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    Food Positivity: How to Encourage Healthy Eating Habits

    Introduction

    Hey there! Welcome, or welcome back to Shape & Joy – a place for all things health, wellness and positivity! Today, I want to I want to talk about something I love: food. Or in this case, food positivity.

    You might have heard of body positivity, but what exactly is food positivity? Food positivity is all about having a healthy, balanced, joyful relationship with food—one that nourishes you and isn’t a source of guilt or shame.

    It’s so easy to get caught up in diets, restrictions, and negative thoughts about what we eat. But imagine how good it would feel to be to enjoy your meals without guilt or stress. That’s what food positivity is all about! It’s about embracing all foods, listening to our bodies, and finding joy in the simple act of eating.

    On my journey to losing 80 pounds, I found a more balanced and mindful approach to eating. However, it wasn’t until a trip to Rome, Italy, that I truly understood the essence of food positivity. Wandering through the busy streets, savouring freshly made pasta in cosy trattorias, and enjoying pistachio gelato without a second thought—I saw how Italians embraced food with such love and joy. Meals were not just about eating; they were about connection, celebration, and savouring every bite.

    So, in this post, I want to talk about how we can develop a healthy, positive relationship with food, one that celebrates our bodies and brings us joy.

    SEE MY COMPLETE GUIDE ON HABIT FORMATION > Mastering Habit Formation and Behaviour Change For Your Health

    What Is Food Positivity?

    Food positivity is all about embracing a healthy, joyful relationship with food. It’s about appreciating the nourishment food provides and enjoying it without guilt or stress.

    Imagine savouring every bite, knowing it’s okay to indulge in your favourite treats, and feeling good about your choices.

    Dieting often involves strict rules, restrictions, and a lot of pressure. It’s about cutting out certain foods and constantly monitoring what you eat.

    On the other hand, food positivity encourages balance and moderation. Instead of focusing on what you can’t have, it celebrates what you can enjoy. It’s about listening to your body’s needs and trusting yourself to make choices that feel good.

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    Food Positivity

    I know that developing this mindset can be challenging. Many of us have been conditioned to see food through a lens of restriction and control. It’s not easy to shift those thoughts overnight.

    But remember, it’s okay to take small steps and be kind to yourself along the way. Everyone’s journey with food is unique, and it’s perfectly normal to face ups and downs.

    Embrace All Foods

    ALL FOODS. Yes, you heard that right—no food is inherently “bad” or “good.” It’s time to let go of those labels and start seeing food for what it truly is: a source of nourishment, enjoyment, and connection.

    Instead of cutting out your favourite foods, why not enjoy them in a way that feels balanced? It’s all about finding that sweet spot where you can enjoy some cake or a handful of crisps without any guilt.

    The key is to enjoy these treats in moderation, alongside a variety of nutrient-rich foods that make you feel good.

    Food Positivity freedom

    Here are some personal tips on how to enjoy your favourite treats without the guilt:

    1. Mindful Indulgence: When you’re craving something special, take the time to truly savour it. Eat slowly, appreciate the flavours, and enjoy the experience without distractions. This way, you’re more likely to feel satisfied and less likely to overeat.
    2. Portion Control: It’s all about the portions. Instead of eating an entire bag of cookies, enjoy a few pieces mindfully. You’ll still get to enjoy the taste without overindulging.
    3. Pairing Foods: Combine your treats with healthier options. For example, if you love chocolate, try pairing it with some fresh berries or nuts. This way, you get the best of both worlds.

    By finding balance and enjoying your favourite treats without guilt, you can develop a healthier and happier relationship with food.

    After all, food is meant to be enjoyed, celebrated, and savoured.

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    Listen to Your Body

    Now that we’ve talked about embracing all foods, let’s move onto another important aspect of food positivity: listening to your body.

    unconditional permission to eat

    This is where the concept of mindful or intuitive eating comes in. Mindful or intuitive eating is all about tuning into your body’s natural signals of hunger and fullness.

