Being Food Positive in a Food Negative Society
Oh hey! It's so good to be here, creating, sharing, and doing my best to be a good influence. But as much as I desire to be a positive person in this negative world, I'll be honest, it can be really daunting and discouraging sometimes. Especially in this realm of health and nutrition. So how can we be food positive in a food negative society? Well, we'll get there...
If you've been following my journey prior to this blog going public, you know I've been making a lot of transitions lately. I spent the whole last year blogging in different health-spheres. My first time blogging was simply just hobby, a chance to practice writing and expressing in a new and fun way. Then with some major life changes (getting engaged, married, and moving all in the course of 2 months), I had the amazing opportunity to discover more of what my piece of property on the internet could offer! I blogged for a while about food, sharing different new recipes I was trying out. I dabbled in some gluten free baking and quickly realized I am not made to do anything with xanthum gum! Then I tried some vegetarian cooking, experimenting with flavor and thinking I wanted to be a food blogger, work with brands, and influence people to eat "healthy" foods. But with all this trial and error, I realized that being healthy is so much more than just eating what everyone says is healthy. It's more than shopping at Whole Foods, or eating gluten free, or paleo, or vegetarian. I needed to share this discovery with as many people as I could
!I have nothing against gluten free meals, or paleo meals, or vegetarian meals for that matter. I love certain gluten free foods (and some, I'm sure you can attest to, simply are grotesque), and I love a good meatless meal where the veggies speak out so boldly in their color and flavor. But the problem with these and all other diets when sold to us as a quick fix or as the only healthy way to eat, is that they hold empty promises. They promise that your life will be better on the diet (which anyone on a diet knows that after the diet "honeymoon" this is not true), promise that you'll be skinnier by following their rules (which may happen originally, but we know that the weight loss most often doesn't last), and promise that you'll be more loved, more accepted, and feel better about yourself. The problem with where we're at today with health and nutrition is that it's accompanied with about a 100 million, billion rules. And rules create restriction...not freedom.So, how do we stay food positive in such a food negative society? A society where you have to eat, but be careful not to eat too much. A society where eating healthy is sold to us as being an all or nothing regime! How can we stay true to what is true? That all foods have their place in a healthy diet. That we have internal signals and cues when, if we listened to our bodies, would feel empowered and free to eat what we want, when we want it in a healthy way.Well, this is not a quick, easy fix unfortunately. But it is possible to stay positive when everyone around you seems to fear food.
Get rid of all the noise. Don't allow other people's choices sway you to following yet another ineffective, more-so harmful, diet.
Accept & Respect. In order to have a positive relationship with food, you've got to first accept and respect your body. If you don't, first, start with acceptance, it'll be really hard to stay above the negatives around food and body that surround you. Sometimes this acceptance may not mean always loving your body because we all have days when we don't love this or that about ourselves. But by accepting, you're saying, "I will take care of this body of mine, regardless of the noise around me telling me to look or be a certain way and regardless of my inner feelings about myself because, quite simply, this is the only body I have." You'll probably even notice that, the more often you push away negative thoughts about your body and instead move towards accepting and respecting it, you'll begin to cultivate a genuine love of the beautiful body you have. Trust me!
Stay Grounded. It's easy with all the hype on the latest food and health crazes to fall captive to needing this, that, or the other to be healthy. But stay grounded and remind yourself of what makes someone healthy. Remind yourself that it's far more than just what you put inside your body, but where your mind is as well! Unfortunately there's a lot of people stating non-research based statements about how to be your healthiest self. But when you stay grounded and remind yourself that being healthy can simply be eating a variety, eating mostly plants, and adding in all the other things you love wherever you crave them, you'll be fine!
So wherever you are, whether you're still dabbling with dieting or ready to make a lasting change to your health without any diets or restrictions, staying positive in this health negative world is necessary to living and loving life!