How to Have Peace With Food

If you’ve ever thought, “I just wish food wasn’t such a thing for me”… you just want to feel at peace around it. To be able to eat the slice of pizza and not feel guilty… and also not eat the WHOLE pizza. To be able to go through your day and just feel at ease… not needing to track and count every little thing you eat.

I want you to know that this is possible for you.

So in this week’s episode I’m going to help you understand what it really means to have peace with food… what peace with food is NOT and what it is. As well as give you 2 steps that will help you get to this place of peace with food, yourself.

Let’s just start out with what peace with food is NOT…

Peace with food isn’t full permission with zero intention. It’s not just eating anything and everything that you want and crave with zero thought. But I know that that’s where your mind goes sometimes (if not all the time). You’re afraid that if you just let yourself make peace with food that it’ll mean you will just go crazy.

But that’s NOT what happens. Because peace with food doesn’t mean you just stop caring about health or nutrition.

When you are stressed about what, when, how much you’re “supposed” to eat, when you feel anxious about being around your “trigger” foods, your rational part of your brain goes “off line” and it’s so much harder to make intentional decisions with food. This is why, if you don’t have a great relationship with food, you feel out of control (or if you let go of the rules you have with eating you’ll be out of control) with food.

With peace with food, the intentional, rational part of your brain stays “on line” meaning… it works beautifully. Which means you’re able to be around even your most triggering foods and feel completely calm and in control.

So let me paint the picture of what peace with food looks like… And I want you to read this with hope, because this is what’s possible for you.

Peace with food IS…

- Food not feeling like a burden or something you have to keep 10 feet away from you in order to feel in control.

- It’s where you can buy the ice cream and keep it in your fridge without it feeling like it’s constantly calling your name… and then when you do make a bowl, you can sit down and intentionally eat it and enjoy it without feeling guilty.

- It’s ordering what you actually want at a restaurant without overthinking and being able to be fully present because food is just one small part of the experience of going out to eat

- It’s sometimes ordering the less healthy option and not feeling guilty… and then sometimes ordering the healthier option without it feeling like an obligation, but rather from this place of wanting to care for your body in that way, in that moment

- It’s going to bed each night feeling light, physically… yes, but also mentally. You’re not anxious or guilt-tripping yourself about how you ate that day.

- Food is just food for you.

And what I want you to hear is this is what it can look like for you, too.

So how do you get here? I have two steps to share with you that’ll get you to this place of peace with food.

The first step is healing your relationship with food.

If you’ve been on any number of diets, or even just simply growing up in our diet-obsessed culture, you probably don’t have a great relationship with food. Because, simply, dieting does NOT cultivate a healthy relationship with food. And as you heard here, healing your relationship with food is the foundation of peace with food.

And second, is re-learning to listen to your body.

When you feel confident with eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full, you’ll feel so much peace because you know how to eat. No more doubting or overthinking or stressing.

Just peace with food :)

Enjoy podcasts? Find and listen to this episode of the Redefining Health Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Google.

And to have my help as you navigate learning how to let go of dieting & learn to eat intuitively, click HERE to work with me inside Stop Dieting Start Living.