Build A Good Relationship With Food For Results

'You can't hate yourself thin' – C. Ross

So often I see clients that try to bully, shame, coerce, or degrade themselves into losing weight. As a personal trainer this is literally the hardest part of the job for me. I hate seeing people speak to themselves this way (in a way that they would never speak to another person). Not only that it is often THE thing holding people back. It creates this negative cycle of anger and shame that keeps us stuck exactly where we are, never moving towards our goal. As soon as we have an off day, veer off track because we've had a challenging week, or let loose a little because we're celebrating it can take us straight back to square one. Not because we've 'done damage' but because of the conversations we have with ourselves. We beat ourselves up for not being perfect or for 'failing again' and this mindset keeps us stuck.

That's why I encourage each of my clients to be aware of the conversations they have with themselves and the relationship they have with food. My weight never became consistent until I addressed my relationship with food- how I used it as a way to control my life, how I used it to feel better about myself, or as a blanket for my pain and sadness. In our culture it's not always as simple as food= fuel. It can hold all sorts of other meanings and associations for us and until we are honest with ourselves about what place food has in our life and how healthy our relationship is with it, it can be very hard to break free of the cycle we've found ourselves in.

If you're struggling to build a healthy relationship with food there are resources that can help. I personally went to a few therapy sessions to address issues I was having around food but please bear in mind that I am a personal trainer and not a therapist so any opinions stated above are mine and it does not qualify me to deal with the challenges mentioned above. This blog was inspired by a post by C. Ross- https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/real-healing/201801/you-can-t-hate-yourself-thin