How to make health changes without restriction.
You can pursue health at any size without elimination diets or reset protocols, and how self-care goes beyond bubble baths.
At this point, you’re all about opting out of diet culture, but at the same time thinking to yourself, BUT HOW DO I DO THIS, DANA and CRISTINA?!?!?!
So this week, we see you and we get you. And we’re offering a little of the HOW. To show you how to put an intention of working on your health (for one example) for the new year into action without relying on the same old restrictive protocols.
One way to help us take care of our bodies and pursue health is to break the black and white, on-and-off-the-wagon mentality and remove the guilt around food while incorporating neutral nutrition and health-promoting behaviors. (Oh is that all? We know, it’s a big to-do - but you asked!)
Step one: start using an add-in, abundance-based approach rather than a restrictive, elimination-based approach. We’re told too often, and it is reinforced by wellness/reset/food as medicine culture, that we need to be constantly eliminating things to pursue health.
Step two: learning how to decipher neutral nutrition information from diet and weight loss advice, and deciding how you want to incorporate that neutral information into your life through health-promoting behaviors.
You can pursue health-promoting behaviors without doing a diet, reset, protocol, or making an all-or-nothing list of rules to stick to (that you then feel bad about when you ‘fall off’).
As a reminder, Health Promoting Behaviors are personal practices that enhance human vibrancy & well-being, including attention to individual physical, nutritional, economic, social, spiritual, emotional, and other needs.
You get to decide what health means to you and how you’re going to pursue that in your own life. A big part of breaking this toxic diet/wellness cycle is learning that no one else gets to tell you what you should be doing or what you should want with your life in regards to your health.
Examples of how to add-in health-promoting behaviors vs. all-or-nothing resolutions:
I want to eat more fruits and vegetables vs. I’m doing a whole30 reset
I want to add in more yoga and stretching vs. I’m signing up for a 30-day power yoga challenge
I want to do more self care this year vs. every week i’m going to have a bubble bath with essential oils and expensive bath bombs and 25 candles and a $100 bottle of red wine like you’ll see on Instagram
I want to be more flexible with food vs. I’m only going to have ‘cheat’ meals on the weekends
Resources this week: some accounts to follow who promote neutral nutrition information and health without pushing diets or elimination protocols:
@thenutritiontea
@vitamin_ri
@your.latina.nutritionist
@wellfedwomen
@jessicawilson.msrd
@nourishmnt_
@neutralnutrition
Bonus podcast episode: The Problem with ‘Healthism’ and What I Eat in a Day Posts, with Maria Sylverster Terry (@vitamin_ri above!)
Xo.
Dana & Cristina
