or away and there's all of a sudden a new culture or new food and all these other new experiences. And all of a sudden that all-or-nothing becomes very prominent."
Travel can be a high anxiety experience for some people, making food choices another challenge. "I remember going to Fiji one holiday and not eating any of the food - total restriction. And then another time going and eating all the food. So it was very much all or nothing."
These days, Hall has a good relationship with food, is a healthy weight, doesn't diet, doesn't cut out food groups or count calories, and eats in a way that is sustainable and mindful.
She has founded Sage Wellness, which allows her to help others so they don't have to suffer for as long as she did.
Part of Hall's work is helping clients identify their attitude to food and eating, and addressing the underlying triggers that can make food choices stressful. She wants to encourage people to find a balance so that if they are travelling, they can enjoy eating out and trying new foods without restriction or feeling guilty from overindulging. A fear of missing out can be another contributing factor behind some decisions.
"It's about counting memories, not calories," says Hall. "When you travel you do need to give yourself that permission to try things...you're not going to completely ruin your health by having a small break away.
Load your plate up with veggies, but don't deprive yourself of the local delicacies. Photo / 123RF
"But having said that, I always say, the first three bites are always the best. The number one key to moderating and managing food intake is slow, pleasurable eating."
Relationships with food can be complex and vary from person to person.
"Many of us seek emotional substitutes through food. We seek ways of filling ourselves up when we aren't feeling great, when we are in a time of difficulty, when we are stressed, when we're bored, when we have those kinds of emotions that affect our mental health, often our strategy is to go to food."
The challenge is learning how to become an eater in a way that works for you, helps to manage your emotions and manage your mental health. Reducing any moralism around food such as labelling them "good" and "bad" can be liberating.
If food is an emotional decision, you may need to try to learn how to sit with the feeling, rather than eating the feeling.
"Something that is intangible like an emotion can never be healed by something intangible, like food."
A health psychology coach's guide to eating well on holiday
Have a good breakfast
Eating a good breakfast will help fuel you up so you don't end up ravenous later in the day and reaching for the nearest snack.
Hall says breakfast is about priorities.
"I like to encourage you to build a balanced plate. You've got some lovely healthy fats there so there might be avocado on the menu, there might be some protein so you might get some form of eggs. You can add fruit so you're getting fibre and carbohydrates but also give yourself permission to have the hotcakes or that pastry or whatever that one thing is.
"The dose makes the poison. If you allow yourself to have one of those things on your plate you're giving yourself permission to have it without the need to go overboard because you've got the rest of your balanced plate."
Whatever you are eating, try to eat slowly, and make sure you're in the moment. Hall says it's an important part of the metabolic system.
"That means putting your knife and fork down between each mouthful, that's taking a breath, that's noticing the food, smelling the food, tasting the food, not just speed eating through."
Enjoy the food experience
Plan where and when you're going to eat, and don't wait until you're absolutely ravenous to find somewhere. Try and fill your plate with plenty of vegetables.
"I always say enjoy the local delicacies, share plates, but also have it alongside veges. So load your plate with veges and you share plates of whatever those local delicacies may be, so that you're not missing out or not getting that experience and that flavour, but you're doing it in a more managed way because the veges will help fill you up."
Do you need help?
Get in touch with Eating Disorders Association of New Zealand if you need help finding a private provider in your area by phoning Ph 0800 2 EDANZ or emailing info@ed.org.nz
