One thing we can all benefit from is taking some of the moral weight away from our food choices so that we can move out of a place of restriction and into one of flexibility and progress. It’s relevant to your goals, whether those goals are improving body composition and leaning out, improving performance, or improving your overall health and relationship with food.

If you have an end goal in mind, try and rewire your expectations to making the systems the goal. We can’t get to any sort of goal without proper systems in place, so why not pour your energy into what gets you there rather than getting there?

Identify Our Restrictions

Restrictions in our eating patterns are not always obvious. It doesn’t always mean under-eating or sticking to “diet rules.” Restriction can be a habit from only choosing “low calorie” snacks rather than full balanced meals, habitually labeling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ or avoiding certain food groups completely.

Identify Our Behavior

Whether intentional or unintentional, restrictions can lead to guilt around certain foods, binging, or over-eating due to restriction, feeling out of control around certain foods, or avoiding situations where we don’t have total control over our food choices.

Overcome

Overcoming these patterns of thinking and behavior starts with awareness and education trough learning more about nutrition, seeking support from a mentor/coach, and developing habits that align with our goals rather than rules/restrictions.