New year, new you? The new year often feels like a fresh start and an amazing opportunity to break bad habits and establish new routines, but did you know that more than half of all resolutions fail? Stop the cycle this year by learning how to use nutrition as a TOOL, not a weapon.
Here are 4 tips to help you beat the odds:
Avoid words like: SHOULD, SHOULDN’T, MUST, OUGHT, ALWAYS, BAD, OR NEVER. As humans, when we label foods as “bad” or “off-limits” we begin to glorify and fixate on them because we’ve told ourselves we can’t have them. For example, maybe you say to a friend, “I shouldn’t grab a second plate”, or “I’m eating another cookie, I’m so bad.” Did you know that one of the most common and long-lasting negative effects of dieting is food obsession?
In other words, the more we restrict our food intake or restrict certain foods, the more we think about it. The foods that are considered to be “bad” are romanticized, glorified, and are put on a pedestal. When this happens, you might find yourself watching more cooking shows, daydreaming about food, or devoting hours of your time to planning your next cheat meal. The more we avoid the foods we want, the more we want those foods. The key here is to stop labeling foods and allow yourself to have the foods that you’re craving instead of restricting them.
Get curious about your eating habits. The drive to want to start a new diet can be a way of coping with emotions. Emotional dieting is when we use dieting to soothe and heal ourselves, which is another reason why dieting is so addictive. It’s easier to believe that our weight is the issue, especially in a culture that praises thinness. It’s also easier to blame our weight than to face rejection, loneliness, anxiety, hurt, shame, and fear of the unknown. We believe that dieting will protect us from feeling these things, so we numb ourselves by obsessing over our weight and planning our next attempt at weight loss. It gives us hope that we have “control” and that everything will be fine if we just lose weight.
Instead, don’t be afraid to explore why you are eating and how you feel emotionally after you’re done. Additionally, seek out a health professional that can help you work through your thoughts about food, emotions, and body image such as a mental health therapist, dietitian, etc. Lastly, don’t focus on Dieting/Cleansing as it can trigger overeating, binge eating and can lead to more mental health issues.
Amp up your self-care game. This can look different for anyone. Remember, self-love isn’t always a day at the spa; it can also look like taking 10 minutes to be by yourself and doing some deep breathing and meditation exercises, or it could be setting healthy boundaries in situations that are negatively impacting your stress levels and health. Wear those face masks you got as stocking stuffers this year, take time to moisturize your entire body, drink more water, go to bed earlier, wake up every day with a stretching routine ready to go, get your nails done (or do them yourself), drink tea, rub on some essential oils, take a nap, etc. Seriously, just do you, in the simplest, and most feel-good ways possible.
Put weight-loss on the back-burner. Know that it’s OK to want to lose weight, but don’t make it your primary focus! Remember when we talked about goals and intentions last week? In this blog post, I discussed the importance of selecting a resolution that affects how you will feel, instead of your outward appearance. Rather than focusing on a single, superficial measure of success like wanting to lose five pounds or wanting to look a certain way, consider selecting a resolution that affects how you will feel, such as having more energy, less pain, and being in a happier mood. Remember that numbers on the scale can fluctuate daily, therefore, weight isn’t the most accurate health measure.
This new year, cut yourself some slack and slowly start to implement these tips into your daily routine! Hop off the diet bandwagon and hop on the train of sustainable & healthy habits instead.
