30/07/2021
It is this kind of “fitness & nutrition” content that prevented me from understanding what FITNESS & NUTRITION was actually all about and led me to foster a very unhealthy relationship with food and my body as a young women.
As a professional in the fitness industry, as a certified Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, and AS A WOMAN, I feel an immense responsibility to do better for the women who I train and teach. Seeing these graphics still circulating so widely (and being sent to me by young women I train as “goals”😩), I had to call it out.
First of all, I am in no way saying “eat these things every day!” or “these foods are the healthiest!” or even implying that it is ALWAYS bad to cut out certain foods that don’t make you feel good.
WHAT I AM SAYING:
⚡️FOOD IS FUEL. Some foods have more nutritional value than others, but the sweeping generalization that ALL “burgers, chips, fast food, chocolate, ect.” is bad? Is ridiculous.
⚡️YOUR MENTAL RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD MATTERS MOST FOR YOUR HEALTH! Health is MORE THAN PHYSICAL and fostering a healthy mindset surrounding food and nutrition and your body is MOST IMPORTANT.
⚡️Hard and extreme restrictions almost always lead to over-indulging and worse: a loss of self-confidence because SELF-CONFIDENCE IS LITERALLY BUILT ON SELF-TRUST. When you set a “goal” like the above, you are 1) coming from a negative place and focusing on what you CANNOT have, as opposed to a positive place and focusing on what you CAN have and want to gain, 2) setting yourself up for a guilt/shame cycle if you eat something “bad” that is completely unnecessary and harmful.
I could write a whole book on all there is to unpack here, but I hope this makes sense. I hope this helps anyone living in the mindset that I used to.
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. Please please please use fitness and nutrition as tools to CARE FOR YOUR OVERALL HEALTH! To build yourself up not create guilt or tear yourself down. ❤️