How's Your Relationship with Food?

I’m pretty sure I say this every year, and here goes again: I can’t believe the holidays are upon us.  Though they may differ depending on your traditions, one thing remains: food tends to be the main event.  

Especially this last week—Thanksgiving—the heightened emphasis on that decadent meal with butter dripping from every possible opportunity leaves so many people feeling anxious due to complicated relationships with food and body image.  I know this struggle all too well as someone who suffered a deadly eating disorder in high school.  I’ve worked hard to maintain a  healthy relationship with food bolstered by a more gentle and balanced approach.  Though I feel a million times better today and don’t struggle in the way I did, I have a very special place in my heart for those who suffer from this ongoing battle with themselves and food.

In fact, most women struggle at some point in their lives with a disordered relationship with food.   An estimated 30 million people, men and women alike, suffer from actual eating disorders throughout the course of their lifetime.  Ya’ll, that’s wild.  And incredibly sad.  

I highly encourage you to seek professional treatment both with a therapist and physician if you are struggling.  I also want to share with you a few ideas on how to approach the next month and a half with more grace and enjoyment.  

Mindful eating

I’m a big believer that it’s not the actual food that creates the problems, it’s our relationship with food.  So many of us, myself included, use food as a medicator, to numb and relieve temporary emotional pain.  That, or we use it to celebrate good news or important events.  So often, this is an unconscious process—one we don’t even realize is happening.  It’s automatic, habitual, and ingrained.  Simply becoming more aware of what you are eating, when you are eating, and why you are eating is incredibly supportive in a more mindful relationship with food.  I like to call this mindful eating.  It doesn’t mean deprivation either!  It simply means slowing down enough to eat with intention and awareness.  It’s proven that as we slow down our actual eating time, we can connect to our bodies more, identifying when we are initially full. 

Exercise

Daily movement has been my physical and emotional tether for decades.  It’s our primal right as humans. With travel, it can be tricky though.  Let’s be honest, we will likely be indulging a bit more in the coming weeks, so this is the perfect opportunity to balance it out with mindful movement—wherever we can get it! A brisk walk, a streaming yoga class on your laptop, a snowball fight if you don’t live in the south. ;)   As emotions also run high, physical exercise is an incredible natural anti-anxiety/anti-depressant.  Give yourself the gift of intentional exercise these upcoming weeks—it’s always a good idea!

Healthy-ish

You’ve heard about the 80/20 rule, eating healthy 80% of the time and indulging 20% of the time.  I try to follow this as closely as possible.  However, as I mentioned earlier, the holidays are a time for celebration and merry-making.  So you may need to extend a bit of leeway in the direction of a 70/30 rule.  Eating healthy 70% and indulging more like 30%.    The goal is to eradicate shame when we eat a bit more than we’d like or even gain a few pounds.  No one ever improved their relationship with food from a baseline of shame.  And that’s what we’re going for—practicing a better relationship with food rather than putting unnecessary pressure on a strict diet. 

Let’s aim to enjoy food from a place of gratitude and abundance rather than fear and scarcity.  Let’s…savor.