Employee Well-being: Healthy Relationships with Food

Healthy Relationships with Food

Building and maintaining a healthy relationship with food is paramount for not only your nutrition, but for positive psychological well-being as well. The goal of a good relationship with food is to have more positive experiences with food than negative ones. Showing patience and kindness toward yourself is paramount. This month, Healthy Workplace will be providing nutrition resources that will help you build a healthy relationship between yourself and what you eat.

Here are some tips for building a healthier relationship with food:

Show self-compassion. There is not a doctor, coach, or scientist who has the expertise required to define ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect’ for the human body. Why can no one define them? Because these very terms are conceptual and not quantifiable. Bodies, like everything in life, are imperfect. They change, grow, and adapt over the long term and also have short term fluctuations. Understanding this is a foundational piece to building a healthy relationship with food.

Focus on making healthy strides. When looking at making healthy choices, it’s best to steer clear from weight or appearance-related barometers as primary or exclusive measures of success. Other measures can include trying new foods, listening to your body, and hydrating.

Identifying facets of a good relationship. A good relationship with food involves welcoming all foods in moderation, eating foods that you enjoy, not allowing food to control your life, and knowing that the foods you eat do not define your value as a person. When you start to appreciate food as more than just a fuel source, you can begin to see value in it and develop a healthier relationship.