5 "Food Rules" to Ditch in the New Year
“Food rules” are beliefs and guidelines we consciously and subconsciously may have around food and eating patterns. They can creep into our lives without even knowing it. Many of these food rules were brought into your life when you were younger at home. Without you consciously realizing it, they may have become your belief system around food, and are probably affecting the way you view food today.
Were you always expected to clean your plate at every meal? Were there certain rules about having dessert? Did your family ban chips and cookies from the cabinet, so you had to sneak in eating them at your friends house? If you’re nodding your head to any of this… we hear you! It’s not that our families had ill intent… they just didn’t realize that these “rules” could play out into our future eating patterns.
We get these “rules” from the media too…. How about the trend, intermittent fasting, that says you can eat what you want but it needs to be within a certain time restricted window? Or that eating carbs at night will make you fat. Or even that you should cut out all carbs and all sugars (including fruit, because that has sugar too) out of your diet? Or, that you need to count and track every morsel of food in order to be healthy.
When you read these in writing, they seem a little extreme, don’t they? But, it's so easy to fall prey to these “food rules” which ultimately keep us further and further away from a harmonious relationship between us, our food, and our bodies.
Going into the new year, we encourage you to ditch these 5 food rules:
Ditch your eating window. There is not enough evidence to support intermittent fasting right now, and ultimately, we want to encourage you to listen to your body and hunger cues, not suppress them.
Ditch the no dessert/sweets rule. This is a popular rule as we come off the holiday season, but remember, this will likely work in reverse and will leave you potentially craving/binging more than you would have if you just enjoyed the cookie you were craving in the first place.
Ditch the all or nothing mindset. It’s easy to say that January 1st you’re stopping all of the carbs, the sweets, and anything else you deem unhealthy, but going cold turkey is not a sustainable lifestyle.
Ditch the “good vs bad” food lingo. We don’t need to view food as good or bad. Food is energy, it is neutral, it is neither good or bad.
Ditch the counting. Counting every calorie and every macro gives us a high because it is something we can control, but nourishing our body is not about control, it’s about optimally fueling our body so it can work the best it possibly can.
Instead, we want to encourage you to:
Listen to your body. Pause, do a quick body scan, and then assess what your body needs.
Enjoy a variety of foods. ALL foods provide some sort of benefit (even if its just pleasure!) and all are necessary for a healthy life.
Drop the guilt, and instead, focusing on gratitude for your health, food, and your body.
Start digging into your own beliefs- maybe there are a few you can uncover, and reframe.
Fill your mind, your social media, and your environment with positivity. The more you fuel your life with positive, non diet media, the better you will feel physically and mentally.
These are just a few ideas that we believe will help to encourage you to focus on yourself, your health, your mindset, and your relationship with food. You CAN do this!
For more, we want to encourage you to stay connected, tune into the Fit Friends Happy Hour podcast, and check out the Reboot Bootcamp with Katie that will help you get a solid foundation for the new year.