Nutrition should fuel the body, mind and soul…well, your activities and sport, too.
Eating healthy should become a natural way of taking care of self not a list of beratements and restriction from your health practitioner. Nutrition as a fuel is a kinder way to look at food.
‘That is why I like working with you vs the RD Nazi…’
‘You help me better understand the reasons behind why I do what I do and learn how to work through triggers.’
We review what is really causing the issue where you are not using nutrition for fueling:
– is it mis-balanced blood sugar causing craving for sweets?
– is it you missed a meal and low blood sugar is causing your craving for sweets?
– is it stress? Dark chocolate can be grounding….Chocolate or other sweets may be the only ‘sweet’ thing in your life at that moment!
For some, they want to be rigid which is a way of controlling vs understanding. Being rigid is not usually a recipe for long term success. Repeating a good habit can help make it permanent.
I have found that helping clients learn and understand the triggers has been more useful in creating a sustainable program without guilt or severe restrictions. Food is supposed to be fun. Food should fuel your activities and not be diminished to some calorie counting task.
You’re not going to gain weight from that 100 calories of chocolate! But if you eat the whole bag…we may have a different or greater issue to work on.
That chocolate will not metabolize well if you have judgements of baddness towards yourself for eating it or for the chocolate itself.
You may feel like you are directly applying chocolate onto your thighs or ‘problem area’.
From my experience, knowing more about the underlying emotion or issue is more helpful. It helps you work through the real issue without punishment.
This helps you re-frame food into a nutrition as fuel mindset and allow you to really pay attention to how you feel based on your choices. It allows for loving kindness to exist over self-defeat, punishment and judgement for being ‘bad’ on your diet.
You can then accept that yes, you NEED to eat that chocolate even when stressed…and it becomes a non event that does not trigger you to abandon your goals. You stay true to what you need, know how to be kind to yourself in the process, and choose nutrition to fuel your body to feel good, not just choose food to fill a calorie checklist.
I invite you to start looking at what you are doing and where your advice leads you – down the road of self-defeat and beratement, or a place of peace joy which sometimes includes plenty of chocolate!
With the client I was referring to above, we uncovered the issues the Nazi RD was berating her for. We helped her work through the stress and triggers with breathing, mindfulness and alternatives that would be an option. But with the mindfulness tools, I gave her permission to feel stressed, breath and eat that ‘calorie laden’ chocolate peanut ball….and by the next session, she still had them, but fewer of them because she discovered a new tool to counteract stress without using food.
If you want some assistance, please contact me or check out the Be Whole program and/ or the Emotional Release Techniques program. We can discuss your situation and suggest a healthier alternative both nutrition and how you react to stressors. You too can view nutrition as fuel for your happiest life.