From all the many women I’ve worked with (including myself), what I’ve discovered is how vital the transition is from food obsession to food freedom. I am a total believer – from my own personal and professional experience with countless examples – of a full and total recovery from any disordered or challenging relationship with food and our body-image. And yet what we often don’t so easily appreciate is the path – the journey – from obsession to freedom.
I love the analogy offered by Anita Johnston of a log, keeping us from drowning in strong-moving currents. This is how many of us have experienced the eating patterns or behaviours we now wish to change. Yet, how much time have we given to identifying what those behaviours have done for us?
Here are some of the answers I’ve heard:
“My bingeing kept me feeling grounded and comforted through the very worst time in my life.”
“My diet and exercise routine gave me a sense of power at a time when everything was changing and I wasn’t able to control a thing else….”
“My food choices and decision to be a certain weight have me a sense of living my own life rather than going along with what others think I should do or be!”
If we decide we are ready to step onto a food freedom path, and we expect ourselves to just let go of the log from one day to the next and swim to shore, we may find we lose strength and confidence before we arrive at the shore.
Those of us who experience challenges with food and our body-weight are so often thin-skinned, emotionally-sensitive people in a world where we’ve often been taught that being thick-skinned is the way to get ahead, survive, and thrive.
Instead seeing of seeing freedom from food obsession as something we “should” get perfect at from one day to the next, we can honour and appreciate the ways in which our now-outdated food behaviours have kept us afloat. And we can honour our own unique paths to freedom as an experience of letting go of the log while we tread water, while we gain strength with the help and encouragement of others, and while we swim to dry land at our own rightful pace.
To talk to me about your own relationship to food and your body-image, and for some ways to begin the journey of a freedom that lasts, go here for a Free 30 minute consultation with me.
I look forward to our paths crossing soon.
Warm wishes,
Naomi