    It’s about eating when you’re hungry, stopping when you’re satisfied, and choosing foods that make you feel good. It might sound simple, but in a world full of diet rules and food trends, it can be hard for a lot of us. (Warren et al., 2017) (Dyke & Drinkwater, 2013) (Małachowska & Jeżewska-Zychowicz, 2022).

    How to Recognise Your Hunger and Fullness Cues

    1. Hunger Check-Ins: Before you eat, take a moment to assess your hunger. Are you eating because you’re physically hungry, or are you eating out of boredom, stress, or habit? Try to eat when you feel true hunger, and stop when you’re comfortably full.
    2. Eat Mindfully: Pay attention to the taste, texture, and aroma of your food. Eating slowly and savouring each bite can help you notice when you start to feel full. This way, you’re more likely to stop eating at the right time.
    3. Fullness Scale: Use a scale from 1 to 10 to rate your hunger and fullness. Aim to eat when you’re around a 3 (hungry but not starving) and stop when you’re around a 7 (satisfied but not stuffed).

    Your body knows what it needs to thrive, so listen to it! It’s okay to crave different foods at different times—sometimes you’ll want a big meal, and other times a light snack will do.

    Trusting your body means honouring those cravings without judgment.

    Tips to Handle Cravings

    1. Acknowledge Your Cravings: It’s normal to crave certain foods, and there’s no need to feel guilty about it. Acknowledge your craving and decide whether you want to indulge it now or later.
    2. Satisfy the Craving Mindfully: Sometimes, the best way to handle a craving is to enjoy a small portion of what you’re craving. Eat it slowly, savour it, and let yourself enjoy the experience fully.

    With time, you’ll find that this approach not only improves your relationship with food but also enhances your overall well-being. (Arch et al., 2016) (Kidwell et al., 2015)

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    Make Healthy Eating Fun

    Healthy eating can be fun if you get a little creative! Start with planning meals as a family activity. Everyone can pitch in ideas.

    Try out new recipes together. Think of it as a mini cooking show at home where everyone gets to be a chef. Try new ingredients and cooking styles.

    Make mealtime more fun for the family with themed dinners. Have a Mexican night with homemade tacos and guacamole, or an Italian night with a build-your-own pizza station. Decorate the dining area to match the theme and play some matching music to set the mood.

    Turn mealtime into quality time. Sit together, talk about your day, and enjoy the food and each other’s company. It’s not just about eating healthy, but also about creating happy memories around the table.

    Focus on How Food Makes You Feel

    Paying attention to how food makes you feel can really change your eating habits. Instead of focusing on calories or diets, tune into your body’s reactions. Notice how you feel after different meals—do certain foods make you feel energised and happy, while others leave you sluggish?

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    Start a food journal where you jot down what you eat and how you feel afterwards. This can help you identify patterns and make more mindful choices. Over time, you’ll naturally gravitate towards foods that make you feel your best.

    Healthy eating isn’t just about physical health; it’s about emotional well-being too. Enjoy the process of discovering what foods fuel your body and mind in the best way.

    Building Healthy Eating Habits

    Building healthy eating habits starts with small, manageable changes. You can start by just adding an extra piece of fruit or veg a day. Planning your meals ahead of time can help make sure you make healthier choices and avoid last-minute unhealthy options.

    Listening to your body is key. Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full, paying attention to how different foods make you feel. Stay hydrated, as thirst can often be mistaken for hunger. (Sairanen et al., 2015) (Sorensen et al., 2019)

    Food Positivity

    Building healthy habits is a gradual process. Celebrate your progress and stay patient with yourself as you make these changes. Over time, these small steps will lead to huge improvements in your health and mindset.

    Food Positivity: Conclusion

    Building a healthy, happy relationship with food is all about balance, mindfulness, and enjoyment. Remember to embrace all foods, listen to your body, and find fun ways to make healthy eating a part of your life. Celebrate your progress, and don’t be too hard on yourself—every small step counts.

    Ready to take the next step? Start by making one small change today. Whether it’s trying a new recipe, practising mindful eating, or celebrating a small win, every action counts!

    Comment below with your favourite food or a tip that has helped you. Let’s inspire each other to embrace a joyful relationship with food. ????

