Ep 137 - Do I need nutrition knowledge?

Welcome to how to love your body, on today’s episode we are talking about nutrition knowledge.

One thing people comment to us often is “shouldn’t people still know about nutrition though? Isn’t it important to know what’s in your food etc”? And in theory yes that would make sense.

But let’s look at how things are right now. As a dieter how much nutrition “information” do you have? Do you know a lot about food, what’s “healthy” and what is “best” to eat?

And how has that been for you?

Has it helped or just complicated things and made it so confusing?

If you think you need to teach a dieter or past dieter anything about nutrition you haven’t been a dieter. We know TOO MUCH!

We know about calories, macros, what’s healthy, best options, ingredients to avoid, ingredients to add….. And it’s brought us here. To a place where we can’t just eat, everything is a mathematical and nutritional equation.

A lack of nutrition information is not the problem. If KNOWING what were supposed to eat fixed things we wouldn’t all be here right now.

As an intuitive eater, the majority of the time, it is best to step away from the so-called nutrition knowledge and into your body’s knowing.

None of us need to be told it’s good to eat fruits, vegetables and a variety of foods from all the food groups. We KNOW THAT! What we do need is a complete transformation in how we think about food, how we relate to it, and how we use it.

Food is not just fuel, food isn’t medicine, food is something we need to live, it can be fuel and it can be nourishing but it’s also social, enjoyable and even emotional.

These are the aspects of nutrition, food and eating that we need to focus on when coming out of being a dieter, not more information.

Here are 3 things you can do in order to honor the nourishment of food while working on food mindset:

• When you are working on allowing all foods, do just that allow ALL foods. Broaden your view of what this means. Many people just think of the foods they didn’t allow before but allowing all food can also include fruit, veg, and any other foods that feel “healthier” to you. You can also experiment in eating them in ways you didn’t allow yourself before, like with butter or on a dessert etc. Just begin exploring all foods, this is a great step in making food neutral, realizing there is a place for donuts and there's a place for salad and it’s all wonderful.
  
  
• When people feel crappy on this journey (these phases are absolutely normal) the reaction is often - now I want to go back on a diet, this feels crappy right now. Get out of that all or nothing thinking and ask yourself, what can I add into my meals that would FEEL good? Don’t be afraid of nourishment now that you aren’t dieting, its not either diet and be perfect or eat donuts and pasta all day every day forever. You can have it all. AND you don’t need to know anything more about food other than variety is lovely so you can get a variety of nutrients.
  
  
• Understand that your body doesn’t process food in 24 hr increments. Diet culture teaches us that each day needs to look a certain way and everyday needs to look the same.  Get x amount of fruit a day, x amount of calories or x amount of macros. THAT IS NOT HOW BODIES WORK. There isn’t a reset button that gets pushed at midnight. Think of nourishment on more of a weekly or even monthly basis. Get a wide variety of foods in overtime, it doesn’t all have to be today! Some days I eat very few fruit and veg and other days I’ll eat more and it’s all good!

These three things will allow you to be more flexible and easy going with your food while also getting variety and nutrients in! 

This is really just about trusting yourself and your body and knowing that there isn’t some magical combination of foods or way of eating that will make everything amazing. It’s just food. You got this. Your body knows so much more than you give it credit for. Listen in today and honor that amazing body of yours - including rest and doing things you enjoy!

Be sure to grab our free Separating Weight and Wellness Workbook, this will help a lot with finding flexibility in your eating and nutrition. You can grab it at bit.ly/wwworkbook