Inside Scoop: Is this one factor the key to creating a healthy relationship with food?

Managing cravings, finding balance, easy prep, better choices, motivation… these are the hardest things about losing weight and creating a healthy relationship with food, right?

In our humble opinion, no.

The hardest thing about it all is something we tend to not think about. Something that isn’t really tangible, yet, can become overwhelming, ever controlling, and something we can let dictate our entire lives.

LOVING YOURSELF IS THE KEY TO CREATING A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD

Taking care and loving yourself is one of the most difficult things to manage and master, but when considering health, weight loss, and having a positive relationship with the food on your plate and your body, it’s absolutely the most important.

But hey, it’s almost 2019, you’re ‘effin busy, how can you even comprehend taking care of yourself when you have so many other things to take care of, for example:

You have active and busy kids, you have a career and a full-time job (which could also include kids), you have bills to pay, a partner to love, a house to clean, it’s a lot to take care of and YOU usually come at the bottom of the list. You tell yourself, “I will take care of myself when the rest is settled”, but there’s never enough time in the day, or hours in the week, and you push yourself under the rug.

Self-love is a huge concept when you’re stressed, tired, overworked, undervalued, and your brain is dealing with so many other emotions. Guaranteed, most people you know have a hard time with this. You know our stories (Diary of a Party Girl & 5 Lessons I’ve Learned), and we still, to this day, have times where self-love is a lot to manage emotionally.

But thing is, if you can’t look at yourself in the mirror and say, “you’re awesome”, or tell your family “no, I need a break”, then time will pass and those emotions with fester, and we all know no good comes out of emotions that don’t get dealt with.

So, it’s time to start loving yourself, today!

Now, we’re not psychologists or therapists, so we don’t have all the answers, but what we do know is what we have experienced and what our clients experience. That being said, here are some of the techniques we have used in order to start loving ourselves better so that we can have a healthier relationship with food, with our bodies, and with the people we surround ourselves with. 

START LOVING YOURSELF TODAY FOR YOUR LONG-TERM HEALTH

VAMP YOURSELF UP!

Some people call them affirmations, we just call it happy self-talk. The more you tell yourself something, the easier it is to believe it. It’s weird at first, but you get the hang of it, because negative emotions can really creep in, and you need to find a way to trick your mind into getting away from them.

Happy self-talk works!

Take a bad day, for example, we often resort to thoughts that allow our bad day to keep getting worse,

It’s just one of those days.

If it can go wrong today, it will.

Bad things happen in 3’s.

These thoughts reinforce and attract more negative into your life. By twisting them and making them positive, it can have a positive effect on your mindset, which can actually shift the perception of how your day is going. Even if so called bad things keep happening, at least looking at it all in a positive light makes them much easier to deal with.

You can even try applying humor to your thought process as well, here is a list of 75 funny daily affirmations to shine some positive, hilarious light on your emotions.

DELETE SOCIAL ACCOUNTS THAT PORTRAY UNREALISTIC STANDARDS

Having a healthy relationship with food, means ditching the idea that there are people out there who have perfect bodies, who have the perfect diets, and live a perfect life. It just doesn’t happen! As a matter of fact we feel so strongly about letting go of perfectionism we wrote an article on how to overcome it, which you can read here.

How many women do you follow on Instagram that have perfectly thin and fit bodies, or women who are hanging out at the beach, tanned and toned? These are magazine ads, just on a different platform, because social media IS advertising.

Most of those women get paid to post pictures like that. The more followers they have, the more free products and endorsements they get. It’s not real life, even Kim Kardashian admits to using booty photoshopping apps. The unrealistic portrayals that social media creates allows us to believe that this is what real life is all about.

Our biggest advice: Take your finger over to the ‘delete’ and ‘unfollow’ buttons… buh bye, really, what are you missing out on? Even taking a social detox can help you reset and start feeling like the person you want to feel like.

WHAT & WHO MAKES YOU HAPPY? IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THEM

Do you have hobbies, or did you once have hobbies that you have stepped away from? Do you have friends that make you feel great that you haven’t heard from or seen in years? Maybe it’s time to reach out, and re-approach. Doing things that make you feel good, and building a tribe of people that lift you up is so important when considering self-love and happiness.

Remember: practice is key to maintaining something. If you are picking up a long-lost hobby and forget how to tackle it, don’t give up! Set aside some time to master it again, because mastering takes time. The better you get at it, the happier you will be with it.

FOCUS ON YOU!

You can’t give everyone around you your all, if you aren’t in the right frame of mind. If you are stressed, people see it. If you are negative and down on yourself, people feel it. Your family doesn’t get the person you want them to have if you aren’t the person you want to be. Sometimes these thoughts are ever consuming, but they don’t have to take over your life.

Learning and understanding your emotions will help you so that you don’t resort to food as a coping mechanism. Tune in and you will start to realize why you are feeling the way you are. And when it comes to your relationship with food, you will also be able to assess whether you are actually hungry, or you are eating because of a feeling you have.

Our biggest advice: Take care of yourself. If you need a day at the spa, a massage, a mental break, a night out, a shopping trip- GO FOR IT! You need time to focus on yourself in order to give yourself to others. Also, when things are getting out of control, listen! Find ways to manage your stress naturally, or if it is getting too tough, see a professional like a therapist or a psychiatrist. Don’t let it get to a point where it is too hard to get back from.

CHOOSE BALANCE NOT AVOIDANCE

Nutrition definitely comes into play with self-love. Eating foods that are great for your body and mind will help your body and mind feel good. There are plenty of stress-busting and nutrient dense foods out there that can easily be added to your diet. We would never tell you to take away your favourite foods, just try balancing the nutrient dense with the not so nutrient dense foods.

Some of the choices we make that are deemed ‘unhealthy’ can actually help us with our mood and our happiness levels. Take ice cream for example, having an ice cream cone on a nice sunny day with your tribe will definitely promote happy feelings, so go for it! When you take these actions and use them to the excess you start to see a shift from healthy and happy to compulsive. Learning to make better choices and balance it all will help you have ice cream on hot summer days, and eat healthy the rest of the day. You will end up making the choices because you want to and not because you have to, which ultimately makes you feel better about yourself.

SHAKE THAT BOOTY (WITH WHATEVER FORM OF EXERCISE YOU LOVE BEST)

Did you know that exercise has the most powerful effect on us when we are in a bad mood? It can increase endorphins (feel good chemicals), reduce our stress levels, increase antibodies (which are used to strengthen the immune system), and overall, the more we exercise (within reason), the stronger and happier we end up feeling.

Our biggest advice: The key to maintaining an exercise routine is finding one that works for you. For some, that means light to moderate physical activity, to others that means intense physical activity. As long as you find a way to move your butt for 30-60 minutes 3x a week, you are doing good!

Making healthier food choices comes much easier with self-love. The negative self-talk goes down (better yet, away), your stress levels go down, and the way you end up looking at food changes. You make choices because you know it will make you feel good from a mental standpoint, which helps radiate positive energy and emotions.

So, all in all to have the healthiest relationship with food as you possibly can, you have to have a healthy relationship with yourself first. Don’t let food dictate who you are, don’t let it control who you are, tackle your nutrition place from a place of self-acceptance and not out of food avoidance or ideal body images. Make 2019 amazing, and make sure you do you!

And if you’re interested at all about our signature diet plan, that deals with the mentality behind diet culture, that deals with tackling nutrition in the easiest way possible, that’s non-restrictive and includes plenty of tools, check out the N5Diet here.