Pass the Chips

How to navigate Super Bowl food anxiety

Feb 06, 2026

One of the biggest weeks in athletics is here. Today marks the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and Sunday is the Super Bowl.

Now you might be shocked I am mentioning these events in my writing. Seems a bit “off brand,” doesn’t it? I sort of am too. However, the Super Bowl used to be a day of the year I loved and feared at the same time.

I am not a big NFL fan so I don’t care much about the actual game. Instead, I love the gathering Super Bowl creates. As Priya Parker joyfully discusses in all of her work, gatherings are more than just people in a space for a reason. Gatherings “restore us to ourselves and one another.”

I love the idea of people getting cozy in each other’s homes. Eating festive food. Watching advertiser’s finest attempts at grabbing our attention with clever ads. The laughter, competitive and playful energy in the air transports us to a different world. A greater sense of community is formed through the airwaves. I love the feeling of being apart of something bigger.

Yet, the reason I feared Super Bowl parties is because I would get intense food anxiety. The societal conditioning of the holiday is all about over snacking and drinking. I feared overeating on crap and the food-over (food hangover) I would feel at the end of the night. Can you relate?

So in order to work with these intense emotions, I used to have these mini bossy and unskillful pep talks with myself:

“You can only eat the crudité and protein. No dips. No cheese. No sugar. No chips. Don’t eat that, it will make you feel like shit. Stop eating after half-time.”

The band of restriction felt so tight that I would get to these parties and all the rules I put on myself would fly out the window the second I dipped a wing into ranch dressing. My main focus of the night became about the food instead of the connection. I would leave these parties feeling like shit. My belly ached and my internal dialogue was slimmed with shame because I didn’t listen to my body. Instead, I was only listening to the voices of anxiety in my head.

“Don’t eat that mozzarella stick. Don’t put that 2nd slice of pizza on your plate. Not another chip.”

All I could hear was mozzarella stick. Pizza. Chip. My attention flowed to all the rules. I wasn’t focusing on how I actually wanted to feel in the present moment.

This is where noticing comes in..

My relationship to food and fueling myself completely changed when I started practicing mindful eating—slowing down to bring kind curious attention to the act of enjoying food.

Going to Super Bowl parties became fun because my food anxiety softened enough that I felt free to be. I had capacity to actually focus on connecting with others instead of being trapped in my own mind.

This practice didn’t happen over night. But I realized it wasn’t food’s job to entertain me. It was foods job to fuel me. And yet, cooking and preparing food can be fun and creative, the actual job of food isn’t to make me happy. It is here to be a form of medicine for my body.

And the practice of mindful eating helped me learn how to slow down enough while I eat to be with all of the pleasures and sensations. To fully notice all of the nuances of eating.

Slowing down to notice the tangy smell of the wings before putting them in my mouth. To look at the variety of color on my plate. To pause with awe and gratitude for all of the hands, miles traveled and effort it took for food to be in front of me. To listen to what my body is hungry for instead of mindlessly shoveling food into my face. Learning to chew my food fully (something I am still practicing) so that my body can easily digest and receive the good.

The practice of mindful eating is a profoundly rich practice. One where I always have an opportunity to notice and learn something about myself. Food holds so much meaning and emotions.

It is a form of:

survival
love
entertainment
comfort
connection
celebration
pleasure
status
culture
power
creativity
control

and so much more!

While you are enjoying the sporting festivities this weekend, I welcome you to slow down enough to notice just one element of a mindful eating practice with me:

Maybe pause and notice if your body is actually hungry. If so, what sensations tell you that?
When you put food in your mouth, what do you notice when you attempt to chew 30+ times?
What smells pleasant in the space? When you smell, do any memories or images come to mind?
What do you notice your mouth is hungry for?
What are your fingers hungry for?
What is your heart hungry for?

Share with me your noticings in a DM or leave a comment below. If you are curious to practice mindful eating in community, join the waitlist for my next mindfulness retreat.