Assessing your relationship with food is essential for learning what nutrition protocols work for you, and in achieving body compositional change. When we understand where we are at in terms of our mindset towards nutrition, it then becomes a lot easier to create change, achieve your goals, but also most importantly, to find food freedom. 

It is quite common for women especially to have negative connotations towards food, and honestly who can blame themselves? We are surrounded by a plethora of misleading nutrition information, fad diets, fat-loss products, ‘fitspo’ influencers and more in an over-saturated industry. Most of which do not have evidence-based research and foundations behind them. 

The health and fitness industry is difficult to navigate, particularly in the world of social media, and it can leave your mind reeling on which approach is the one you should follow. This generally leads to an all-or-nothing approach and yo-yo dieting, fueling feelings of frustration, anxiety, guilt and sometimes anger towards yourself for not getting it right. 

The biggest lesson in this is to phase out the poor influences, the trending diets, and strip everything down BACK TO BASICS. 

I truly believe and have seen for my own eyes in myself and our members’ experiences, that if you do not firstly address your relationship and mindset towards food, then any progress you try to make in the nutrition realm is likely to fail, because we havent addressed the underlying cause. 

Are you in a restrictive mindset or an abundance mindset?

Figuring this out and implementing ways to re-train your mind will be a game changer. 

Let’s break it down…

Restrictive mindset:

When it comes to nutrition, the common approach is to be restrictive… I can’t have this, I can’t have that, I need to eat less, chocolate is the devil, etc. etc. This mentality fuels a vicious cycle of restriction, negativity, fear of the foods you love, and then ultimately guilt and self-loathing when you do reach for the foods you’ve told yourself not to eat. And this generally leads to overconsumption of the foods you wanted to avoid in the first place, undoing all of your ‘hard work’ leading up to that point!

When you are in this mindset, it is unfortunately inevitable that your resolve will break down. Food has become much more than fuel, it is now a part of our culture and society, and a massive cause for enjoyment for so many of us. How many social events are planned around food? It is unrealistic to continue in this restrictive cycle, trying to avoid all the things you genuinely enjoy. 

The restriction is what leads to the overconsumption!

Abundance mindset:

An abundance mindset is removing this idea of restriction, flipping the switch, and focusing on what you CAN include in your diet to fuel your body, fuel your goals, and just as importantly, fuel your soul. It definitely takes some practice, but instead of labeling foods as good and bad, change it around to look at how certain foods will serve you. This will totally transform your relationship with food and yourself. 

 So how do we implement this?

Firstly, look at having 3 balanced meals every day, including a protein source, a wholefood carbohydrate source and healthy fats. This will provide your body with the energy it requires to function, as well as keeping your satiated throughout the day. 

Next, make sure to account for your social events and your ‘soul foods’. Going out for dinner with the girlfriends? Awesome, it’s on the meal plan. Are you a chocoholic? Perfect, account for a little bit of chocolate each night. Love trying new restaurants? Amazing, order takeaway once a week from a new place. 

The more awareness you build around both the healthy and balanced side of your diet as well as the enjoyment side, so much pressure is lifted off your shoulder. 

It IS possible to get results and still eat chocolate. It IS possible to enjoy things in moderation. And it IS possible to feel happy and satisified in your nutrition journey. 

This doesn’t happen over night, but be kind to yourself and strive to be 1% better every day. It is always a learning curve.