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Picture it.
You’re at a birthday party, and there is a beautiful tower of cupcakes. You love cupcakes. We’re talking real deal, like four tiers of cupcakes. All sorts of flavors — vanilla, chocolate, lemon, funfetti. The frosting looks prime. You can tell the cake looks super dense and moist and absolutely delicious.
Suddenly, you’re interrupted from admiring the cupcakes by intrusive, rapid thoughts that start bombarding you.
“Oh but wait…I’m supposed to be on a diet!” or
“I just ate ice cream 2 nights ago” or
“that probably has SO MUCH sugar. That’s so bad for you” or
“I’m going to the beach this weekend, I really shouldn’t.”
Surely, many of us can relate to being in situations like that. We make SO many decisions each day around food and drink. When should I eat, what should I eat, how much should I eat, where should I order from, where should I grocery shop? The decisions are endless.
On top of these decisions, we deal with diet culture messaging (check out this link for a good read, including Christy Harrison’s very thorough and widely referenced definition of diet culture). It can feel like there are a million competing messages and factors that are trying to influence our decisions around food. When that starts to happen, it can be difficult to listen to your own body. But truly, YOU are the ONLY one who can know what feels best for your body. Food is very personal, as we’ve touched on before.
What is Food Freedom?
So, how do we break this cycle? We practice finding food freedom. We find food freedom when we are in control of our food choices, as opposed to letting food or outside messaging control us. Instead of listening to those bombarding thoughts, you learn to listen to your body and you learn what makes you feel good. You trust yourself. There is no drama.
Culinary Freedom
How freeing would it be to see a recipe that includes real butter, or full-fat yogurt, or white rice and feel free to choose to use those ingredients because you know it will yield the best-tasting recipe?! How nice would it feel to double the vegetables in a recipe because the recipe is looking a little skimpy on the veggies and you know your body needs some veggies stat?! And instead of feeling guilty for having a few meals recently that are less balanced than usual, you p