Alyssia Sheikh
Every Monday and Friday, when I left the Student Government Office, I used to walk downstairs to the cute and comfortable Einstein’s Bagels. As I socially distanced myself and waited, I would finally arrive upon the glowing plethora of warm steamy bagels trapped within their wire prison waiting to be freed by my petty cash and released into my pit of consumption (too dramatic, Noah). Binge eating, whether it be through bagels, corn chips, popcorn, or plain brown sugar has plagued my existence. It plagues my family too. My dad struggles with binge-eating, my grandma struggles with binge-eating, and my great-grandma struggled with binge-eating; it’s generational. It wasn’t until the pandemic, when I had gained 20 pounds, that I decided I needed to change my eating habits. On a Saturday afternoon when my mom showed me a little YouTube channel, my eating habits changed forever, Mind over Munch.
Alyssia Sheikh, the founder of the channel, was in a similar boat as me. She herself was a binge eater and knows that binge eating is an incredibly difficult disorder to overcome. For her, it is all about moderation, cognition, and forgiveness. That being said, this shapes most of her recipes and channel content. My personal favorite is her coconut ice cream and spaghetti squash pizza recipes. Her recipes range broadly from gluten free, nut-free, dairy-free, grain-free, low-carb/keto, vegan, and vegetarian, sometimes encompassing all of them.
Not surprisingly, Sheikh is also a certified Life, Nutritional, and Fitness Coach. She has received training from the Mindful Eating Training Institute and provides 1 on 1 coaching. This is why I love her nutritional videos the most. The video that has helped me slim down is her videos on clean processed snacks and anxiety/fear foods. She has an entire video series dedicated to healing our relationship with food (this one has helped me with my urge of snacking at Dollar General). The best part about her videos is how incredibly accessible they are, and as always, her production value is exquisite (as I put my pinky on my lip).
For those of you like me who continue to struggle with binge-eating, Sheikh’s channel will create a different kind of addiction. The tenets of binge-eating can be incredibly deep, and Sheikh knows this. For me, my binge eating is based on trauma, anxiety, and abuse. From watching her channel, I learned not only how to cook and appreciate what I eat, but I also learned that there should be no shame in how, what, or when we eat and that there is no shame in not losing weight either. Mind over Munch shows that the process of mindfully eating is a journey rather than an end-result.
Make sure to go and check out her website here.
On a side note, in accordance with National Eating Disorder week and my aspergery obsession with books, here’s some great ones that’ll help you slowly begin to hate the process of how food is made (or become more knowledgeable about what you eat):
Sophie Eagen’s How to be a Conscious Eater
Michael Moss’s Salt, Sugar, Fat (This is my personal favorite)
Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation
David Kessler’s The End of Overeating
Bob Ortega’s In Sam We Trust