Jelly Roll Says 1 Cheat Meal Turns Into a ‘5-Day Food Bender’

The singer said that he’s been “stress eating,” but acknowledged, ‘It’s OK to have a bad day’

NEED TO KNOW

• Jelly Roll opened up about his struggles with stress eating and how it can spiral into days-long food binges
• The singer said his relationship with food is like an addiction, saying he struggles with moderation in all aspects of life
• He encouraged others to give themselves grace after setbacks and not punish themselves for overeating

Jelly Roll said he’s had to learn to give himself grace after a recent bout of “stress eating,” sharing that one cheat meal easily turns into a “five-day food bender.”

“I’ve been overeating the last three or four days,” the “Hands Up” singer, 41, revealed to influencer Salvatore Reedus, who documents his own health journey online at @journeywithsal, in an honest conversation shared to Jelly’s YouTube page. 

As the singer (real name: Jason DeFord) shared, “I was feeling myself stress-eating and then, what else happened was the addict in me came out.”

The trigger, he said, was a “dairy-free skillet cookie” offered at a concert venue. “I don’t eat nothing like that. I’m like a drug addict. You can’t eat that ‘cause if I ate one, I’ll eat two. I’ll eat four.  So later that night, I’m at the taco truck getting a peanut butter fluff. Next thing I know, we’re at the rest stop, I’m looking for a chocolate bar.”

As Jelly shared, “I consumed 2,000 extra calories today that I didn’t see coming.”

The singer, who recently filed for divorce from Dumb Blonde podcast host Bunnie Xo, likened going off his meal plan to a feeding frenzy, saying, “it’s like the taste of blood.”

“Now it’s going to take me a whole another week to get that [taste] completely out of my mouth,” he explained.

Reedus shared that he has the same struggle, revealing, “I can’t have one burger. I’ve to have five.”

“I can’t have one anything,” Jelly said. “I’m like that with alcohol …  I’ve never had a shot. I’ve never done a line of cocaine. I’ve never smoked a joint. You know what I mean? Either we’re smoking all day, we’re drinking all night, we’re doing coke. That’s how it’s working for me.”

Take PEOPLE with you! Subscribe to PEOPLE magazine to get the latest details on celebrity news, exclusive royal updates, how-it-happened true crime stories and more — right to your mailbox.

He said people will tell him, “ ‘Oh, you can have one for a cheat meal.’ “ I was like, ‘You can have one for a cheat meal.’ I can’t.” The singer went on to say that one cheat meal “might be a five-day food bender for me.”

But, as he told Reedus, “Give yourself grace on those days you eat four skillet cookies. I’m still doing it …those are the days you got to give yourself grace. The problem is it starts compounding in the days.” 

“It’s okay to have a bad meal. It’s okay to have a bad day,” he said. “Don’t beat yourself up about it … don’t punish yourself for it.”

Read the full article here