You may have heard of the podcast "Food Psych" by Christy Harrison, MPH RD CDN. I highly recommend it. Harrison has a great quote from this podcast: "Self-care over self-control."
So often we focus on controlling what we eat and our weight. Our culture promotes a sense of right and wrong when it comes to eating, especially when it comes to weight. This promotes feelings of shame and guilt when we eat something we're not "supposed" to or when our weight is not where we want it. Realistically, weight is extremely difficult to control. Also, weight loss may not be linked to better health. Dr. Linda Bacon, PhD, and Lucy Aphramor, RD, published a paper in which they show the association between obesity and health conditions is non-existent or greatly reduced when other factors, such as socioeconomic status, weight cycling, fitness, activity and nutrient intake, are controlled for. I believe the stress induced by feeling ashamed or guilty because of what we we eat or our weight is not worth it. Instead, what if we were to focus on steps we can take to actually take care of ourselves?
If you want to journey down the road of selfare, it is helpful to start by paying attention to your body's hunger and fullness cues. Try to eat before you are so weak and hungry that you overeat. Try to stop eating before you get to the point of being so full you feel sick. Try to stay between those two points most of the time.
Also helpful is taking stock of what will help you feel and perform your best. Sure, maybe you'd like to eat a lot of a certain food, but you're also aware that will make you feel tired and sluggish for the rest of the day. So maybe you eat a smaller portion of that food. If you are noticing hunger and fullness, you may also find you need a different amount of that food to feel satisfied.
Another good step to take towards self-care is finding some sort of movement you enjoy. Sometimes this is called joyful movement. If you are exercising because you think you need to in order to achieve a certain weight, you are likely not going to continue to exercise if you don't reach your weight goals. Whereas if you find a form of movement you enjoy you are more likely to look forward to doing that and continue to do so.
In the end, food is food. It is meant to nourish our bodies and provide us with a sense of pleasure while eating. Every food has some sort of nourishing value. Let's get back to focusing on what our bodies need and what will help us live our best lives rather than focusing on whether a food is right or wrong to eat. We don't need to fight our bodies. Let's work with them instead.
Lynn Eaton R.D., L.D., CDE is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator. She works at Capital Region Medical Center and provides diabetes education by appointment. She also writes a nutrition blog, which you can follow at nutritionnotions.wordpress.com.