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  • Nutrition, Weight Loss, Wellbeing

    Unconditional Permission to Eat for Sustainable Weight Loss

    Introduction

    Have you found yourself in a constant cycle of restrictive diets? When starting a weight loss journey, it’s easy to think only of what you can’t eat and what you’ll miss out on. Diets are always seen as something restrictive and have rules that must be followed to succeed. But having this diet mentality only makes losing weight harder, instead, you can give yourself unconditional permission to eat by focusing on healthy habits, having a positive mindset, and gentle nutrition.

    I want to talk about how you can shift your focus from restrictive diets to having unconditional permission to eat. You can be free to enjoy all your favourite foods without the weight of guilt that comes along with a  restrictive diet.

    The Diet Mentality vs. Unconditional Permission

    Diets are often pitched to us as the “miracle” solution for weight loss. But all diets work the same, calories in vs calories out, eat fewer calories than you burn. The appeal of more restrictive diets is often that they are faster. But restrictive diets are like quicksand, pulling you deeper into a cycle that’s hard to escape.

    You may lose weight initially, but the real question is, can you stick with it for the long haul? The reality is that most restrictive diets just aren’t sustainable, the initial thrill of success fades. The key is to shift your focus from quick fixes to long-term well-being.

    But there is a way to eat your favourite foods without the guilt trip, it involves letting go of rigid food rules, listening to your body’s hunger and satiety cues, and thinking of long-term success rather than a quick fix. Giving yourself unconditional permission to eat allows you to eat without the burden of judgment, giving you a healthier relationship with food and, ultimately, yourself.

    The Importance of Intuitive Eating

    You’ve probably heard of intuitive eating, and in theory, it sounds like a simple concept. It involves listening to your body’s signals and learning to recognise when you’re truly hungry and when you are full. But if, like me, you have struggled with weight issues and a diet mentality for a long time, this isn’t so easy to put into practice. The process of unlearning ingrained habits that have been established over the years is not an overnight fix and requires some work.

    Intuitive VS Mindful Eating

    The best place to start with intuitive eating is to practice mindful eating. Mindful eating and intuitive eating are related and share some common principles, but they have a few different focuses and approaches. Mindful eating is something that can be practiced at each meal, it’s about being fully present and engaged in the act of eating, learning to savour and enjoy your meal.

    Whereas intuitive eating takes the concept of paying attention to internal cues to a deeper level. It involves listening to the body’s signals not only in terms of hunger and fullness but also in response to cravings and specific foods. Intuitive eating encourages a more holistic understanding of the body’s needs.

    Giving yourself permission to eat can be liberating, but it helps to have a strategy. Learn more about this approach in Intuitive Eating and Weight Gain.

    unconditional permission to eat

    Practical Mindful Eating Tips

    You can start incorporating mindful eating into your routine with small, manageable steps. And over time, eating intuitively will become more natural to you. Here are some steps to get started:

    • Avoid Distractions: Turn off the TV, put your phone away, and create a quiet space for your meal. Minimizing distractions allows you to fully focus on eating.
    • Engage Your Senses: As you eat, pay attention to the textures, tastes, and smells of your food. Take in the details.
    • Eat Slowly and Chew Thoroughly: Savour each bite by eating slowly and chewing your food thoroughly. This not only allows you to appreciate the taste but also gives your body time to signal when it’s satisfied.
    • Put Your Knife and Fork Down Between Bites: Instead of keeping your knife or fork in your hand throughout the entire meal, put them down between bites. This encourages a more mindful pace of eating.
    • Check-in with Hunger and Fullness: Pause periodically during your meal to assess your hunger and fullness. Ask yourself how hungry you are before starting and how satisfied you are as you continue to eat. If you feel full, honour that fullness and think about saving the rest for later. And, importantly, if you’re still hungry, allow yourself to eat more! See my post on finding more satiating meal combos.

    Intuitive eating is a journey in itself. Embrace the process, and don’t pressure yourself to master it overnight. Begin with one meal or snack a day, gradually incorporating mindful eating practices into your routine. The goal is progress, not perfection!

