Building a healthy relationship with food
I don’t like the term ‘cheat meal’. It can lead to certain foods being demonized as it suggests consuming them isn’t allowed. This can lead to you creating an unhealthy relationship with eating by making you feel deprived of foods you enjoy and leaving you struggling to stick to your diet. You may even eventually binge on forbidden foods.
It can also create a stigma in your mind that some foods are terrible so when you do eat them, you are overwhelmed with guilt and feel that you have obliterated any progress you have made causing you to give up on your goals all together.
Our nutrition is vital when it comes to health and fitness and we should use food as best we can to fuel our day. Food is also something to be enjoyed. I love food! And eating certain foods can make us happy because of the way they taste and how they make us feel.
Food can be about socialising and enjoying time with friends and family. Lots of traditions involve food and bring people together so banning foods from your life can:
- Negatively impact relationships – you may turn down seeing friends because they are going out for a meal at a restaurant.
- Cast a negative shadow over a special occasion – you might spend the day feeling guilty for having a piece of cake at a birthday party rather than enjoying yourself.
A single plate of food is not going to destroy your gut or cause you to put on 20 pounds.
Now I am not saying you should throw caution to the wind whenever your friends ask you to go for a meal or you are invited to a birthday. Be smart about what you choose to eat, making sure you enjoy the occasion and the treat you choose to eat whilst not binging on everything in sight and undoing all your good work.
Don’t use one meal/treat as a scapegoat
It is estimated that there are around 3500cals in a pound of fat. So, if you are blaming the lack of fat loss progress on one meal or piece of cake then you need to check yourself and be honest with how consistent you have been over the past few weeks rather than demonising one unhealthy choice.
Instead of blaming certain foods, we need to take ownership of our health and fitness aspirations and know what we need to be eating and doing to get there so we can still enjoy everything food has to offer without disrupting progress.
The take home message is that in most cases no foods are ‘BAD’ but instead they all provide us with something. Whether it is nutrients, energy or flavour.
I want my treat meals to remind people that food is to be enjoyed and can be whilst progressing towards your fitness goals which is why I will be sharing my treat meals on my YouTube channel to remind people you can keep fit and healthy whilst still eating the foods you love!
