Crumbling Preconceptions, One Cookie at a Time

I was recently in a meeting where we were asked about our favorite Girl Scout cookies. My turn to share was signaled by, "OK, Vanessa, how about you - though you probably don't even eat Girl Scout Cookies, do you?"

As I was expected to, I chuckled, answered, and we moved on. But internally, I was having a different conversation: "What do you MEAN, I probably don't eat Girl Scout Cookies? Because I'm a vegetarian? Because I'm a dietitian? Because I most likely fill my days cooking quinoa and silently judging others? Yup. Nailed it."

Diet culture is everywhere. And it can even operate under the guise of health or wellness culture. We see this a lot on social media, as we've often mentioned, but how about when it's in our home life, work life -- right in front of us? A lot of people in our lives are perpetually concerned about every food they put in their mouths and this often transfers into concern over the mouths of others. I'd wager that all of us have had (or even initiated!) conversations similar to the above. What's past is past and that's ok, but let's work together to move forward and break this societal conditioning together.

One way of doing this is what we'll be talking about this week: learning to cope with your emotions with kindness, instead of relying upon food. With time and practice, non-judgmental observation of how you're feeling and the emotions that may come out of these feelings can lead to new ways of coping that better serve your needs in the moment.

If you are currently using food as a primary emotional coping mechanism, you'll see that as you begin to let go of this you'll be able to reclaim your right to see food as a pleasurable experience and as a result feel more satisfied with your food choices, more of the time. You'll even see that letting yourself enjoy food like cookies will not result in out-of-control eating, as many people fear, but instead will actually result in self-limiting behavior, since you know you have given yourself the permission to be satisfied. That satisfaction and permission takes away any power that cookie may have formerly had. This way of thinking may require a slight leap of faith on your part, but how powerful would it be to find this kind of satisfaction every day? Think about it.

(Oh, and my answer to the Girl Scout cookie question? THIN MINTS 4EVER.)