What Kind of Eater Are You? And why it's vitally important to understand this
/
If you've ever struggled to identify WHY you just can't seem to navigate your relationship with food and your body, then chances are, you have a blindspot with understanding YOU.
What does your own self-understanding have to do with you and food?
Everything!
In essence, your relationship with food is an extension of your relationship with yourself.
My clients typically fall into one of the following categories (with occasional overlap):
Controlled - hyper aware and vigilant about following a set of rules, including macros, good vs. bad food lists, and she may have orthorexic tendencies (i.e. only eat “healthy” foods). Very unlikely to deviate from her plan and regimen.
Yo-Yo Dieter - “all-or-nothing” perfectionist tendencies where she's doing ALL the things or NONE of them. Often includes the binge and restrict cycle.
Emotional Eater - binges or eats things she doesn't *truly* want to eat due to a lack of other coping skills for life’s ups & downs. This often means periods of feeling aligned and free followed by periods of confusion and frustration (even within the same day).
Appearance-focused - doesn’t really care about health; only weight. Will eat or drink anything, as long as her body still looks the way she wants it to.
I can identify which category a woman falls into by simply observing the way a woman lives her life.
After all, the ways in which we live our lives are a reflection of how we view & value ourselves.
People pleaser? You likely have a lack of boundaries, so you have a hard time making choices that align in your best interests and eat out of comfort. You're simply trying to find fulfillment after taking care of everyone BUT you.
High Achiever? You likely put your health on the back burner and are only focused on the end result of whatever you're working towards. This either means eating for "reward" after a long day OR overly restricting in pursuit of achievement.
Acting as the social chameleon and changing who you are based on your audience? You're likely unsure of yourself and WHO you really are internally, so you're hyper-focused on your appearance. This means focusing on your weight and body composition above all else.
Procrastinator? A hallmark trait of perfectionists. Better to have never tried than to try and fail right? This means engaging in all-or-nothing eating behaviors. Baby steps are for babies with this mindset!
The beautiful thing about looking at your relationship with food in this way is that is illustrates how the issue isn't the food.
Therefore, it isn't anything to be fearful of!
Food has simply become the scapegoat for the deeper calling of misalignment of self-worth.
