Welcome to the Mindful Balance Mini Podcast. If you are a woman over 40 ready to break free from fad diets and discover the power of balance and confidence in your life, then this podcast is for you, and I am so happy that you are here. I'm your host, I'm Rachel, a nutrition and mindset coach, and I'm going to break down everything you need to know into bite-sized pieces of sustainable and realistic tips.
I want to invite you to join me as we explore practical strategies to stop overeating, nourish your body, and use the potential of your amazing brain to achieve your goals. If you haven't already, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode filled with insights on nutrition, mindset, and building healthy habits. Hey there, welcome back.
This is episode 19, and today I want to talk with you about the difference between food freedom and what I like to call free-for-all approach to eating. So through my work as a coach, I have seen many women struggle with this concept because so many of us are used to swing like a pendulum between strict dieting and unrestricted eating.
And I think that the most common thoughts and feelings that come up with the topic of food freedom is the fear that there are only really two options, either restrict or go for free-for-all all the way on the other direction.
So let's start by clearing the air around some common myths about food freedom so that we are super clear about what it actually means, what it looks like in real life, and how do you get to experience that freedom when you start from a place of only knowing how to be restrictive and follow plans that likely someone else gave you. The first myth is that food freedom means unrest ricted eating. And this perhaps is the biggest misconception.
Food freedom isn't about eating anything and everything without a second thought. I know this is such a common belief and it is not true. Food freedom isn't about eating anything and everything without a second thought. It is more about making choices that truly honor your body's needs without guilt and without the restrictions imposed by diet culture.
And it's really more about the balance between saying yes to a birthday cake because it's fun and it's part of the celebration and choosing to eat a salad because that's maybe what your body craves at that moment. The second myth is that food freedom means giving up on your healthy goals or on healthy eating. And I'm going to say that it is absolutely not what it means.
Food freedom doesn't mean that you abandon healthy eating or that you eat all day every day or that you basically no longer care about what you're eating. Instead, food freedom is more about understanding that a healthy lifestyle isn't just about the nutritional value of what we eat, but also about the parts of it that are emotional and psychological and relate to your relationship with food.
It's about letting go of this binary thinking, this black and white or good and bad foods and understanding that really all foods can fit into a balanced diet and a balanced lifestyle. And that leads me to myth number three, which is once you achieve food freedom, you won't struggle with food choices again. As much as I wish that this was true, food freedom isn't a one-time achievement. It's not a milestone that you have to hit and that's it, you're done.
It's more of a practice because it's really normal to have days where you struggle more with food choices and different days are going to look differently and how your body feels and responds will also look differently. The key is approaching these days and moments with compassion and understanding and taking it as an opportunity to learn to continue and grow in your food freedom journey. So many times we have this need to fix problems that actually don't even exist.
Food bringing you comfort is normal. Feeling hungry when you haven't eaten a good balanced meal is normal. When we label some of these behaviors as challenges or we look at it as having an issue or a problem, we spend so much time trying to problem solve something that doesn't even exist. And we have to expect that there will be ups and downs in this journey. It is part of being a human being and it is normal. So what is true food freedom?
In my practice, I define it as the ability to make food choices that align with your body's needs, values, and enjoyment without being influenced by external diet rules or internal guilt. It is where you eat with intention and attention and turn into your body's hunger and fullness cues and respect what your body needs. And that by the way, looks different on different days and for different people.
It also means that my alignment with food may look very different than yours, which is why it is crucial that we look inside instead of looking for a quote unquote prescription of what to eat and when to eat. And I know that for some of you, this idea of space and exploration in trying to figure out what food freedom is for you can be very scary. I know that.
We feel more comfortable with someone giving us a step-by-step roadmap of how to live with food freedom and what to eat and how do we implement it. And I get it. We don't want to do it wrong and we are scared of failing, especially if we have lots of experiences in the past of not being able to achieve our goals. And we don't trust ourselves not to go and eat all the things. I really fundamentally understand that feeling, that concern of not doing it correctly.
If this is how you are feeling, and you are also worried about going into this whole free for all, I want to tell you how food freedom is different than this free for all approach. So think about food freedom as a dialogue with your body where you are both the speaker and the listener. You are aware of what you eat, why you eat it, and how it makes you feel.
A free for all approach is like having a mon ologue where eating decisions are made without paying attention, often really leading to this physical discomfort. And then on top of that, lots of emotional distress. The free in freedom doesn't mean free to eat whatever, whenever. At its core, food freedom is about freedom from rigid food rules. It's about freedom from guilt and fear and confusion that are surrounding your food choices.
