Is it important to have a healthy relationship with food before pursuing weight loss?

YES. I will get into the reasons why in this blog post but the short answer is YES, it’s important to have a healthy relationship with food before pursuing weight loss.

Any progress built on an unhealthy foundation will be short lived. Anyone can follow a plan, what takes real work is working on your relationship with food, understanding nutrition, working on your mindset, figuring out what works for YOUR body and what is realistic for YOU…not what works for Sally on Instagram, you are not Sally.

So WHY is it important?
If you have worked with me as a health coaching or macro coaching client, you know I am all about sustainability. If your relationship with food is not solid, then you will struggle to maintain anything you achieve regarding weight loss/fat loss. Why? Well, you will go back to your old ways after following the “plan” to lose weight, and then you’ll spend years going on and off of diet plans…no one wants to live this way! It’s not good for your body, mind, social life, relationship to self and others, etc.

The issue that most people run into is that working on your relationship with food takes longer and takes vulnerability and working through emotions…which a lot of people don’t want to do—they’d rather be handed a plan. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy…OR depending on your mindset around it you can think well fortunately, if I can finally unearth all of the things that are preventing me from having a healthy relationship with food then I can once and for all have a healthy relationship with food, then lose weight sustainably and not have to go on and off of diet plans anymore! How FREEING would that feel? You have to be willing to be in it for the long game. Are you worth that? YES. Time will pass either way, why not be in it for the long game?

You may be thinking, but HOW can I have a healthy relationship with food? I am told different things by different people all of the time about what I "should" and "shouldn’t" be eating. Here’s the truth of it, you can pretty much find evidence to support anything you WANT to believe. That’s why I believe that working with a coach is one of the best investments you can make for yourself and your health. This way, you can work with someone to find what works FOR YOU. Everyone is different and there is not a cookie cutter blueprint that works for everyone. Filter out what you consume on social media as well, too many opinions can get confusing and overwhelming. Find a few people that you trust a and then unfollow the rest. Too much information can cause more confusion.

Here are a THREE things you can do to start working on your relationship with food:

1. Remove “good” and “bad” labels from food.
   Food is not good or bad. Food has no morality. We, as humans, get to decide how we view food. Once you remove those labels and all food is on neutral playing field it will instantly cause you to be more in tune with your body and what it’s telling you that you need at that time INSTEAD of thinking “ohh I’m being BAD by eating this cookie”…this makes you want it more. If it’s on a neutral playing field you can ask yourself “Will this cookie make me feel better after I eat it? Is this helpful for me right now?” For example, if you are about to run 10 miles, and you grab a banana you can ask yourself “Will this banana make me feel better after I eat it? Is this helpful right now?”—If you are going to run 10 miles, you would need more than a banana, so you would add to that to prepare your body for the 10 mile run. Does this make sense?

2. Try to avoid getting EXTREMELY hungry.
   I understand, life happens and this isn’t completely avoidable. However, I have worked with many clients who will wait until they are so hungry they can’t stand it, and then eat something. This creates a feeling of urgency in your body that takes over because of your extreme hunger and then you are no longer able to eat mindfully, you are REACTING to your hunger, not RESPONDING with calm and ease. If you aren’t familiar with the hunger scale, that is a helpful tool to understand your hunger cues. I recommend going NO LONGER than 4-5 hours between meals.

3. Create a “toolbox” for ways to cope with emotions.
   I often find that people will use food to cope with their emotions. It’s the quickest thing to relieve an uncomfortable feeling. 95% of our serotonin is made in the gut, serotonin is the key neurotransmitter for regulating mood. When you are thinking of what you can do besides eat to help with emotions, I’d encourage you to make a list of things that bring you peace and calm. It’s different for everyone. A few things that help for me…going for a walk outside, dancing around the house to a fun song, journaling. What’s on your list? When I am feeling like I want to go eat due to my emotions, I will try one of my other “tools” in my toolbox first before I turn to food. Sure, life happens and there is nothing inherently wrong with emotional eating and it still happens from time to time. But, I do think it’s important to have other ways to cope.

This is simply the beginning of working on your relationship with food. Once your relationship with food is solid, then weight/fat loss can be talked about if that is a goal of yours. A solid relationship with food will benefit EVERYONE regardless of goals. It’s one relationship you have for the rest of your life. It’s worth working on and establishing a solid foundation.

Interested in working 1-on-1? Submit an inquiry through the services tab or message me on INSTAGRAM. I’d be happy to set up a FREE phone call with you to talk more.