The Mindset You Need For Healthy Food Relationships
Mindset is everything. The way we think plays a key role in our relationships with our body and food. Not everything your brain says is true. In fact, most of the feedback and unconscious thinking your brain does is utter BS. If we listened to every single thought or piece of feedback our brains register, we’d never accomplish anything. Scarcity mindset is that pesky little voice telling us that there’s not enough to go around, that we aren’t good enough, that we can’t or shouldn’t do something because it’s new or challenging. This is just our lizard brain trying to protect us from predatory danger or famine.
Diet mentality makes us operate from a place of scarcity. When we diet we restrict foods we think we can’t or shouldn’t have because they’re “bad”. Diet mentality triggers scarcity mindset. When this happens, it makes us solely focus on the things we want but can’t have. It cuts off our thinking to all the other possibilities out there. What happens then? Well, misery and the inevitable over eating or binging of said “scarce/bad” food. There’s another way to operate but that means flipping the script on how we think.
Behold! ABUNDANCE MINDSET!
Abundance mindset frees us from our lizard brain’s crazy, negative nancy thoughts. Food is no longer scarce, therefore we don’t have no use for preparing for famine by stuffing ourselves. We can eat whatever we want, whenever we want. This also applies to my peeps with hormonal imbalances or gut issues that need to pay close attention to their intake. The abundantly we think, the more doors will open up. Abundant thinking is all about standing outside with our palms open as it rains down money. All we have to do is catch it. More than that, by flipping our mindset, we free ourselves from the lather, rinse, repeat that is the diet cycle. When we start from a place of abundance, we are able to better attune to what we desire and listen to our instincts. We are able to make better decisions.
Imagine a large spread of food. Scarcity/diet mindset tells us that all that food will run out or that we’ll never be able to have that food after today so we better eat everything in sight. On the other hand, abundance mentality allows us to see the spread and know that there’s enough for everyone. Coming from a place of abundance assures us that we can have all foods whenever we want, so no sweat if we’re not feeling it today. With this mindset we are able to break free from restriction and really ask ourselves what we’re truly crave on that spread. In doing so, we are able to make our plates with mindfulness and gratitude.
Tips to fine tune Abundance Mentality
Give yourself permission: to eat any and all foods you want at any given moment, to be imperfect, to rest and find balance. You may find that after allowing yourself foods you’ve restricted in the past that they don’t taste as good as you may have built them up to be in your brain. You may find it’s easier to find balance when you give yourself more flexibility on your plate and in your workouts.
There is enough pie to go around. Reminding yourself that there is enough to go around and that if you decide you want more, then you have the ability to simply go for it. This thinking will give you the opportunity to ask yourself if you want more and of what.
Resist diet culture. Resist programs or teachings that insist on restricting or elevating certain foods or food groups in the name of weight loss. All foods fit in a healthy lifestyle and there are no superfoods. Healthy nutrition is about balance. Being able to detect diet culture can be really helpful when it comes to overcoming scarcity mindset. It’s sneaky. You do not have to work off your calories, you do not have to cut out carbs. You deserve to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. You don’t have to clean your plate and you don’t need anyone or anything telling you what you can, can’t, or should eat in order to be healthy. Your plate is no one else’s business but your own.
Mindset can really help change the game. When we are able to think about and have gratitude for all that’s in front of us rather than focusing on what we don’t or can’t have, we can be better and more thoughtful decisions makers. And I’m not just talking about when there’s a bag of chips right in front of us, but in all things.
