Body Image and How We Eat
Did you know that your body image affects how you eat? Have you ever thought about that? I know I didn’t. I always used to think that how I viewed my body and how I ate were two separate things. I put them in two separate boxes. There was my body image, which I didn’t really care about. And there was food. And body image, for me, was put on the back burner. I much preferred to put all of my energy into how I ate, controlling my body through food. To me, at the time, focusing on my body image wasn’t important because, if I were honest with myself, body image work didn’t give me the body I wanted.
So I pushed my body image to the side. I didn’t need a good body image… I just needed a “good” body.
But as I started to work on my relationship with food, what I realized was that our body image and how we eat are interconnected. The way that we eat is a direct correlation with how we view our bodies.
The way we eat is a direct correlation with how we view our bodies.
Here’s the deal… you will only take care of the things that you care about. You will NOT take care of the things you don’t take care about.
If you are a plant mom, you have plant babies all around your house (I’m a wanna be plant mom, I’m trying) you care about your plants and what do you do… you water them, you research how to take care of them best, what sunlight they need, what soil they need, you do everything you can to grow your plant babies.
If you are a dog mom, or a cat mom, you have these little animals as part of your family, right? You care about them, and so you feed them, you give them water, you take them on walks, buy them fun toys to play with.
If you are a human mom, you have your kids who you care so deeply for. You take care of them. You make sure they have enough food, that they stay well and out of danger, that they get enough sleep.
You take care of the things you care about. And don’t take care of the things you don’t.
So why do we believe as a society that we need to have some element of loathing for ourselves to take care of ourselves? Just think about any diet you’ve ever been on, what is the underlying messaging? “You aren’t enough as you are, you have to change, don’t love yourself too much because then you’ll just let yourself go. We have this underlying belief in our culture that to love ourselves means letting ourselves go. That if we are ok with ourselves, we won’t care about taking care of ourselves. But think about it… this just isn’t true.
Have you been believing this? Have you been believing that if you allow yourself to love yourself that you’d let yourself go? Is this what’s kept you dieting? Kept you going to the gym, when you don’t enjoy the gym.
Ok, I have a question for you… “How would you treat your body if you cared about her?” What things would you do that are different from what you do now? How would you eat? What foods would you eat? How would you exercise? What type of exercise would you do?
Your relationship with food is directly correlated with your relationship with yourself. So, while our culture has been teaching you to disregard your relationship with yourself and only focus on how you eat and what size you are, this is making it harder for you to want to even do the things to take care of yourself. It’s making it harder to want to eat nourishing foods, exercise and move your body.
So what is the solution. It’s counter-culture but to do the things you want to do to take care of yourself you have to start by first learning to accept and appreciate yourself. Body image and food go hand in hand. If you’ve been feeling like you’ve been on a diet rollercoaster, always on a diet and eating “well” and then once you come off of a diet you fall back into the ways of eating that you don’t like, ask yourself… how is my relationship with myself? Do I have a relationship with myself built upon caring for myself? Or do I punish myself through dieting? Do I eat the way I eat because I don’t have a good relationship with myself?
Here’s what have found in my own life and with the women I’ve worked with. When you call a truce with your body, when you decide to get to know who you are as a person, when you decide to and choose to respect your body as the body you’ve been given, when you see yourself as more than just a body but your body as the vessel with which you get to live out your purpose, everything with how you eat changes. You eat to fuel your body for the work you get to do in your job, your family, with your kids, with your spouse. You eat to nourish your body and to feel good physically in your body. You eat to enjoy food and the satisfaction that it gives you. You don’t punish yourself with food either by overeating or by undereating.
Ok, so going back to a question I posed earlier… I want you to close your eyes here and imagine how you would feel around food as someone who is at peace with her body. How would you feel around food as someone who is at peace with her body.
I want you to meditate on that today and this week. And I want to give you a next step to move towards this person this week… this person who is calm around food and confident in her body because she has made peace with her body. Your next step is to go into your next meal with a mindset of someone who cares for her body. You are someone who cares for and is confident in your body. And be open to learning from yourself and how this mindset changes things for you with food. How does this mindset change things for you with food?
Listen to the podcast, “Body Image & How We Eat” on Apple, Spotify, or Google.
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Do you want better body image? A better relationship with food? One that frees up space in your mind so you can do the things you really want to do in life? Come join us in The Nourish Lab where you’ll get courses, monthly trainings, a supportive community, and coaching directly from me! This is what you’ve been waiting for. But don’t wait anymore…COME JOIN US!