Quick note: This post mentions food noise, binge patterns, and holiday overeating.

Handling Holiday Food Noise While Healing Your Relationship With Food

Holiday food noise is real, and it gets louder when your routines, emotions, and nervous system are overwhelmed. If you’ve ever felt ashamed, out of control, or confused by your cravings during this season, you’re not failing — you’re human. This post breaks down what actually happens in your brain and body, why you’re not broken, and how to move through these moments with more awareness and less self-judgment.

If you read my last blog post, Who Am I Without the Goal of Losing Weight? Healing the Mind After Transformation, you might think I have this whole healing after weight loss thing figured out.

Spoiler: I absolutely do not.

Holiday food noise hit me like a freight train this year. Not soft, not subtle. The kind of brain-static that gets louder the more you try to ignore it. And if you’ve ever dealt with emotional eating, shame spirals, or the pressure of holiday expectations, you already know exactly what I mean.

Let’s talk about food noise, embarrassment, and the holiday chaos that brings both of those things straight to the surface like they paid extra for priority shipping.

Why Holiday Food Noise Gets Louder (It’s Not About Willpower)

Here is the truth. The food noise has been loud. Not cute loud.
I mean brain-radio-stuck-on-static loud.

Everywhere I looked this holiday there was something sweet calling my name, and not gently. My mom’s cookies. Snickerdoodles. Chocolate chip. Some sort of apple-pecan-crockpot-situation that felt spiritually necessary.

This is what food noise after weight loss actually looks like. It gets louder when you are overwhelmed or when holiday food guilt creeps in.

Yeah. That kind of loud.

I tried. I really did.
Until I didn’t.

When You Eat Past the Point of Hunger

I had cookies. More than a few.
A brownie. A Nutella thing. A bite of this. A bite of that.

It was like emotional eating during the holidays had me on a chaotic tasting tour of my own life. I was grabbing whatever looked like it might silence the noise for a minute. Silent permission for a bite, or three, of everything because that is part of the point on Thanksgiving, right?

And here is the part I am not proud of.

I kept eating even after the food stopped tasting good.

That last snickerdoodle. It wasn't as soft as the first. Not near as magical. I took one bite, chewed, and threw it away. But even then, there was this inner tug of war between what I wanted the cookie to taste like and what it actually tasted like. That realization felt sobering.

It did not give me the peace I was chasing.
It sure did not quiet the noise.
And it definitely did not deliver the calm I thought it would.

Because that peace?
It never came from the cookie.
It came from the spiral I was trying to silence. From the dysregulation I was feeling.

The Shame Spiral No One Talks About

And then came the embarrassment.

I was in a room full of people I love. People who know my journey, who have watched me work so hard, who tell me they are proud of me. And there I was… eating things I told myself I was not going to lose control over. Spiraling in real time.

Every time my wife looked at me with that I am proud of you softness, I felt the embarrassment rise in my chest like heat.

Not because anyone was judging me.

Because I was judging me.

That is the part that stings.
This is what overeating shame really feels like.

Why Shoulding on Yourself Makes Everything Worse

On the drive home the shoulds started creeping in.

I should have stopped sooner.
I should have distracted myself.
I should have interrupted the thought spiral before it got loud.
I should have handled it better.

But shoulding on yourself never creates peace.
It only adds another layer of shame on top of the already sticky mess.

You Are Not Failing. You Are Learning

So no. I don’t have it all together.

I am still learning.
I am still messing up.
I am still figuring out how to live in a world where food is everywhere and my brain treats sugar like a soulmate and an enemy at the same time.

And thank God life gives us opportunities to practice.

Not because we failed.
Because we are still trying.

You Are Not Alone in This Experience

If this was your holiday too. Chaotic, overwhelming, full of sugar grenades and self judgment. Please know you are not alone.

We do not grow from perfection.
We grow from awareness.

And awareness is exactly what you had.

Even in the spiral.
Even in the embarrassment.
Even in the oh no not again moments.

You saw yourself.
You heard the noise.
And now you get to choose differently next time.
Not perfectly. Just differently.

And that counts.

⭐ What To Do When the Food Noise Gets Loud

Here are gentle, practical ways to handle a moment like this:

• Take one deep breath and notice where tension lives in your body
• Ask: What am I actually needing right now?
• Pause for one minute before the next bite
• Recognize the thought, not the judgment
• Use reflection prompts to rebuild self-trust

FAQs

Q. Why do I overeat during the holidays even when I am not hungry?

A. Stress, overwhelm, emotional triggers, sensory overload, and food noise can easily override your natural hunger cues. This is common, especially after weight loss or during high-pressure seasons. Holiday overeating isn’t a lack of willpower — it’s a brain-and-nervous-system response.

Q. How do I stop feeling ashamed after overeating?

A. Shame grows when the spiral stays silent. Awareness, self compassion, grounding exercises, and small corrective steps help break the pattern more effectively than criticizing yourself. You cannot heal through punishment. You heal through honesty and softness.

Q. Is it normal to feel out of control around holiday food?

A. Completely. Holiday expectations, emotional memories, family dynamics, and constant food availability make food feel louder for almost everyone. Feeling out of control does not mean something is wrong with you. It means you are overwhelmed, not broken.

Q. What is food noise and why does it get louder during the holidays?

A. Food noise is the mental chatter, urges, and constant thoughts about eating. It becomes louder when stress is high, routines are disrupted, or emotional triggers are present. The holidays amplify all of that, which is why the noise feels harder to manage.

Q. How do I regain trust with myself after overeating or spiraling?

A. Start with acknowledgment, not judgment. A single moment does not define you or erase your progress. Focus on one gentle shift you can make next time. Tools like reflection pages, grounding prompts, and compassionate self-inquiry help rebuild internal trust.

⭐ Recommended Support Tools for Healing and Self-Trust

(These include affiliate links. They cost you nothing and help support my work.)

Sometimes the food noise isn’t really about food. It’s about overwhelm, boundaries, emotional pressure, and trying to hold too much at once.
These are the tools I use and genuinely recommend if you want gentle support while you’re navigating all of this.

💜 Online Therapy

If the shame spiral or holiday overwhelm has been heavy, talking to someone who gets it can make all the difference. This is the online therapy platform I personally recommend because it’s flexible, private, and easy to start.
👉 Online Therapy.com

💜 My Favorite Boundaries Book

If your emotional eating patterns are tied to people-pleasing, pressure, or saying yes when you mean no… this book helps you understand yourself in a way that feels validating instead of blaming.
👉 Set Boundaries Find Peace by Nedra Glover Taawab

💜 My Fave Journal for Getting the Noise Out of Your Head

This is the journal I use when the food noise is loud or my thoughts are spiraling. It’s simple, grounding, and helps bring everything back into perspective.
👉 The Ultimate Food Journal to Help Curb Your Cravings

💜 Free: The Decision Detox Download

If your brain feels overloaded or you’re stuck in “I don’t know” mode… this free download helps you clear mental clutter and get a sense of direction again.
👉 Decision Detox Freebie