Healthy
Holidays Group Week 4!
Challenging the Food Police…
The food police is anything or anyone that tells you that what you are
eating is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
Many people feel guilty after stealing or lying. The same type of guilt can also be felt after
eating something “naughty”. With so many
daily reminders, it’s difficult to view food as just a normal pleasurable activity
because it either makes you ’good’ or ‘bad’.
The first step in challenging the food police is to identify who is
talking…
Who’s Talking to You?
We all have inner voices that talk to us all
day, every day. Which of these voices is
talking to you?
The Food
Police: This could be your inner
judge telling you whether a food is ’good’ or ‘bad’. (Or it
could be a look from your spouse or family member…) The food police keeps your body and food at
war. “Are you really going to eat that?” “I’m so naughty for eating this cheesecake.” “I’m so good for having just a salad for
dinner.”
Nutrition
Informant: You believe you have rejected dieting and now TRULY want to eat in the
name of health... but are still living by rules… Such as “I will not eat food with added
sweeteners or anything that has X amount of fat grams.” This is still diet mentality. When released from the food police aspect of
this, then this voice becomes a Nutrition
Ally and that’s the voice
we want to hear.
Nutrition
Ally: Eating in the name of health with no hidden agenda! Let’s say you have decided you want to have a
salad for lunch. You head over to the
salad bar and see all your options there. The bacon and cheese look good but
would the salad still be satisfying without loading it up with bacon and extra
cheese? This is when you start making healthy choices
and cutting out less healthy things because you won’t miss them. How can you tell between the Nutrition Informant and the Nutrition Ally? How do you feel? If you feel guilty you’re probably listening
to your Nutrition Informant voice.
The Diet
Rebel: “I’m just going to wait until my spouse
goes out of town so I can eat what I want!”
This is the “screw you” voice. “Oh,
you think I need to lose five pounds?....fine I’ll gain 10!”
Rebel Ally: Use your mouth for
words instead of food in a direct but polite manner. No one has the right to comment on your body
or make you eat more or less than you want.
Change that Diet
Rebel voice into the Rebel Ally voice!
Anthropologist: This is just a neutral observer. “Ok…so I ate ten cookies (no judgment, just
facts). Hmm…..I skipped breakfast and
was ravenous at 2.”
“I felt a little guilty after eating that dessert.” (no condescending
statements, just an observation of how you felt).
Keeping a food journal can help awaken your Food Anthropologist. It’s an experiment, not a tool of the food
police. This voice can help find
loopholes in your thinking but it does take practice.
Nurturer: This is the loving
grandma voice. “I really overate today… I wonder what I was feeling that could
have made me need more food to comfort myself? When I take care of myself I
feel great! I’m doing so well this week!
There were only a few times I didn’t honor my hunger. Losing weight is a long and slow process, and
I’m having many successes along the way.”
The nurturer speaks kindly to yourself.
The Intuitive Eater: You were born as an
intuitive eater. But chances are your
Intuitive Eater voice has been suppressed by these other voices at this point. Intuitive Eating is a combination of the positive
voices and knows how to defend against the food police. These are your gut and instinctual reactions.
Self- Talk and Self Awareness
We need to
learn to be aware of those voices that speak to us every day. Are they negative? Are they positive? How do they make us feel?
Our
self-talk should be positive and if not we need to change it!
Today,
notice those thoughts that pop into your head….What are they saying to
you?
If they’re
negative, change them to a positive!
“The next time you see yourself eating in a way that feels
uncomfortable, unsatisfying,
or even out of control,
try to remember what you were thinking before you took that first bite
of food.
Examine that thought and challenge it.”
