In a diet and body-image-obsessed society, have we normalised under-eating with silent negative consequences?

A disordered relationship with food is akin to wearing an itchy jumper. A cheap, itchy jumper.

When you first put it on, it keeps you nice and warm. However, it is not made of very good wool, so it starts to itch after a while. Sometimes, you might feel like taking it off, but you know that if you do, you will be cold, so you put up with the itchiness. With time, however, the itchiness gets harder and harder to tolerate.

How might your relationship with food be serving you?

Hmmm. I am proposing that, consciously or not, your eating behaviours may have served a purpose in your life.

For many of us, the path to Intuitive Eating begins with untangling the complex threads of emotional eating tendencies. We delve into the intricate relationship between our emotions and food choices, acknowledging that emotional eating is a natural response to stress, sadness, and other feelings. By recognizing our emotional triggers, we empower ourselves to make thoughtful decisions honouring our emotional and physical needs.

Here is the thing about body image work…you don’t have to love your body.

No matter how many memes we save on Instagram, moving from body bashing to loving your body doesn’t happen overnight. That’s a huge ask to make of anyone. Especially when we have been conditioned to be on opposing sides. Waging war with it, trying to restrict and sweat it into submission.

It’s tricky to give ourselves permission to prioritise and make space for creativity and play. We live in a society that conditions us, especially women, to justify downtime. That makes us feel guilty for resting, for being ‘frivolous’ with time when we could reorganise a cupboard and earn our productivity stripes.

Still, we can take a beat to consider why we find it difficult. To ask the questions;

Who told us that story?

Where does the idea we can’t make space to let loose and go to the adult roller disco come from?

What would it feel like to do the thing and not give a flying fish what anyone else thought?

What if we just swung from the monkey bars, and the only thought we had was I love how this feels?

Why calorie counting isn’t a science.

Ditch the scales. Why weighing yourself isn’t a true measure.

Could you just love me like this?