Improving your relationship with food…

Original post was written in relation to Easter so some of the tips may mention this but they are still 100% relevant for all year round!

1-      Take a pause before your meal. Take a second to stop, take a few deep breaths and check in with how you feel

2-      Enjoy your meal mindfully. I don’t expect you to eat it while cross-legged on the floor with ‘ommmm’ chants playing in the background but take a second to observe how you feel, be present and without distractions and then truly taste the food instead of rushing through it

3-      Learn and recognise your hunger cues (This takes time and trust in your body!). Try to learn your internal cues, such as true hunger, energy levels and satiety levels instead of external cues, such as a set calorie target, diet rules, adverts and peer pressure.

4-      Learn the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger.  e.g Physical- builds up gradually, disappears after satisfied/ full, eating for physical satisfaction. Emotional- comes on suddenly, often a craving for a specific food, eating for emotional satisfaction

5-      Make sure to include novelty foods throughout the month. Including your favourite Easter foods throughout the month will help normalise them and reduce the binge-restrict cycle. Nothing wrong with having an Easter egg or a hot cross bun weeks before the actual day!

6-      (Follow on from tip 5) Method 1 for including novelty foods regularly- After a mindful meal. Choose 1 novelty food at a time and eat it mindfully after your main meal. Check in with yourself before and after eating it

7-      (Follow on from tip 5) Method 2 for including novelty foods regularly- Within a mindful meal. Choose 1 novelty food at a time and eat it mindfully as part of your main meal. Check in with yourself before and after eating it

8-      (Final follow on from tip 5) Repeat this exercise again and again and again... Keep repeating these exercises (i.e including your novelty foods as part of or after a meal) until you no longer fear the food, even if you felt like you overate them the day before.

9-      Start to practice unconditional permission to eat. This is the idea that “I can eat as much of this food as I want and that satisfies me, but that doesn’t mean I have to.” All foods are allowed and there should be no guilt or compensatory mechanisms used after eating such adding extra cardio or exercise

10-  Start using a hunger scale before eating. With 1 being absolutely ravenous and dizzy, and 10 being completely stuffed and feeling ill, start to think about where you are on this scale before eating. Aim to stay roughly within a 4-7 of this scale

11-  Practice more self-compassion. There are 2 types of this- Tender and Fierce. Tender is gentle and nurturing e.g “This is tough, what do I need to look after myself?” Fierce is protective and empowered. “What can I do that my future self will be thankful for?”

12-  Try some journalling. Easter, or any other big social events, can be an overwhelming time, especially when it comes to thinking about all the food! Try taking 5 mins to write down any worries about it all, but also try to write down some of the good bits you’re looking forward to this year!

13-  Ditch the “diet starts on Monday” mentality. This is so common but definitely one to ditch! This can just perpetuate the binge-restrict cycle so let’s ditch that mentality and remember that all foods can fit in your general diet throughout the whole week/ month/ year

14-  Think about any boundaries you want to set. Come up with any boundaries you need when those inevitable comments about food, exercise and bodies come up. These can be verbal boundaries (e.g “there’s way more interesting things to talk about than your new diet”) or physical boundaries (e.g walking away from a conversation)

15-  Plan some “if that, then this” strategies. Come up with some strategies for when certain events come up e.g If someone gets the mini egg bags out, then I’ll take a small handful and eat them mindfully (and a reminder that you still have unconditional permission to go back for as many more as you want!!)

16-  Plan some subtle meditation/ mindfulness practices to use in busy environments. Big family events can be very overwhelming so it can be hard to remain mindful, especially around the food. You can’t whip out the yoga mat but you can do some quiet box breathing, subtly stroke your forearm to bring awareness back to your body, or sneak to the toilets for a super quick stretch

17-  Stop skipping breakfast! It’s tempting to skip breakfast on the mornings when you know you may be eating more than usual later, but this can then make you hungrier and be more out of control. Try to have a decent, balanced breakfast so you aren’t ravenous for the rest of the day

18-  Remember that you don’t have to always clear your plate to seem polite. A lot of us grew up in the ‘clean plate club’ where we weren’t allowed to have dessert or leave the table until our plates were empty. But remember that you don’t have to still do this and ignore your fullness cues just to seem polite

19-  Plan some alternative methods for coping with stress rather than turning to food. Journal, call a friend, knit, go for a walk, dance to your favourite song, read, do some yoga/ stretching, watch your favourite TV show etc

20-  Stop trying to control your body weight within a tiny range (i.e within 1-2kg) or don’t weigh yourself at all. It’s natural and normal to gain some weight over the Easter weekend (likely a lot of water weight anyway!) so stop trying to control your bodyweight so much

21-  Be okay with relaxing your normal routine over the Easter weekend. Even with all the motivation in the World, it’s still hard to maintain your normal routines during this time so stop attempting to try to keep it exactly as it is

22-  Stop planning your overly-restrictive post-Easter diet. Although this is not as common as the typical ‘January diet’, a lot of people still do it! Anticipating restricting can increase the risk for binge-eating

23-  Memories over macros. I for sure know that I want to look back on this Easter and remember the lovely first Easter with my nieces (who’ll hopefully be dressed up as chicks!) over the idea of perfectly sticking to a diet!