002 What is your nutrition identity?

What is your nutrition identity?

Said another way, "How do you think about food?" or "What drives your eating habits?"

How we see ourselves controls our actions and decisions through the day.

Let me give you some examples:

Do you motivate yourself with guilt? If yes, making decisions is going to come from a negative place, always making yourself feel bad and guilty so that you are forced to make good decisions.  That's a lot of self-imposed stress!

Do you feel that food is an enemy and it keeps you from getting what you want or looking the way you want?  Ok, food is literally just energy, you must consume it if you want to live. To have a negative outlook on something that is vital for life is going to drive your decision making very differently than if you appreciated all that food can do for you.

Are you naturally thin and think "I can eat whatever I want," so you never pay attention to the quality of the food you are eating? That identity, that thought process, is not going to create health when you are only focused on what food does for your weight.

Understanding your nutrition identity is not about only finding the bad.  It's just meant to make you aware of how you think about food- positive or negative. When we understand HOW we think about food, it can better help connect the dots to making adjustments to your diet.

To keep this short and simple, here's a few more to help spark some thinking power:

How is your nutrition knowledge?
How comfortable are you talking about food?
How are your cooking skills?  Do you rely on eating out all the time?
How is your time management, do you ever make time for meals or are you always rushing around?
Is your daily environment creating an attitude of "things will never change?"
Do you ever connect your energy levels and your mood to what you've eaten in the day?

These are all different ways to think about your nutrition identity.  Depending on who you are and how you see yourself will depend on how you accept the idea of making changes.  This is a huge topic I've literally done an entire webinar on before, but I just want to get you thinking, because it's this type of conversation that needs to be had before we can talk about what or how much you need to be eating.  Don't be afraid of the answers that arise for you with this.  We must acknowledge something you've most likely never brought awareness too, and when we do that, we can generate new motivation and changes. 

Be kind to yourself

Audio version podcast -- HERE