FOOD: The Greatest Act of Self Love

"Healthy eating" often times gets a bad wrap. Sometimes its viewed as conceited, carrying with it the belief that most individuals just make that decision for themselves just to "look good". Other times, people applaud the willpower it must take to continue such a way of eating long-term, almost as if avoiding a box of Oreos were as hard as kicking opiates. Today, I'd like to present to you a completely different, more sustainable motive for healthy eating habits. One that is my personal incentive to eat for nourishment on a daily basis, and one I hope you may consider for yourself.

FIGHTING FOR DISEASE

I know it's not healthy for me but it just tastes so good. Cheese - now that's one food I don't think I will ever have to willpower to give up. I don't have time to make my own meals.

Sound familiar? These are just three of the most common contentions people have when it comes to eating healthier. Bad food is easy, bad food is cheap, and most importantly, bad food tastes good. No matter which way we look at it, you can always find an excuse as to why processed "junk" foods deserve their place as the majority leader in our kitchens. This in mind, I ask you, though, to question why so many of us defend such an unhealthy way of eating - this reliance on factory-made, processed convenience foods - as vehemently as we would our favorite political candidate or our beloved football team. Unlike politicians who may support our beliefs on a grander scale, or a football team who may bring us joy with every touchdown scored, these foods don't provide us with any appreciable benefit. Okay okay - let me stop you there, I know what you're probably thinking..."yeah they do, they taste good, they make me happy!". Look beyond the flavor profiles deliberately engineered to rewire our taste buds for a second, and you will quickly see that these nutrient-poor foods do nothing but perpetuate the propensity towards chronic disease - that which is quite apparent considering the rising rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in this country. So while yes, they may make our taste buds happy in the moment, how happy will we be if we receive one of these diagnoses in the future after we have chronically deprived our bodies of the nutrients they need to function properly?

Now I'll be the first to admit that I was a staunch defender of processed junk foods for the majority of my life; these were all arguments I protected up until only about three years ago. Ask any of my friends at that time and they'd laugh in your face thinking I'd give up my grilled cheeses and microwaveable meals because that was my identity as the "picky eater" of the group. Hell, I would even walk around boasting the fact that I didn't care if I ended up to be 400 lbs in my 50's, as long as I was happy, "that's all that matters", I'd cockily reply. It's funny, looking back on it, I'm amazed by the fact that I was so steadfast in my support for foods that did nothing but make me feel sick and tired. Granted, I didn't know any better, we don't know any better; we're all raised to eat for taste and not health, often stemming from the disconnect that what you eat has any level of impact on your wellbeing. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that not many of us have felt what true nourishment feels like. So when I said these things, I was reaffirming the false belief that the only thing food influences is your weight, and having been raised in a very body positive family, I wasn't going to let anyone tell me I should stop eating the way I do solely to fit into the societal standard of beauty.

This made me feel like an empowered feminist every time I made this 400lb comment, as though I was leading the rebellion against the conventional definitions of attractiveness. Fast forward to now, and nothing has changed. Being happy truly is all that matters to me and, don't get me wrong, I do still wholeheartedly disagree with the body image issues our society has created, but now, what brings me happiness is treating myself right. After making the realization that the foods we put into our body not only impact our weight but more importantly, our risk for disease, our mood, and daily wellbeing, I realized that maybe I was foolish in my advocacy for foods that don't profit me in any way. In this way, my brain eventually made the connection that the foods you choose to nourish yourself with are mirroring the relationship you have with yourself. How? You're given the opportunity to choose health or disease three times a day simply by choosing what's on your fork - that's what I call empowering.

FOOD IS YOUR SUPERPOWER

Food is, for the majority of us, a choice. A choice that we make multiples times a day, and therefore, one of the most impactful and transformational choices we can make in our lives. If we repeatedly feed ourselves nutrient-poor products full of empty calories, why are we surprised by our complaints of aches and pains thirty years down the line?

I mean, if you repeatedly smashed your head against a wall day after day, but continue to complain about headaches to your doctor, she would immediately tell you to stop banging your skull. Completely logical, right? So why does it seem rational, in this case, to cease participation in the root cause of our headache symptoms, but we scoff when this same thought process is applied to how we eat? There's a disconnect. Not only do we fail to recognize the degree to which food does determine our level of health, but just as importantly, we neglect to realize that we are mirroring to ourselves - our subconscious - that we're not worthy of feeling our best. Now, I am by no means saying this is any fault of our own, we are never taught in our society how to love, appreciate, and care for ourselves. Yeah, at the most fundamental level we are all taught how to brush our teeth and take a shower as a kid (or at least I hope so), but when it comes to how we view ourselves and our worth, we are taught to seek external validation. Find someone that makes you happy. Make me proud. These sentiments, similar to the ever so predictable plots of a Lifetime movie, condition ourselves to believe that, in order to be happy and fulfilled, we need to look elsewhere - anywhere but inside ourselves.

Why do we continue to ask our friends, family, and significant others to recognize our value and treat us with respect, but we fail to show this same level of respect to ourselves? It's absurd! You want those special people in your life to be healthy, but you fail to wish the same for your health. Treat others how you wanted to be treated takes on a whole new meaning now.

I've talked about the power of the subconscious brain before, but for those of you who need a refresher let me put it like this: our subconscious is our belief system. The large majority of our brain activity on a day to day basis is a direct result of this part of our consciousness, not the part that is reading this sentence. Think of our subconscious as our ancient survival mechanism. It will always function to reaffirm, or essentially make our conditioned, engrained beliefs come true as this makes life more predictable. Predictable life = higher chance of survival. Apply this to nourishment - whether we're consciously aware of it or not, if our subconscious belief is that we are worth very little, nine times out of ten we will operate, through our actions, to reaffirm this belief. How does this manifest through our actions? Depriving ourselves of the nutrients it needs to function properly by consuming "frankenfoods", people pleasing with disregard for our own needs, and speaking negatively of ourselves to others. These are just a few of the many ways we continue to prove to ourselves that we are not enough - that we are not worth the time and space to live up to our fullest potential.

It is my genuine hope that we can all return to love, but instead of seeking it elsewhere, may we begin use our daily habits to show love for ourselves.

RETURN TO LOVE

So to me, I think willpower is a farce when it comes to eating. No individuals who give up processed junk foods do not have more willpower than anyone else, that's not why we chose to live a healthy lifestyle or not to consume these health-depriving foods anymore. Similarly, I don't believe that the obesity epidemic is a direct result of a lack of willpower on part of these individuals. Among many other contributing factors, I do believe that a societal lack of education in regard to how to properly love ourselves, along with, of course, a nutrition-related knowledge deficit is partly at fault. It is my genuine hope that we can all return to love, but instead of seeking it elsewhere, may we begin use our daily habits to show love for ourselves. As cheesy as it may be, losing my reliance on processed junk foods has been the most transformational act I've done in cultivating my own self-worth and self-confidence. As one of my mentors Ed Mylett says, the most effective way to build self-confidence is by keeping promises to yourself everyday. Nourishing myself with foods that will allow me to live up to my full potential rather than operate from a place of fatigue is the most major promise I keep every. single. day. The results? After a few months of consciously practicing this notion, I love myself now more than ever. Granted, maybe not every second of the day, because trust me we all make mistakes, but there is no way in hell I am going to treat myself any less than what I deserve. It takes time, but I would love to see more of us begin to realize that we are worth the highest level of health we can achieve. We have enough obstacles in our everyday life, why make self-sabotage one of them?