Ditch the Diet: 5 Simple Strategies for Reframing Your Food Mindset
In this post, we talked about distorted thinking patterns and signs you may need to think about reframing your food mindset.
The challenge is to address negative or unhelpful thoughts by reframing them into positive and more realistic ways of thinking about food. But this often proves much easier said than done.
Even if you recognize your distorted thinking about food, many women find it difficult to figure out how to challenge and overcome that thinking. A powerful psychological tool and a big part of developing a healthier relationship with food comes from reframing your food mindset.
Although reframing your food mindset does not change a situation, it changes how your talk to yourself about that situation. It changes the perspective of that situation and often changes the feelings and behavior that follow as well.
5 Simple Strategies for Reframing Your Food Mindset
Reframing Your Food Mindset Strategy #1: Remove strong language.
Often when we speak to ourselves we can use strong language that isn’t necessarily true. Examples include words like “always,” “never,” and “everyone.” Never say never–it is rarely true.
Reframing Your Food Mindset Strategy #2: Talk to yourself as a friend.
Ask yourself how you would respond to a family member or friend if you heard them saying the same things you say to or about yourself.
Reframing your Food Mindset Strategy #3: Appreciate the journey.
See your health and fitness goals as an ongoing process rather than a destination. Appreciate the journey you are on. Ask yourself what you can learn from the perceived failure to help you to learn from it and prevent it from occurring again.
Reframing your Food Mindset Strategy #4: Challenge your assumptions.
Ask yourself what the frame or assumption behind the thought is. Often we hold untrue assumptions about ourselves that have built up over many years.
Reframing Your Food Mindset Strategy #5: Turn thoughts into facts.
Often times our minds take a thought and then build a story around that thought. This is a common psychological construct called “confirmation bias.” This refers to our tendency to look for evidence to confirm assumptions we believe to be true. When you can identify some of these assumptions that underlie beliefs, challenge them by finding and looking for evidence that actually disproves the belief. You will be probably be surprised how much you find! Simply label the thinking as “just a thought, not a fact” until you’ve had time to challenge your assumptions and look for evidence to determine if this is truly a fact.
- Example:
- Thought: I just ate a cookie and now I’ve undone all of the progress I’ve made this year!
- Fact: A single cookie does not undo a year’s worth of progress.
What have you been telling your body over the course of this week? How about this month? How about this YEAR? Do you really think that ONE over indulgence can mess up a month or a year’s worth of good fat-loss nutrition? This is a lifestyle, and that means looking at the big picture, not a single day’s events.
Reframing Your Food Mindset: Why Thoughts Matter
Thoughts have a powerful impact on our feelings and then our actions.
Common feelings that are often connected with distorted thoughts about food and fitness:
- Sadness
- Anxiety
- Fear
- Disappointment
- Guilt
- Remorse
- Envy
- Anger
- Shame
If you experience any of the feelings mentioned above in relation to your health and fitness, you’re not alone. And you CAN find freedom and a healthy relationship with food.
Changing your thinking is often the first step towards changing your actions!
P.S. It’s time that we change unproductive behaviors and DITCH the DIET once and for all!
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