Having a Healthy Relationship with Food
There’s so much that I could say about food because I love it so much, but something that has been at the forefront of my mind lately is relationships with food. More specifically, girls’ relationships to food. Girls’ relationships with food is notorious for being complicated, unstable, and just plain unhealthy. Sounds like I’m talking about a relationship with an ex, right?
And that’s just what it’s like! Building a healthy relationship with food is like building any other relationship. It’s a two-way street. It takes effort that can give positivity back to you. The same goes for your body.
I think that the main reason why girls are so conscious about their diet and what food should go on their plate is because of the consistent habit of comparing ourselves to others. Trust me, I know this because me and my friends from home fell victim to this after we first got to college. After spending a semester at different colleges, we were coming together for the first time over Thanksgiving break and realized that our roommates all behaved similarly – avoiding most foods at the dining halls, asking what we had eaten at the end of the day, talking about how they didn’t eat and seeing if it would produce a response from one of us; essentially comparing = our daily diets. We were all like – what the f!$*@?
Before even coming to college, we were warned about the wicked “freshman fifteen.” It’s talked about to the point that a cloud of fear hovers over incoming freshmen. Because of this, girls are primed to think that they’re going to gain weight in college and are nervous that if they do, they are going to be looked down on or considered less – so they may choose to eat less. Food then becomes the enemy. Skipping meals, comparing your plate to another girls’ at the dining hall, keeping track of what you eat throughout the day; Yup. Been there.
First of all, you aren’t “less pretty” or “less attractive” – how you look is not a point system where deductions are made. Second, college is one of the most formative times of our lives – and that means we’re going through mental and physical changes. Our bodies change and that is natural. What is not natural is skipping meals and avoiding food with the proper nutrients to function.
Having a healthy relationship with food and maintaining a proper diet is not about what you should be cutting out, but what you should be adding in. It’s definitely easy to fall into the fad diets that you see on social media or the “what I eat in a day” videos, but what you eat should be specific to you. It should revolve around what makes you feel good. Everybody’s different. The key ingredient to a healthy diet? Balance. A health coach that I follow on Instagram Kelly Leveque (@bewellbykelly) focuses on what she calls the Fab Four: protein, fat, fiber, and greens. The benefits of the fab four are elongating your blood sugar curve so that you don’t experience “crash”, avoiding mindless snacking, and ensuring your body has the nutrients it needs. If you’re able to incorporate these elements on your plate for every meal (or at least try to) then you’re taking a step in the right direction. I highly recommend checking out her instagram or listening to her podcast to learn more.
Another tip, if you want it, eat it! Getting ice cream, a cookie – these things will not make you gain 10 pounds overnight. They will not change your body – you are just changing the way that you see yourself when you look in the mirror. Something that I have been starting to work on is eliminating the voice inside my head that makes me feel guilty for treating myself or indulging. These shouldn’t be “guilty pleasures” because there should be no guilt associated with eating something that you enjoy.
Changing what you put on your plate and how you view yourself is sometimes easier said than done, but making small changes will produce big results. Try telling yourself, “thank you,” or writing down the parts of your body that you love. I started doing this to help strengthen my relationship with food, and I’ve found that food brings me joy – it always has while I was eating it. But it was the thoughts that crowded my mind after the fact that ruined my relationship with food, and I’m sure that many of you feel the same way. You shouldn’t be restricting your body from having the things that make it happy. It’s important to be thankful to your body for having the ability to digest the foods that you eat. To that, it’s also important to take care of your body so that it can continue to function properly – and by not giving it the nutrients it needs, it won’t be able to perform to the best of its ability. You are only born with one body and it is your home, so take care of it. Care about what is filling you, but also if it is fulfilling you.