    Check out Mindful Eating 101 to make eating a more enjoyable experience

    Overcoming Fear and Guilt Surrounding Food

    Improving your relationship with food often involves confronting fears and guilt that have become deeply ingrained by diet culture. It could be the fear of overeating, the loss of control, or the weight of guilt and shame.

    diet mentality

    If a certain food has been on your “bad” list for a while, it can be really hard to view it as anything other than that. And while there are foods that are healthier than others, all food has a place in your diet and shouldn’t be labelled as “good” or “bad”. Challenge the fear by reintroducing these foods slowly with a mindset of flexibility and you can begin to remove the barriers that fear has put up.

    Know that your worth is not determined by what’s on your plate. When faced with a challenging food choice, replace self-criticism with self-compassion, allowing room for growth and learning. Instead of viewing moments of deviation as failures, see them as insights into your relationship with food. Learn to analyse these experiences without judgment. What triggers led to this choice? What emotions were you feeling? See my previous post on Emotional Eating!

    You can enjoy food without guilt and still love your body. Dive into this topic in my post on Body-Positive Weight Loss.

    Practical Tips for Implementing Unconditional Permission To Eat

    Gradual Integration

    • Identify and Challenge Food Rules:
      • Question and challenge ingrained food rules
      • Recognize external influences and question them
    • Experiment with Different Foods Without Restrictions:
      • Take small steps to mix-up your food choices
      • Explore new flavours and meals without judgment

    Building a Positive Relationship with Food

    • Mindful Eating Practices:
      • Engage all your senses during meals
      • Chew slowly and savour each bite mindfully
      • Avoid distractions
      • Check in with your body’s signals
    • Enjoying Food Without Guilt or Anxiety
      • Shift your mindset to focus on pleasure and satisfaction.
      • Release guilt associated with certain foods, embracing balance.

    The Impact of Unconditional Permission To Eat on Sustainable Weight Loss

    Food freedom is rooted in long-term habits that support your overall well-being. By learning to listen to your body’s signals and responding with gentle nutrition, you’re more likely to have a balanced and sustainable relationship with food, which will hopefully lead to better weight management.

    That being said, I understand there will be a fear of gaining weight, but that fear is often what keeps us in a cycle of restrictive eating. So changing the focus from weight to overall well-being is important here, trust your body and listen to its hunger & satiety cues.

    How To Promote Satiety

    A big step in my weight loss journey was understanding the hormones Leptin and Ghrelin (I cover these in detail in both my FREE Nutrition eBook and my Complete Weight Loss Guide). Ghrelin is the hunger hormone and is there to signal to your body that it’s time to eat. Leptin is the satiety hormone, signaling to your body that you’ve had enough.

    These hormones combined are responsible for weight management, but diets high in ultra-processed foods can lead to us missing the cues these hormones are sending. Not to mention that the combination of salt, sugar, and fat in a lot of ultra-processed foods can stimulate reward centres in the brain – which is actually by design, it’s called the “Bliss Point”.

    unconditional permission to eat
    • 80/20 Nutrition: Focus on eating whole nutrient-dense foods 80% of the time, but allow yourself treats for the other 20%. This doesn’t have to be exact, it can be 70/30 if you want, as long as the majority of your diet is whole foods.
    • Protein: Helps suppress ghrelin and takes longer to be digested in the stomach, making you feel fuller, for longer.
    • Fibre: Slows down digestion, which can lead to a sustained release of leptin, telling the brain that you are full.
    • Healthy Fats: Slow down digestion and promote the release of leptin – so don’t be scared of fats!

    Unconditional Permission to Eat: Conclusion

    Weight loss doesn’t have to be a journey of restriction and rigid rules, having a positive mindset, introducing healthy habits, and practicing gentle nutrition will make the journey much easier. Think of all the things you can give your body, rather than what you can take away. Trusting your body’s signals and understanding how certain foods promote satiety will contribute to a more sustainable relationship with food.

    It’s important that if you’re struggling, it’s important that you reach out for help. The Beat website has a list of helplines that may help.