How to Build Your Self-Esteem (with Food)

I was listening to a podcast by Eva Beronius, whose work largely encompasses relational healing and health. In it, she referred to Nathaniel Branden PhD's book, Six Pillars of Self-Esteem. And I thought, "My god, this relates to all areas of life."

If you feel your body, diet, and nutritional self-esteem has taken a hit, this is for you.

Many women feel poorly about their body or eating habits either due to painful cycles like overeating, binge eating, food fixations/obsessions, chronic comparison, or on-and-off dieting OR they experience what they feel is a lack of inspiration to do anything they feel would be healthy for them.

It's easy to fall into victim consciousness from this place:

"I'm just not a motivated person"

"There must be something wrong with me"

"If it wasn't for my (kids, partner, work, schedule, trauma, wiring, friends, etc..) I'd have an incredible diet that I could stick with"

"If I had the perfect body, appearance, or eating plans, THEN I would be truly happy"

None of this thinking is empowering. And from THIS place, people often try and find the fix or the solution. They believe just the right book, program, or meditation series, things would be better. Or they delay much of anything, waiting and waiting and waiting around until outer circumstances change.

How to Build your Self-Esteem (with food)

These strategies generally do not bring an increase in self-esteem. According to Dr. Branden, here's a couple of things that focusing on do:

1.) The capacity to cope with what life brings

Build the body and eating habits you want from the inside out.

and

2.) A sense of worthiness to be happy and have things that are good for you

How does this translate to your health, eating, and body?

It means you've built the inner skills and resources to meet the actual trials and tribulations of life and meet directly with wounds and unhealed places so that you don't NEED to use painful patterns with food to try and distract you, regulate you, or provide a sense of false positives. It also means you've built yourself up from the inside to feel DESERVING of good things, for wanting them, for reaching toward them. This second part opens space to work toward goals that will contribute to you feeling your best. You believe you are worthy of feeling great. And you acknowledge that this requires a sense of personal responsibility.

My work here at Real Food Wellness bridges Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, Depth psychology, nutritional science, and eating psychology to create the space that these transformations can take shape. (You can read more from a handful of clients here).

In addition to learning what style of eating suits your body best and implementing a step-wise plan you can actually maintain, if you make it a goal to increase your capacity to cope with what life brings AND increase your sense of worthiness to be happy and reach for things that are good for you, you'll go very far.

Embracing this means you'll build the body and eating habits that work for you from the inside out.

Want to build your self-esteem with food? Sign up for a 6-session package and watch some inner shifts begin to take shape. Reach out to Laura here to check on session availability or schedule your first session in her Grand Rapids, MI office or on Zoom.

With love & respect,

Laura