This freedom is like taking a breath of fresh air in a room that's been closed off for too long. It's about the satisfaction of enjoying a family meal when the thoughts about food are taking all your mental space. It feels so heavy and so unbearable. So instead, I want to offer you this freedom that is about trusting yourself and listening to your body and honoring your needs, both physically and emotionally.
In this space, it is the freedom to really live fully and eat with joy and enjoy in a way that is sustainable and balanced and deeply fulfilling a whole entire different life experience. Now it is essential to mention how nuanced food freedom can be, because it can be very subtle in what it looks like from the outside compared to traditional dieting. So at first glance, if you look at someone who's practicing food freedom, they might seem to follow typical diet rules.
For example, you can choose a salad over a burger , let's say at lunch. To someone from the outside, this might seem like a classic diet choice driven by calorie counting or food restriction or just thinking that this is what I should be eating. However, the real difference lies in the way that you think in your mindset. In a dieting mindset, you might choose the salad out of a sense of obligation or fear of gaining weight or guilt over bad food choices.
Your decision would be rooted in external rules, leading you to feel and think like, oh, I wish I could have it, but I need to be good and therefore I'm going to only order the salad. This right here is what creates a negative emotional relationship with food, where choices, the choices that you make are driven by restriction instead of choices. Now if we shift the entire perspective, you choose the salad because you genuinely want it. Maybe you want just a lighter meal.
The decision of yours is a result of what your body needs. There's no guilt involved. If you occasionally, let's say crave and you do want a burger instead of the salad, the difference is that your choices are rooted in self-awareness and a desire for balance and wellbeing and not in external rules or restrictions or someone telling you that it's better to have. Self-reliant freedom is so powerful because it places trust back right into your hands.
It allows you to be the expert on your own body and your body's needs. And I know that this is scary and especially if you have a long history of lack of trust, but you can build that trust just like you don't negotiate with your body on other things like going to the bathroom or needing to sleep. Imagine if every time you felt that you had to go to the bathroom, you would start putting labels on it like I should be going or I shouldn 't go, but I already went an hour ago. It sounds so silly.
But your body does have a way of communicating with you. It tells you when to wear a sweater when it is cold outside or when you need to stretch and just move a little bit. Your body will tell you what it needs and you need to let go of the idea that you or someone else knows better, like that your brain knows better than what your physical body needs. And that is really it at the core of it.
Building that trust and building the trust with yourself that you can listen and pay attention to what your body needs is a giant piece in achieving food freedom. Now, of course, unfortunately, we can't get into how to do it. It is not so complicated, but there is really so much that we can cover in one episode. But I do want to leave you with an analogy that I think will be so helpful for you in trying to find what food freedom is for you and how you can find your unique balance.
So instead of talking about food, I want to talk for just a few seconds about money. Think of food freedom as managing a budget. Just as healthy financial behavior doesn't mean that you either spend all your money without any thoughts or saving or any consideration of the future or the other side of it, saving every penny without ever enjoying it. So food freedom really strikes a similar balance with eating.
Like with money, there are so many more options than just being either overly restricted with your budget where you really deny yourself any of the pleasures that money can buy. No dining out, no going on vacation, no buying a new pair of boots. And on the other hand, using your money to buy anything and everything on a whim without ever considering your actual needs or your future goals financially.
Just like different people, different family units have different balances with money, you can also find your definition of balance and peace with food. You will figure out how to make this work for you , even if it may feel uncomfortable at first to let go of food rules. I read somewhere a long time ago that discomfort is the currency of our dreams. And I love it so much. And that's where I want to leave you with today. I want you to get uncomfortable.
I want you to challenge your thoughts that haven 't helped you. I want you to feel uncomfortable, to experiment with what food freedom means for you. All right, have a wonderful week and go out there and try new things. If the old things aren't working for you, try something new. You showed up today and you showed up for yourself and that says so much about you. So take that with you. Until next time, take care. Bye. Thank you for tuning in to the Mindful Balance Podcast today.
I hope you enjoyed our conversation and find inspiration to find your unique balance and confidence. Remember that the journey continues on Instagram. You can find me at Rachel Emma Nutrition. That is one word where I share daily nuggets of wisdom to help you reach your goals with ease. If you loved today's episode, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. Your feedback fuels our mission to empower more women on their mindful balance journey.
Until next time, take care and stay mindful. Bye. Thank you for listening to the Mindful Balance. The Mindful Balance is brought to you by Rachel Emma Nutrition. Our editing and mixing engineer is Michael Ploner . Our theme song is Good Feelings by Bo Deleasons. The information in this podcast does not substitute for medical or psychological advice and is intended for educational purposes only.
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