Whether you want to accept it or not your relationship with food is permanent and long term. Having a healthy relationship with food can benefit your health and your life in ways you never knew it could. Investing in building strong foundations for this relationship to grow is your way of simply showing to yourself that you love you.
So, first things first, avoid using labels. It never helps and it creates a feeling of hostility. So, what if the term “guilt-free” food did not exist? Saying that certain foods are guilt or sin-free implies that food holds the power to make you feel guilty for eating it or that food itself can be guilty of harming your body. Well no one wants that right? But this doesn’t make any sense; not only it takes the pleasure out of eating, it also diminishes your power of having self-control and it turns many delicious foods into your demons while food is nourishing.
Now, how do you build a healthier relationship with food? Start from banning the food-related usage of the terms good/bad. We are not referring to those cases where you simply say “Wow, I love that food. It’s really good,” or “Yuck, that milk has gone bad”, but rather when you feel that you are either good or bad for eating a certain food or when you call a food good or bad based of popular belief.
The truth is that you just need to accept foods for what they are – foods. Food itself as a word has a neutral meaning but the way you think and feel about it and the way you eat it define the relationship you are choosing to have with it. Surround yourself with your favorite foods and break the myth that food is the evil force that pulls you down.
Like love is nourishing for the heart and soul, but learning to truly love yourself is challenging, the same applies to food; although it’s nourishing for your body, learning to love it and enjoy eating it is not only challenging but really difficult.
When you like the way a food tastes, it makes you feel so good that boosts your mood and suddenly that certain food sounds like the best choice despite its fat or its calories.
On the other hand, when you don’t enjoy the taste of a food, even if you think it’s good for you, you are not in the mood to eat it and you don’t feel good eating it and then of course you are left being dissatisfied and you want to eat more.
The point is to enjoy what you are eating, without any labels, based on your own unique identity and preferences. It doesn’t matter how many celebrities eat or drink a certain food, if you don’t like it you will simply not enjoy it.
So go for your own choice and start enjoying your freedom of choosing what suits your taste and as a result your relationship with food will become healthier.