How can I stop feeding myself mental junk food?

Start by noticing recurring negative thoughts, then consciously replace them with evidence of progress. End each day by writing down one thing you did well or followed through on. This rewires your brain for healthy self-belief.

Why do I keep focusing on failures instead of wins?

Because the old belief system equates safety with negativity—it looks for danger and failure to confirm its worldview. Celebrating small wins interrupts that bias and builds confidence.

#76 What Is Mental Junk Food and How to Break the Habit That Keeps You Eating It

Q: What is mental junk food?

Mental junk food is the repetitive, negative thinking you consume daily—self-criticism, worry, and pessimism that feel familiar but drain focus and motivation. It reinforces limiting beliefs and keeps you stuck.

Francois Esterhuizen
Aug 4
3 min read

Updated: Oct 27

Just like physical junk food gives short-term satisfaction and long-term fatigue, mental junk food keeps you emotionally stuck.

Francois Esterhuizen explains how habitual negative thinking, disguised as humility or realism, feeds limiting beliefs — and how to rewire your mental diet for growth.

You know what junk food is. It is the processed, sugary, high-fat meal that tastes good in the moment but leaves you feeling sluggish and offers zero nutritional value.

We understand this on a physical level. But we rarely apply the same logic to our mental diet.

The junk food you consume on repeat

Every day, you snack on mental junk food:

Replaying every little failure over and over
Spending hours worrying about what you said
It is focusing on every negative data point while dismissing every win.

This is the mental diet most people are on, and just like physical junk food, it is addictive.

It tastes good because it is familiar. Your old belief system, the one designed to keep you safe and comfortable, loves this diet. It gets a kick out of highlighting danger, failure, and negativity because it reinforces its own justification for existing.

It affirms the limiting beliefs that you are not good enough, that you are an imposter, or that pressure is bad.

It is a self-perpetuating cycle that feels validating but keeps you exactly where you are.

Rewiring your mental diet

To break this cycle, you must consciously change what you consume. You must train your mind to look for healthy mental meals. This is the practice of looking back over your day or week and deliberately finding something to celebrate.

This is not about manufactured positivity. It is about acknowledging the process.

Maybe the outcome was not what you wanted. Maybe the project failed. But did you do the thing you said you would do? Did you have the difficult conversation? Did you stick to your process? That is a victory. Celebrating it is not just a nice thing to do; it is a necessary act of rewiring your brain. It reinforces the healthy new belief system you are building and provides the fuel needed to show up as a better version of yourself, more often, for longer.

If you find it difficult to name a recent win, a diet of mental junk food is probably the reason why. You are likely giving 1,000 points to every failure and only 10 to every success, ensuring you always feel like you are behind.

Identifying your personal mental junk food

Mental junk food can also disguise itself as a virtue.

For example, defining humility as"do not brag" or "do not share your successes" sounds noble, but in practice robs you of confidence and flattens your ability to show up as your best self, market your business, and accurately assess your ability. Incredibly talented people struggle in interviews because through "politeness" and "humility", they've convinced themselves into mediocrity.

This "humility" is a limiting belief dressed up as a positive trait, giving you a virtuous-sounding reason to play small.

What about for you? What is your go-to flavour of mental junk food?

Is it a commitment to "being realistic" that is actually just pessimism?
Is it obsessing over your failures?
Is it the belief that "being busy" is a measure of worth, leaving no room for rest or strategic thinking?
Is it the idea that needing help is a sign of weakness?

These beliefs often feel like responsible or noble ways to operate, but they are justifications that keep you from taking effective action.

The first step is to see them for what they are: familiar, comfortable, and unhealthy.

Reflect

Your mental diet has a huge influence on the quality of your life. Stop feeding yourself junk.

For the next seven days, end each day by writing down one thing you can celebrate. It does not have to be a monumental achievement. Did you stick to your schedule? Did you make the call you were avoiding? Write it down.
Ask yourself: What is my most common mental junk food? What belief, habit, or "noble" idea do I use as a justification to keep myself stuck?

Francois Esterhuizen is a life and leadership coach based in Stellenbosch, helping clients upgrade their mental diet, clarify beliefs, and build sustained momentum.