Nutritional tactics work best when they match our values.

A few weeks back when I posted about “How to respond to food shaming” I touched on how we learn how to feel about our food choices and what they mean about us from our parents/guardians growing up.

This week I shared a couple of nutritional tactics that I personally deployed to help me navigate a social situation and one of my day-to-day nutritional general rules of thumb.

Tactics and skills are often what we go looking for as they appear to be the answer to our immediate problems. They are the practical actions that move the needle forward in our quest for more nutritional success.

And yet, without understanding why these behaviors matter to us on an individual basis, they are merely band-aids on gunshot wounds.

The “Why” before the “What”:

Understanding why we feel a certain way about ourselves and food is the foundation of all of our actions. We often say things to ourselves like;

• “I am obsessed with cupcakes”

• “I can’t control myself around pizza”

• “Sugar makes me hyper”

• “Mac and cheese is my weakness”

• “Swedish fish are my go-to”

• Add your own statement here…

We say these things. But do we actually believe them? Where did they come from and are they in fact (still) true?

Limiting beliefs that become self-fulfilling prophecies:

For most of us, these are limiting beliefs that become self-fulfilling prophecies. We learned these things from our parents in childhood and our peers in adulthood, and I say it’s time to challenge them.

Are you actually “obsessed”? Are you really uncontrollable? Are you truly “weak”? What are some reasons you might feel this way and are they true? Are they our own thoughts and feelings? Are they factual? What are some other possibilities?

These are the kinds of questions I ask in my nutrition coaching practice when a limiting belief shows up. Between the client and I, we might set a goal this week not to track macros or calories, but to track our limiting beliefs.

When we see donuts in the office, what is the story we tell ourselves? When we are offered that second glass of wine at Friday night dinner, what is the script we run in our heads? When we decide to make a salad for dinner instead of microwave pizza, what is the world we build around us?

These long-held beliefs, feelings, and narratives do more harm than good and need some rewriting. How would you feel if your narratives read;

• “I am the kind of person that chooses to cook healthy because I want to give my family a great life”.

• “I eat a balanced meal at lunch because I want to do a great job this afternoon”.

• “Mac and cheese is comfort food for me and I like to eat it sometimes because it reminds me of home”.

• “Swedish fish is one of my favorite childhood sweets”.

Thanks! Jay.