Learn How To Have A Great Relationship With food
A Great relationship with food begins by having unconditional permission to eat the foods that make you feel good, both physically and mentally. This means that no foods are off limits and you feel no guilt upon eating foods that are typically labelled good or bad.
Understanding your relationship with food:
Before you can work towards a good relationship with food, it’s important to pinpoint the signs and symptoms of a bad relationship with food.
In fact a good relationship with food has nothing to do with the quality of your diet or the types of food that you eat, but rather how and why you choose the foods that you eat.
When you can do this then you will notice a lot less stress and worry around eating and you can enjoy more food freedom.
Signs that you have a bad relationship with food:
You feel guilty about eating
You avoid or restrict foods that are bad for you.
You have developed a long list of rules surrounding the foods that you can and cannot eat.
You rely on calorie counters or apps to tell you when you are done eating for the day
You ignore your bodies natural hunger cues.
You have a history of yo-yo dieting or follow the latest diet fads.
You feel immense stress and anxiety when eating in social situations due to fear of what
Others think of your food choices.
You find yourself restricting or binging food.
Note: You don’t have to experience all these signs to have a bad relationship with food.
Your relationship with food may be transient. Sometimes you may eat with complete freedom and have no remorse for the foods you eat (this is great), however at other times you may feel guilty after eating certain foods (this is not great, but normal).
The goal of a good relationship with food is to have more positive experiences, than negative ones. Learning how to show patience and kindness to yourself is paramount.
Your relationship with food goes deeper than fuelling your body. Unlike animals that eat solely for survival, as humans we eat for a wide variety of reasons, such as joy, pleasure, culture, tradition, social situations and to fuel our bodies. So it is complex.
Being able to eat all foods in moderation is key, eating foods that you enjoy and not allowing food to control your life is the aim. Realising that the foods that you eat do not define your value as a person.
How to start having a good relationship with food and your body!
It is one thing to hope for change and it is another to actively make it happen.
Learn to eat when you are hungry, hunger comes on slowly and you may hear a rumble in your tummy.
Its important to listen to your body and take your time to eat. Did your parents tell you to ‘clear your plate?’ While their intentions were good, this conditioned you to ignore signs that you were full and to eat everything anyway. Along with this the diet culture has also taught people to count calories and not eat until they are satisfied.
The closer that you can get back to listening to your hunger cues, the better you can regulate your appetite and manage your food intake.
Practice mindful eating!
This has become a cornerstone of fixing a bad relationship with food. It involves eating in the moment and being fully present for the eating experience. When you eat mindfully, you are eating free of other distractions, such as phones, TV,
BOOKS ETC. Instead take your time and make gentle observations, such as taste and texture of food, how your hunger and fullness cues change as well as your emotions around food.
Learning how to slow down and actually savour the food that you are eating can help you learn which foods that you genuinely enjoy and also become more in tune with your body’s natural hunger and fullness regulation. This mindful way of eating will also help your to identify the reasons for your food choices.
Are you eating because you are starving and will eat anything in sight? Do you want to eat the food because you think that it will make you feel better emotionally or physically?
Welcome all foods in your diet!
When you ascribe a food as ‘bad’, you give it unnecessary power. Certain foods are more nutritious than others and will contribute to improved health.
Usually people call foods ‘bad’ when they taste good and don’t have much nutritional value. Yet, as soon as you tell yourself that you cant have something, the more you will crave and want it.
When you allow all foods into your diet, you are better able to control your intake, as you know that these foods are always available. However when you restrict foods and believe that they are a rarity you are much more likely to overdo it and subsequently enter the endless cycle of guilt.
Contrary to popular belief, its quite rare that you’ll always want cookies or cake, because when you allow all foods into your diet, you will notice that your cravings for certain foods will start to diminish.
This phenomenon is called Habituation. It states that the greater exposure that you have to food or flavour, the less interesting and appealing it becomes.
Your challenge is to start viewing all foods as equal, with no food being better or worse than another. You then take away the foods power and over time you wont feel the need to overeat it when its around.
Mind Your Plate!
Imagine a life in which you don’t have to justify your food choices to yourself or anyone else. Most people are constantly giving themselves or other people an explanation for their food choices, eg I’m eating an ice cream as I’ve had a bad day, or I’m having a salad for dinner as I don’t have time to exercise.
Your challenge is, instead of giving a reason for your food choices allow yourself to eat food that you feel is best for you at that moment. Remember that your relationship with food has a deep rooted history and you cant always resolve your food issues on your own.
You need to give yourself time, patience and kindness in order to help you break some unhealthy beliefs around food.
The bottom line!
The great news is that it is possible to fix your bad relationship with food, to be able to get into a state in which food no longer controls you and instead fuels your overall wellbeing. Remember food isn’t inherently good or bad, its only the labels that you put onto it that gives it any power.
A healthy relationship with food means that you need to welcome all foods with no restrictions, see the value in food beyond calories and remembering that your value as a human isn’t decided by the food that you eat.
Taking the first step in fixing a bad relationship with food can be scary but absolutely well worth it in the long run. To enable you to live a life of food freedom, health, vitality and happiness.
If you would like to explore how hypnotherapy and life coaching can help you on your weight loss journey, visit Be A Better You and I would be happy to book you in for a consultation.
