If you want to loose weight and keep it off, you’re going to have to heal your relationship with food first. “You can’t build a lasting house on a weak foundation.” So here’s 10 ways to improve your relationship with food.
- Reject diet culture & all-or-nothing thinking- Let go of strict food rules, guilt and perfectionism, understand that one meal doesn’t define your health, shift from “I blew it today” to “I can still make balanced choices moving forward”.
- Education and evidence-based content- Following creators who promote science-backed, compassionate nutrition. This helps you unlearn harmful beliefs. Unfollow people who unnecessarily demonise food, you can educate people about the pros and cons of certain food without doing fear mongering.
- Mindset shifts & mental reframing- From “workout to eat” to “eat to fuel workouts”. From “I can’t have this” to “I can have this whenever, so no need to binge”. Remember that food isn’t “good” or “bad” food has different functions and benefits but it has no moral value.
- Mindfulness & intuition- Slow down to eat, eat without distraction, tune into hunger and fullness cues.
- Focus on nourishment over restriction- Add fruits or vegetables to melas/snacks- not for punishment, but for care. Remind yourself of benefits of what your eating, explore new foods for variety and energy, not just for aesthetics.
- Therapy & Emotional healing- Many find that disordered eating stems from deeper emotional psychological issues. Explore why you do things.
- Normalise “fear foods”- Gradually introduce foods that were once seen as “bad”.
- Treat yourself with compassion- Feed yourself like you’d feed your kids, with variety and balance!
- Body image & social media detox- Unfollow accounts that trigger comparison or shame, comparison loses power when we see diverse, real representations of other humans.
- Building supportive structure- Start your day with protein & fibre this stabilises energy and cravings, plan in your favourite foods to reduce anxiety and feelings of restriction.
Every journey is different, but these strategies helped real people find food freedom!
Source: “lukehannanutrition”