Healthy Chicks

During my days as a chronic, obsessive dieter, I knew my relationship with food was not normal, but I just couldn’t stop. It was like being in a toxic relationship — you know the dude’s not right for you but for some reason you stay. Meanwhile, all your friends are like get the eff out of that. Then years later, you look back and say “What the hell was I thinking?”

That was me with food!

When I was in college, I so envied my friends who could eat normal. They’d nonchalantly order a pizza after a long night out, get a salad whenever they felt like eating salad, and be able to have a bagel on a Sunday (with all the fixings!) without guilt. I wanted that. But instead, I sat there drooling over their meals, as I anxiously counted calories, picked apart my sandwich and ordered what I thought was “healthy.”

Years later when I decided to quit dieting once and for all — cold turkey — I subconsciously began to develop the mindset of what I referred to as a “normal eater.” I realized right then and there that it wasn’t about what or how they ate at all; it’s about the way you think about food and your body.

Once again, it goes back to mindset.

Here are 5 mindset shifts I experienced during my journey to becoming a “normal” eater:

1. “I can eat anything I want, if I want it.”

This is a biggie. Those who are restricting themselves tend to follow certain rules or guidelines when it comes to food, which can get you into big trouble. Think about when you were little and told you couldn’t have that toy or cookie for dessert. Makes you just want it more and more, right? Same with eating.

When you label foods as “off limit” or “good” and “bad” you’re attaching an emotion to your meal. Instead of thinking X is good and X is bad, you must get to a place where all food is food and you can have anything you’d like if you really want it.

2. “I’m eating x because x makes me feel good.”

This brings me to point #2. Dieters or those with a crazy relationship with food (like I once had!) often eat something because they’re told they should (from a nutritionist, diet book, magazine, best friend etc.) or because they think said food is healthy for them. This goes back to my years of ordering a bland iceberg salad for lunch everyday because I actually thought I was making a low-calorie, healthy choice that would make me lose weight.

What I didn’t realize is this way of eating was dangerous, in that I was ignoring my bodies natural cues. I honestly didn’t know what made me feel good, and what made me feel crappy since I was so caught up in what was “healthy” or “right.” All of our bodies are made up different, and what works for one may not work for another. Play around with food, and eat the foods that make you feel good. Here’s the best part: Once you begin practicing this, you don’t even think of it anymore. It simply becomes innate to do and eat the things that make you feel your very best. Kind of a no-brainer, right?

3. “I’ll eat whenever I freakin’ feel like eating.”

A dieter’s mindset is very routine and regimented. You eat around the clock, and likely think about food a l l. d a y. l o n g. I remember ever so carefully planning out my schedule of exactly what I’d eat, and how many calories I had consumed thus far. It was absolutely exhausting! I’d often starve myself when I was hungry because I was “bad” the night before, or eat just to eat because I was so out of whack.

As you transition into normal eating habits, you begin to eat when you feel like eating. This goes back to listening to your body. What’s it craving? Is your stomach growling? Is it dinner time? Are you going out to lunch with your girls? Are you truly hungry? The rest of the time, you start to not even think about food because it becomes irrelevant.

4. “La La La, I’m having my cake and eating it too. So, about The Bachelorette last night…”

Which brings me to my next point: normal eaters don’t think about food all the effin time. They can have a slice of cake and forget about it. They can order a box of pizza, and stop at just two slices because they’re full and then forget that the leftovers are even in the fridge. They can eat “too much” one night and then get a stomach ache and drink some water or ginger tea and move on with it. There’s a whole lot of things more important than food, you know like who JoJo sent home.

5. “No mom, I’m not hungry right now! We’re building a fort!”

This one’s probably my favorite of all. Remember when you were a little kid, and your mom would ring the dinner bell but you just wanted to keep playing? That’s how normal eaters think. There’s so much other fulfilling things going on in our lives — from career to relationships to spirituality to play — that eating starts to take a seat on the back-burner. I mean, why obsess over the calories in your salad all day when you could be building a magical fort?

Do you struggle with eating “normally” now or in the past? Which of these mindsets resonates with you most?

xoxo,

Rachel