Improving Your Relationship With Food
How’s your relationship?
I’m not talking about your relationship with your significant other…
I’m talking about your relationship with food.
Are things in a good place at the moment?
Or do you feel there are some things to work on?
The problem is, unless we can get our relationship with food into a good place, it’s very difficult to be consistent with our nutrition.
This makes improving how we look, move and feel a constant struggle.
In today’s article, I wanted to share a few ideas to help improve your relationship with food
Stress Eating
One thing I know about relationships is that they can be complicated, especially when our emotions get involved.
1 particular emotion that will play a significant role in our food choices, is:
Stress.
For many of us… Being stressed makes us want to eat.
In a stressed state, our brain will be searching for a way to make us feel better.
It wants something that’s going to give us a dopamine response.
I like to think of this as our body creating an itch…
And we just have to scratch it!
A very quick, easy way to do that, is to reach for high calorie foods.
Understanding that food is filling a role of helping us to deal with stress, can help us to manage it.
We can do one of 2 things.
- Try to limit our exposure to stressors
Try to scratch the stress itch in a different way, that isn’t taking us away from our goals.
My advice is to identify your stressors and see if there are ways to avoid them.
For example, if you hate sitting in traffic on your commute home from work. And this really stresses you out to the point that, when you get home you’re left feeling like you need a glass of wine or a beer to chill out…
Then, Could you maybe adjust your working hours so you didn’t have to drive back in the rush hour, which means you won’t have to sit in traffic and therefore you won’t be so stressed by the time you get home?
Although we can find ways to avoid some stressors, we can’t avoid them all.
We therefore, need to be armed with some alternative strategies for creating a ‘feel-good’ response in the body.
Perhaps we could:
Go for a walk?
Phone a friend and have a chat?
Or maybe even watch a few clips of our favourite stand-up comedian?
All of these activities, will provide the dopamine response our body is craving…
They’re just not as easy to do as reaching for a tub of ben and jerry’s.
Words Matter
If you’ve been in a relationship before, you’ll know the following statement to be true.
Words Matter.
What we say is really important.
I believe, our language around food can really begin to impact the way we feel about it.
This might sound like I’m being fussy…
So, If you’re doubting whether words really make much of a difference.
Next time you see your partner, say “Have you done something different to your hair, it looks interesting”
I can almost guarantee they’ll fixate on the word “Interesting”
What you may have meant as a compliment, they could take as an insult!
In short, words matter.
It’s important to build a language around food that encourages positive feelings toward it.
Here are 3 language changes everyone should make, starting today.
1. GOOD vs BAD FOOD ——> Low calorie or high calorie
If I say pizza, donuts or chocolate… you may immediately think of the word bad.
If I say, salad, fruit or vegetables… you may think good.
But… I love pizza!! It’s pretty damn GOOD in my eyes.
It’s just high calorie…
Which means that it could be taking someone further away from their goals, if they’re not able to consume it in moderation.
This is why pizza is branded as BAD.
That being said…
Every client of mine who has successfully lost weight, has been able to do so, whilst still enjoying their favourite high calorie foods in moderation.
So really, no food is good or bad.
It just depends on whether or not we’re eating too much of it.
Branding a food as bad, creates a negative emotional response if we eat it.
This can make a person feel like they’ve failed, because they ate something that was bad for them.
If they feel bad enough, it could eventually lead to them giving up on their efforts to improve their nutrition altogether.
2. Snack ——> Meal
Labelling a food as a snack, reduces its significance in our minds.
A study was carried out on 2 groups of people eating the exact some food item.
One group was given the food and it was called a snack.
The other was given the food and it was called a meal.
The snack group went on to consume more calories for the rest of the day when compared to the meal group.
Which shows how a simple language can change, can change how we feel about food.
All food matters in terms of our total calories intake for the day.
So I try to encourage everyone to think any food item they eat, as a meal.
3. On a diet ——> Your diet
If you’re “on a diet” that implies to me that at some point you could be “off the diet”
The key to long term results with your nutrition is consistency.
So I don’t think we should label any changes in our eating behaviour as being on a diet.
It’s just simply, your current diet.
Your current diet, is the accumulation of the foods you eat, how much of them you eat and the habits and behaviours around that food consumption.
We at times need to make adjustments our diet.
But the viewpoint should remain that your diet is with you for life.
Making a few adjustments from time to time, is normal.
Food is NOT a barrier to your progress
Finally,
A big perspective shift I try to get across to clients at Fitness Studio 46 is that
FOOD IS NOT A BARRIER TO PROGRESS… IT’S THE GATEWAY
If you’re unhappy with how you look, It’s easy to get into the mindset that food is a problem.
The first thing many people do when wanting to improve how they look, is to cut out all kinds of foods.
Eating the bare minimum.
But….
I challenge you to flip the script.
Rather than think, what should I cut out?
Think, what can I add in?
What foods will I enjoy, and look forward to eating, that are also going to be helping me move toward my goal?
How will these foods improve my training, my mood and my energy levels?
It’s not necessarily easy to do…
But, If we can change the way we view food.
If we can remove the fear, the guilt and the anxiety…
and replace that with excitement, positivity and enjoyment.
You can fuel yourself to get great results.
To look better.
Sleep better.
Have more energy.
Feel better.
… And ultimately lead a happier life as a result!