31 DAYS OF GENTLENESS
Offering Yourself Gentleness Around Food
Day 11: For most people, their relationship with food is anything but gentle.
Many of my clients grew up watching one or both of their caregiver’s diet and obsess about their weight. This was my experience too. One of my earliest memories of dieting is when I sat in the back of the room of an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. My mother sat in the circle and talked about following the twelve steps, while I curiously listened in. I was 9. I shared more about my experience in this article. I learned that white foods were dangerous. Bread, pasta, mashed potatoes, and cookies all had the power to bring people to their knees and make them feel horrible about their life.
Staying in Control
Diet Culture, the system of beliefs that value thinness and advocate for weight control, teaches us about “good” and “bad” foods. Foods certainly have different nutritional components and impact our health and well-being in different ways. But yet, when we need to avoid certain foods and feel bad about ourselves when we eat bad foods, it leaves us feeling guilty, ashamed and even more out of control.
What to do? Weight loss coaches and weight control programs offer us plenty of tools like tracking…
