The danger of labels…
First let’s talk FOOD….
Where, when and how did we learn how to FEED ourselves??
Who taught you how to eat, when to stop, and who to be while you are eating?
If you have been alive as long as me, you KNOW that we were saturated with “diet” advice!!
It’s no WONDER so many of us were raised to have certain beliefs about food.
We were told by our parents, TV, magazines, advertisements and EVEN doctors, what was good for us and what was bad for us.
However, if you are anything like me, I LOVE FOOD!! Coffee! Chocolate! And the act of eating!
Now, when I do eat and drink…I do so with mindfulness and peace.
But, it wasn’t always that way of course.
Because of my influences growing up, I used to have a giant list of all the foods that were “BAD” for me and they were banished from the house!! (And I secretly craved them, would hide them and eventually go eat them!!)
I used to have a list of my “GOOD” foods that I would obsess over as well to make sure I ate lots of them…probably TOO much of them and in oversized portions too!!
AND the worst part of it was that I had LINKED my feelings about myself as a person with those foods.
I had set up this unrealistic link in my brain that If I gave in to my BAD food cravings, I was a BAD person.
And in typical habit-forming fashion, I repeated those thoughts, habits and actions day in and day out until I developed disordered eating behaviors!!
And that didn’t turn out so well for me.
So what did I have to do to stop this super strongly-linked habit in my mind and eating behaviors?
STOP and take an honest look at the cycles, the strategies, the habits and all the mind-body-food links that I had so excellently perfected (note the sarcasm!)
Learned how to REPROGRAM and RE-TEACH myself how to view eating in a more life-affirming, healthy way.
Went back to basics and learn what true hunger felt like in my body.
Relearned how to eat to fuel my body instead of using food to dictate my moods, erase my emotions or sabotage myself when I was being “BAD” or even when I was being “GOOD”.
I had to let go of that old part of myself, that story, that IDENTITY of who was I as a person with an eating disorder so that I could create a NEW me!
NOW I eat with peace of mind minus the labels.
Have you linked YOUR self-worth, your emotions, your story or identity with food?
Are you ready to REPROGRAM your brain to eat with ease and confidence again?
Schedule your Free Discovery Session to learn how I can help you xo
