I Am So Over Good Food/Bad Food Talk!

Check out my new online course, Overcoming Food Guilt With Body Mindful Yoga, and learn to let go of “good food/bad food” thinking and living.

I am so over "good" and "bad" food talk. Like, so completely over it! This kind of thinking ruled my life for decades. It began in college and totally robbed me of enjoying college life and many years after. Little by little, every food transformed from "safe" to "dangerous" until there was nothing I was "allowed" to eat. 

Now, on the other side of that painful way of living, I am grateful everyday for the gift of nourishing myself and my family, especially my daughters. Never will they hear "good food, bad food" talk from me. That's a heartfelt promise.

Morality, by definition, is concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviors and the goodness or badness of human character. Right and wrong, good and bad, and the many-layered meanings of these words have been applied to food, turning the act of nourishing our bodies into an issue of morality.

Morality messages about food strive to convince us that we are powerless. From inherited food beliefs to marketing, from “fat” talk among friends and even strangers to “thinspiration” memes and images on social media, we are regularly exposed to messages insistent that the moral fiber of human character depends on “food willpower.” The core message goes something like this: Depending on what and where we eat, we are either good or bad, disciplined or indulgent, virtuous or sinful, guiltless or greedy.

This kind of messaging is hurting our children. It's probably hurt you. I know it's hurt me. It has to stop, and it begins within ourselves.

The more we rely on external messages to monitor our “goodness” or “badness,” the less connected we are to our personal power, our inner knowing, and our appetite for food and all things in life. And the more we are attached to defining ourselves through words like good and bad or our perceived food “successes” and “failures,” the less available we are to cultivate our dynamic nature and gifts.

Yoga practices offer powerful opportunities to study how morality language around food influences our self-esteem, body image, and general beliefs around eating. These practices also offer us a dedicated space in our day to begin integrating new language about food into our inner dialogues so that we can begin to free ourselves from the suffering associated with beliefs that confuse our moral integrity with our natural right to nourish ourselves.

The Yoga practices that I share in my new online course, "Overcoming Food Guilt with Body Mindful Yoga," have helped me let go of morality beliefs around food, freeing me up to enjoy food again, eat with ease, and believe in my innate goodness. 

I feel incredibly grateful for my healing so that I can share what I've learned with you and support you on your journey. If you can relate to any of this post, I invite you to check out my new online course to learn how it will benefit you. And for my yoga teacher friends, CEUs with the Yoga Alliance are available! 

Please get in touch with any questions you have about the course or other ways we can work together! I am here to support YOU.