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Founder of Gratefully Nourished, follower of Jesus, new mom and registered dietitian. I provide resources and coaching to women and moms who are looking to eat healthy without obsession–and without sacrificing their relationship with food.
Because of the culture we live in, many of us have been following lots of external rules for when, how, and why to eat. Often we find that leaves us feeling out of touch with our internal hunger cues, thinking about food a lot and genuinely confused about how to eat. If this is you, I see you. So where do you go from here? It depends.
If you feel like you are having a hard time functioning on a day-to-day basis, asking for help & support would be really helpful.
Start with examining your food rules — they could be as apparent as not allowing yourself to eat more than one snack per day to as subconscious as not wanting to finish a lemonade because you internalized the “don’t drink your calories” message a long time ago. Begin to get curious about where you learned these rules. Who told you not to eat breakfast? Who told you not to eat past 7pm? Building awareness is often the first part in moving from a lot of these food rules to food acceptance.
It will be helpful to incorporate lots of different foods on a regular basis as you move from food rules to food acceptance. For example, carbohydrates, fats and protein are the three macronutrients, and each are essential for the human body. Yes, that means breads, pasta and rice (examples of carbohydrates), foods like butter, oil and avocado (examples of fats) and meats, eggs and seafood (examples of protein foods) are allowed!
Shame has no place in our food choices. Not to mention, it’s a really bad motivator for change. Shame makes us hide, convinces us we’re alone and prevents us from asking for help. There is no shame in struggling with your relationship with food and body image. And in our culture, it’s become the norm. Practice compassion over judgment. Self-care over self-condemnation.
Moving from food rules to food acceptance takes time.
Be gentle with yourself. I’m cheering for you.
One Response
Having read this I thought it was very informative. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this article together. I once again find myself spending way to much time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worth it!