Most of us know the basics of what takes to be physically healthy, right?!?!.
Lose weight, just consume less calories than the calories you burned each day.
Increase muscle and building strength, we’ve learned that the right nutrition and timing is key.
Maintain your weight and shape, eat a balanced nutrition plan and limiting your junk food intake.
Simple……..
I wish it was that SIMPLE; but too often our perspective doesn’t allow us to successfully follow the basics. We make ourselves miserable with short-term rigid diets because we are afraid to dig deeper into understanding what’s NOT Working an Why!
I’m not going to show you some new workout craze or fad diet, if that’s what your looking for there’s plenty of other sites you can read to get that. But your a Beachbody Coach isn’t that what you do???
Nope, while I think workout challenges, nutrition plans and fitness regimens are great I also know that a real lifestyle change and sustainable results occur when we gain a deeper understanding of our individual food relationship.
Over the last several years I’ve learned a lot about myself and my relationship with food (and my disordered eating) Here’s a little bit about what I’ve found….
Let’s break it down:
Food History: What had I been told about certain foods or meals growing up? What was the general attitude towards healthy and unhealthy foods? What associations do I keep with certain foods?
Food Attitude: What is my inner dialogue when it comes to calories? What is my strongest emotion when it comes times to eat? Is it guilt or shame?
Food Logic: What is the story I keep telling myself that continues to justify my current relationship/patterns/habits with food?
Food Skills: What is my ability to nourish my body and eat for optimal health? What skills or information do I already have and what do i still need to learn?
Real Life Case:
It is very common to have more than one food attitude as we associate different emotions with types of food. For example, I was always in search of Control. I was taught to eat everything on my plate at what ever meal was served to me, no matter wether I was hungry or not. I remember sitting at the table lights off not being allowed to get up until my plate was completely cleaned of all it’s food. Then as teenager and dedicated athlete I was told that I needed to diet to keep my weight under control, restricting what, when and how much i could eat. My confusion of What, When and How much to eat became so crossed and mixed up it consumed every minute of my day. What happened? I stopped eating in front of anyone in fear that i was making the wrong choices, I learned very quickly how to make my parents believe that i had eating all my food while i was quickly exiting to the bathroom after eating to purge. There was so much guilt and shame associated to what i was eating, life was just easier to choose to not eat at all.
Can you guess what happened next? No Eating, Binge Eating, Over Exercise and the cycle repeated again and again…..
Through recognizing this, and trust me when i say this took some serious time and work. I was able shift the way i looked at food. No more Good or Bad or Can or Can’t, Instead of Shaming myself for what i was eating or being so restrictive with my food choices that it would set me into a binge eating frenzie. I started to incorporate food journaling into my everyday habits which helped me to become more mindful of my choices. It created a space where i felt that I was in control of my choices without outside influence or judgement. No binging, no guilt.
What are your four food elements and how can you improve upon them to achieve a better relationship with food?