In today’s society, there is no doubt that weight loss and dieting is a major topic.
This diet mentality can very often put different types of food in a negative light and can be very triggering, especially for someone recovering from an eating disorder. Eating disorder thoughts can thrive off of society’s focus on dieting. This message not only gives the eating disorder more power, but it also enforces and validates these inaccurate thoughts.
Whether you have an eating disorder or not, standing up to society’s food labeling is revolutionary. If you can work on using positive self-talk to contradict these thoughts, more power will be placed in your hands and society will have less of an impact on your lifestyle. That is why it is so important to catch hold of these irrational thoughts before they escalate!
The key to unlocking these frustrations is to challenge society’s rigidity about what is “healthy” and what isn’t is by thinking of food as energy rather than the enemy. When I was in the depths of my eating disorder, I fell right into the traps of what a magazine article would tell me was a “healthy” or an “unhealthy” food. Even today I sometimes still have to challenge the dieting mentality of our world, but through my recovery process, I have been able to simply let those food comments have no place in my life.
Now, this will take time, but the more you challenge those negative food thoughts, the less power they’ll have. Something that can be helpful is to list all the things food does for our bodies. When you see a weight loss commercial on TV it tends to address all the negative aspects of food, when in reality food does just the opposite. At the end of the day, all food keeps our body going.
Make a list of all the things you appreciate about your body. Maybe it helps you focus on school or work. Maybe it helps you feel ready to conquer the day. Whatever it is, food does unbelievably large favors to our body.
However, whenever you find that you are associating a negative connotation with food, say in your head or aloud (if the time is appropriate) what you’re thankful for that your body does. Then, think of how without food that action wouldn’t be possible for your body to accomplish.
As you continue to stand up to society’s ‘what’s healthy and what isn’t attitude,’ perhaps you’ll even be able to make a difference. Food is food and without it, humans wouldn’t be able to survive. I hope that no matter how strong your opinion towards a certain food may be, next time you work to challenge the power of that thought.
A negative food thought is just a thought. You don’t have to act out on it. And remember, if you can’t think of any counteracting positive thought, you can always respond to that negativity with “food is energy, not the enemy.”
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