Welcome to Part 1 of a 5-part blog series on Essential Mindset Shifts for a more positive and healthy relationship with food, your weight and body image.

Whether we’re aware of it or not, we are greatly influenced by what we see and hear through our peers, in the media we consume, and even in everyday conversations with others.  We tend to gather micro bits of information and evidence that confirms a belief we may already have about something. As evidence amasses, the further embedded and entrenched the belief becomes.

For instance, I avoided avocados for years simply because I was influenced by nutrition and diet influencers in the 90’s that convinced me that I had to go completely fat-free in order to lose weight.  This belief stayed with me for so long that GUACAMOLE became a trigger food for me. Guacamole, which consists of avocados, lime juice, onion, salt, cilantro is actually delicious AND healthy. Yet, I didn’t allow myself to have it for years because I became convinced that my guacamole obsession was the very reason for my struggles with weight.  That seems so ridiculous to me now. The fat content of avocados actually made me full quicker. I didn’t realize there could be intuitive self-moderation. Now, I know that intuitive self-moderation is something WE ALL HAVE innately and can access, but that many just don’t know how. (Pssst, I can teach you how...read more below.)

So, it got me thinking about some other mindset shifts that I made that I think are essential when you’re working on your relationship with food and body image.

Today, I’m going to talk about one of the most important mindset shifts you can make around food - adopting an abundance vs. scarcity mindset.

1. Scarcity vs. abundance mindset

Chronic weight cyclers and dieters know all too well about the massive sense of FOMO you feel when you’re dieting.  You look longingly at your friend’s pasta as you sadly eye your way to your own plate and stare at your” salad-with-no-dressing” and your cup of tea with Splenda. You say no to girls’ night out because there are too many temptations.  You hide certain foods from yourself.  

This all comes out of a scarcity mindset.  

So, when we tell ourselves we cannot have that piece of cake, it can set off our inner teenager that wants to give you the finger and eat the whole freaking thing.  Or, that disappointing feeling that you HAVE to have the fat-free dressing on your salad, instead of the ranch that you really want, since you know it would infinitely improve the experience of eating the same goddamn salad you’ve had daily for lunch for the last month.  

You may have enough discipline to resist this rebel-demon percolating inside you.  But, the longer you struggle through this self-imposed diet, the closer you get to the rebel move: the F-U you binge.  You know it. It’s the one when you realize how sick you are of what you’re eating and pissed that you haven’t seen more results, and hopeless knowing you’ll be back at square-one after this, but don’t give a sh-t in that moment. 

It comes for us all; for chronic dieters, that is…..and you know when it arrives.  You know when the writing's on the wall. You know the very moment the diet is over because it’s the moment in your head when you stop saying “no” and break open a small crack in your willpower wall of discipline.  

Juxtapose this scene with a mindset shift to one of abundance; that anything and everything can and is available to you and there are no constraints, rules or shackles.  Imagine how expansive it feels to know in your bones that you have enough and that you are enough and you don’t need food to ground you, comfort you or entertain you. Imagine what it would feel like to say “yes” again and trust implicitly that you’ll know exactly when you’ve had sufficient food, before you feel sick or force the waiter to “just take away the damn rolls from the table already”.

Most people fear that if they allow the calm and joy of abundance mindset in, they will never stop eating.  That’s when I ask a client what they think the worst possible outcome could be if they gave themselves permission to eat whenever and whatever they wanted.  Ultimately, it’s often about fear of being out of control, fear of binging and the belief that they need external restraints and rules in order to be successful. But when I dig even deeper, what’s at the core is a fear that actually enjoying a food is bad and too enticing to resist..  I know that when I was dieting, any food that gave me pleasure also gave me immediate pangs of worry and guilt. After all, enjoying food is often equated with overeating that food and gaining weight. Make no mistake, weight gain is what many of us fear most. Because you and I have been conditioned to believe that if you don’t, at the very least STRIVE to weigh less you won’t fit in. You’ll never find love. You’ll never be truly successful.  No one will be able to overlook the weight to give you your asking price, give you the promotion or go on that second date with you. 

What you don’t know, though, is that denying yourself pleasure with food is keeping you in a craving mindset and making food more important to you then it should or is meant to be.  

Abundance-mindset crushes cravings.

If you can relax into the belief that you can have as much food as you desire as often as you want, you regain control.  You get to decide what feels good and what doesn’t. You also don’t have the rebel-demon at your side just begging you to “break the rules”.  

Freedom exists when food rules fall.

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Mindset work is a key foundation in my Replenish Method  Learn more about Replenish and cook your free Replenish call today!

 

And stay tuned for # 2 mindset shift around your body image…... coming next week.