Food: Friend or Foe? How to Develop a Positive Relationship with Food-Part I

Having a healthy mindset with food is just as important as living a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy food! Your relationship with food should be positive and supportive of the lifestyle that you want, rather than thinking food is your enemy which does not promote your success. Food choices and portion sizes can contribute to why you’re overweight or why you have cravings and at 30/10 Weight Loss for Life, we provide you with resources and knowledge on the importance of a healthy lifestyle and how you can achieve one through the power of food and a positive mindset. When it comes to food, you should not center your life around it and instead focus on what your goals are and how your mindset can promote your success through food! 

One of the first things you can do to change your mindset is adjust your eating behavior or habits when it comes to food. If you find that you are eating when you are stressed, bored, or it is a part of your routine outside of when you would normally eat, you can break the habit by becoming more mindful. Mentally checking in with yourself during these situations is important and can help you overcome the behavior itself.

If you are stressed, focus on what is stressing you out. If you can control what is giving you stress, create a plan on how to control it versus going to the pantry and losing control with what you eat. If you are bored, find an activity or hobby that can help keep you busy at the times you would usually indulge in a craving. If you normally reach for a drink or consume a bag of chips everyday after work, change your home routine by either entering through a different door (front door versus your garage door) to change your pattern or have other food items ready to snack on to help keep you on track. Changing up your atmosphere and routine can implement a positive behavior change to promote your success towards your goals. 

Taking away the temptation of indulging in cravings is another great way to develop a healthy relationship with food. If sweets or popcorn are something you overeat daily, then limit how often you purchase those items for your house or avoid purchasing them in general. We usually blame food that we make available for being the reason we went off track, but in reality it is because we have them available to eat and don’t set boundaries.

Another helpful tip is to go to the grocery store in a positive mindset instead of when you are stressed out, on an empty stomach, or in a negative headspace so that way you only purchase foods that promote your success. A great way to think of this is when you go grocery shopping while on program, only buy foods that are 30/10 approved versus foods that are off program. Another tip would be sticking to the perimeter of the store while grocery shopping and avoiding the aisles with processed foods. You can even avoid going to the grocery store by using the 30/10 app and ordering your groceries with our grocery delivery feature! Find your favorite recipes and select the ingredients you do not need, and you can add to your cart by selecting “add ingredients” and choose your closest grocery store. From there, you can add more recipes or simply checkout and pay! 

Keep yourself on track and buy what you know you will eat because there is no reason to buy food that you won’t be eating while on program. Those food items will always be at the store and if you do want to purchase it in the future, you can. Just limit how often you do and set a rule to purchase them only after you achieve your goals! You will be thankful that you set yourself up for success and your wallet will thank you too!