What to Do With Your Nutrition Knowledge Without Sinking Back Into Disordered Eating
I've been in a little bit of a rut lately with writing. Just being honest. It's not that I have nothing to write about, but I just have SO much to write about that I can't even start! This week I planned on sharing something else with you guys, but I felt that this topic of what to do with all of your nutrition knowledge (I know you're smart in this area :) ) was far more important right now. Because I've experienced first hand the slippery slope that is nutrition. Which is sad because learning about the human body, learning about my own body and how my own body responds best to food, has been so freeing and so enlightening! But also, I realize that learning about the ins and outs of health and nutrition also has to be a careful subject. Especially because that pursuit is what lead me to disordered eating in the first place.
So, what do you do with the things that you hear on the news, on blogs, in magazines, etc. about the latest changes to what is or isn't "healthy"? More so, how do you approach wanting to eat well and take care of your body without going off the deep end and landing in the land of obsession?This is something I've been wrestling with lately. Because, knowing my history with taking nutrition to the extreme, I was in a sense scared to even consider nutrition. I wasn't eating a diet of only donuts and pizza. But I was afraid to even learn more about nutrition and my body for fear I'd take it too far.
But something cool has happened. I've been in a continuing education course the last couple months for some more nutrition and coaching training to better serve you all, and what I've found with learning more about the body, nutrition, etc is that there IS a healthy balance of being empowered by knowledge of how nutrition affects your body so that you can feel your best self without taking it to the extreme. Knowledge IS power when it comes to nutrition! But you, first, have a healthy mind around it.
Working with clients who have some extent of disordered relationship with food and some obsessions with healthy eating, my first and foremost goal for them is to help them envelope a healthy relationship with food. Because, unless you have a healthy relationship with food your health will suffer. Health is not all about food and what you eat. Food plays a role, but healing has to start with your mind.
From there, you can begin to approach nutrition from a place of self care, as a way to love on your body instead of control it. Good nutrition helps you feel your best, it empowers your body to do all the things you want to do. Nutrition has a role in your health. But we have to first understand that it's not an end all, be all.
There are truths to what is most nourishing for your body and what isn't. The reality is, the world we live in today is very different, nutritionally, than the world our ancestors lived in. Foods more resemble chemicals made in a lab than food our grandmothers grew in their gardens.So how do we take in this knowledge around nutrition and what is healthy for our bodies and what isn't, without going extreme?
Approach nutrition from a "grey point of view".
The first thing we have remember is that "healthy eating" isn't black and white. Eating something that's processed isn't going to kill you just like eating a kale salad won't make you instantly healthy. Neither extremes of thinking about food are good for you. We have to allow all the foods, give ourselves full freedom to make choices for what we want from food, over restricting our diets in any extreme measure or mindset. I wrote a little more on this "grey" thinking about eating here if you want to read more on that!
Live in freedom over fear.
We can't be slaves to fear. Fear robs us of all things good, healthy and unhealthy foods alike. But it also robs us from other joys in life...friendships, relationships, enjoying nature, enjoying our bodies, time with family, our own personal growth. Freedom is the opposite of what we get from restricting our diets, obsessing over calories and macros, and forcing ourselves to exercise when our body says it needs rest. You can live a life that's healthy and well without living in fear of foods. What it takes is letting go to focus on what really matters in life.
Take all knowledge with a grain of salt.
In our diet-focused and weight-focused world, news on what is or isn't healthy is often dramatized. The belief by our media is that fear is going to elicit change, when the reality is fear paralyzes us. If we avoided everything our media says is "bad" to eat, we'd starve, and many women in our world ARE starving. Not because they're living in poverty but because they're afraid to eat. Know that our bodies are amazing and able to deal with a lot more than what we give it credit for. The best approach? Take all things you hear about what is and isn't healthy and do your own research! Don't always take what other people say as truth before asking your own questions and finding the answer for yourself.
My approach...
Eat all the foods! Don't say "no" to anything if you're really craving it. Eat to feel good, notice how your body feels with foods instead, of what many people do, just eating without thinking. Eat mostly as close to how our ancestors ate. Eat a variety of veggies and grains as unprocessed as you can.But mostly, use your knowledge about nutrition to empower you, not to drive you to fear. Hey, let's start a discussion on how to approach healthy eating and nutrition from a place of freedom over fear...comment below with your experiences!