Do you spend a large portion of your day thinking about food, weight, and body concerns? Do you think about food constantly, sift through recipes on Pinterest for hours on end, dread social situations involving food, weigh yourself often, check your appearance in every reflective surface you can find, and/or judge yourself based on what you ate, the number on the scale, or how you think you look at any given time?
If any of the above sounded familiar, you likely have an abnormal relationship with food. You might now be wondering what a "normal" relationship with food looks like.
A normal relationship with food involves eating when you're hungry, choosing foods you enjoy and that satisfy you, the absence of food rules that define "good" or "bad" foods, thinking about food for about as long as it takes you to chose what to eat at a meal or snack and not again until the next meal or snack, eating without judgement, and not feeling out of control in the presence of food, among other things.
Spending large portions of your time wrapped up in how you look and what you ate leaves very little room to invest in relationships, hobbies, and other things that are important to you. When you have a normal relationship with food, you open up that time and mental energy for investing in things that really matter. Food becomes enjoyable again and serves as a way to take care of yourself rather than punish yourself.
Redeveloping a normal relationship with food is not a quick or easy process. However, working with a non-diet dietitian can help you ditch diets for good and move toward a place where you can eat what you enjoy without judgement.
At the end of the day, is it really worth sacrificing the things most important to you in order to weigh a few pounds less?
