Questioning your Food Rules

Over the years, we collect food rules.

Foods we consider good or bad.

Foods we label healthy or unhealthy.

Foods that are acceptable for losing weight, others we consider “cheat foods.”

We have rules not just for what we eat, but also how we eat, and when.

The longer you’ve been alive on this planet, the more food rules you’ve likely amassed – especially if you’ve been conscious about your health, body, and weight (whether wanting to lose it or NOT gain it).

Consider all of the rules you picked up over the years up from books, magazines, diet plans or programs you’ve followed, blogs or podcasts you’ve engaged with, or, through friends, family, and colleagues.

Some of them you currently hold, others you may have let go of years ago.

Consider rules such as:

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

You shouldn’t eat dinner past 8 pm if you want to lose weight.

You should eat every few hours to stoke the metabolic flame.

Gluten is bad.

Dairy is unhealthy (or maybe…an important component of a healthy diet).

Fat makes you fat.

If you abide by a specific macro breakdown (i.e. x % carbs, x % protein, x % fat), then you’ll lose weight.

Now to be clear, I’m not suggesting that you need to throw all your rules out the window.

The question I want to propose is, are your rules serving you?

Are they getting you closer to your goals, or hindering your progress all together?

By the way, when I speak of “food rules,” I’m really just talking about the beliefs, judgements, and parameters that you have around eating and food.

I know the word “rule” sometimes has a negative connotation, but it’s just semantics.

Food rules aren’t bad in and of themselves.

To throw down a little Shakespearean wisdom:

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

It’s how you think about your rules and what you make it mean if you break them.

If you’re using the rule against yourself as a form of punishment, or if you somehow tie your worth as a human being to it, that’s a different story.

Also, keep in mind that no food rule is the absolute truth.

For example, for every rule I mentioned above, you’ll have experts that both agree and disagree.

Consider some of the food rules that were once held as “law” among many of us, and have since been debunked.

To take a little trip down memory lane, I remember in grade 9 being told by the (well-intentioned) staff dietician that I could lose weight by only eating foods that had less than 2 grams of fat per serving.

I remember eating Snackwell cookies, low-fat granola bars, and sugar-filled fat-free frozen yogurt, believing that I was doing my body good. If it didn’t have fat in it, then it basically didn’t count!

I’m sure many of you can relate.

How about you?

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What are some of the food rules that you currently hold in your life today?

Make a list of them all.

If you dig deep, you’ll probably find some that you weren’t even aware you held.

Question each one.

Is it outdated?

Does it serve you well?

What would your life be like without that rule?

Is it getting you closer to your goal, or hindering your progress?

Is it creating more freedom in your life, or imprisoning you further?

Only you can decide if you want to keep it or let it go.

Again, I’m not saying that you must give up your rule, but rather, really understand WHY you’re following it and be sure that you like your reason rather than just arbitrarily following it.

Personally, I have my own food parameters that I love and have served me well over the years (as well as many that I’ve dropped, too!).

It’s because of these “rules” that I live in the body that I do today.

There is no drama attached to them.

I don’t make it mean anything about me or my worth as a human if I don’t adhere perfectly – which is totally beside the point, anyway.

Here are a few of mine:

• I only eat meals sitting at the table (no sitting in front of the tv, standing up, eating on the go)
• I always drink water in the morning before my coffee
• Fresh veggies at every meal (not necessarily at breakfast)
• Whole foods are my baseline, but I make room for other foods I enjoy that don’t quite fit that bill (i.e. ice cream)
• No unnecessary snacking in between meals
• The majority of meals are cooked at home

Of course, there are always exceptions to these rules—nothing is set in stone, but the important thing is, I really like my reasons for following them.

Questioning food rules is something that I do with my clients in the work we do together.

It feels so empowering to question the rules — especially those outdated ones!

Sometimes my clients learn that they make better progress by loosening the reigns and dropping some of the rules they had, while others find they actually do better by setting a few more parameters (from a place of love, of course).

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How about you? I’d love to hear from you!

Share with me some of your “food rules” in the comments below – either ones that you ‘ve dropped along the way or ones that you’ve kept because they’ve served you well.

All my best,

Elaine