Six Signs You're Ready to Mend Your Relationship With Food

You're tired of hating your body or sick of being stuck in the overeat-restrict cycle. You’re wondering whether it’s time to work on your relationship with food.

We hear you, we see you.

Read below as we dive into the signs that you're ready to take the leap and mend your relationship with food! 

1. You can recognise your unhealthy or unhelpful thoughts or behaviours

Awareness is the first and most important step of long-lasting change. Especially when it comes to fixing your relationship with food.

Do you find yourself feeling guilty after eating? Or avoiding social events that involve food?

These are usually strong signs that your relationship with food needs work. If you’re unsure whether your thought patterns or behaviours need work, check out this blog post.

2. You are ready to throw the all-or-nothing mindset in the bin

Getting stuck in an all-or-nothing mindset around food is excruciating. Setting unrealistic expectations around food and your body makes it harder than it has to be. It can be devastating when you are trying to do everything *right*.

The 'AH-HA' moment of realising that progress, not perfection is what you should have been striving for all along.

3. You’re sick of being stuck in the overeat-restrict cycle

You’re sick of feeling out of control around food. You're tired of swinging between restriction and overeating. It's been taking a huge toll on both your physical and mental health.

Trying to calculate how much you’re allowed to eat, only to overeat and feel guilty is exhausting.

If you're sick of feeling trapped in the overeat-restrict cycle, it's time to try something new.

4. You’re ready to start working with your body rather than against it

Our bodies work hard to keep us safe every day.

Past dieting and weight loss attempts? They lead to a recurring loss and gain of weight over time (read: weight cycling). This is because restricting food fights against your body's natural instincts to keep you safe.

In many ways, trying to control what we eat is less about the food and more about not trusting, or hating our bodies. Mending our relationship with food isn’t *only* about food - it's so much more than that.

5. You realise that a good relationship with food impacts so many other areas of your life.

Have you seen posts on social media showing crazy body transformation? Or is your social feed full of 'what I eat in a day videos' that for some reason always start with an ab check *sigh*?

Spoiler alert - Even if we all ate and exercised the exact same, we would all still look completely different.

Have you spent months or years trying to control what you eat to keep your body the same? If so, chances are you've realised that no matter what you do, happiness is always fleeting.

Truth is, if you have to micromanage your diet to maintain your physique, it's not the right body for you.

If this is ringing any bells, good news my friend. You are ready to shift the focus to repairing your relationship with your body.

6. You have a support system in place or are ready to find one

Never underestimate the power of a strong support network to lean on when the going gets tough. It’s no different when trying to mend your relationship with food!

Having an empowering team such as; a dietitian, psychologist and doctor is priceless. It enables you to feel supported every step of the way.

It’s also great to have encouraging friends and/or family to cheer you along this journey.

Feel like you have some go-to's that you can lean on throughout this journey? You’re ready my friend!

So what’s next?

Found yourself nodding along as you've read this post? You’re ready to mend your relationship with food and your body!

If so, we’d love to support you on your journey to feeling good around food.

Introducing... Feel Good With Food! An empowering experience that will take you from feeling stuck with food guilt and body shame to eating with intuition, building back body trust and making peace with food.

Ready to feel confident in your body and have a healthy relationship with ALL food?

Join the waitlist for the next round of Feel Good With Food to receive early bird access and a VIP discount when doors open again in August.

This blog was written in collaboration with Melissa Joannou, a Nutrition & Dietetic Student and part of the Maddi Parsons Nutrition team. You can follow Melissa through her Instagram page.