Category: Nutrition

Nutritional musings, advice and guidance

Mental health, Nutrition, Wellbeing, Women's Health and Wellbeing

8 Reasons Why You Think About Food All The Time

Why do we obsess so much about food? Why we can’t stop thinking about it? 

As we are all so different, we have different thoughts about food, we treat food differently and also some of us have different emotions about what food represents or mean to us. 

Here are few potential reasons why you really struggle with food and food is the main topic your mind is processing daily: 

1. You are unhappy with your body.
2. You are constantly on the diet trying to restrict foods you love.
3. Every time when you feel out of control, any negative or positive emotions, you seem to dive into food. This cycle in your life probably happens more often than you want it to, so there is a lot of thought how to stop it. 
4. You have anxiety around food, because you believe what you are eating is wrong, unhealthy. 
5. You are trying to eat a perfect diet, but whatever that is, you never seem to be happy.
6. You know what you need to do, but all you think about is “junk” & “unhealthy” foods. 
7. You feel ashamed of your eating habits & you are constantly trying to do your best without success.
8. Fear that eating certain foods will damage your health or weight and you spend a lot of time thinking and preparing your food. 

Our opinion about food/nutrition is normally very far from what nutrition actually is. Eating balanced diet is just one part of our daily habits that contributes to our wellbeing and health, but it is definitely not the most important one. 

What do I mean by that? 

Our health, wellbeing, weight, quality of life is directly related to how we feel on a daily basis. I am just going to summarise here few things that impact our life every single day and looking only one part of our life as an exception, such as nutrition and if we change only that one part is not going to improve our life, if other things are not involved as well.

How much daily habits affect how we feel every day?
Good Quality Sleep
Daily movement
Healthy relationships
How you treat yourself
Regular physical activity
Screen time (social media scrolling WILL affect how you feel - reduce it)
How you manage your mental health and wellbeing
Gratitude
Daily experiences of joy and happiness

As you can see our nutrition/eating habits play just a small part of our life on how we feel. But unfortunately if we don’t address it on time, it can become our main focus, main frustration and the main reason of our unhappiness. 

How you can overcome this issue, so that food isn’t in the main focus of your life that controls how you feel every single day: 

1. First you need to have an understanding/knowledge of how nutrition, food, eating behaviours affect us on a physical, mental and emotional level. You have to be willing to open your mind to learn a new way how to see food in your life. 

2. Increased self awareness – become an observer of your own thoughts, emotions, habits and behaviours around food and how much food affects you and learn new skills how to manage those thoughts, emotions, change habits and behaviors to serve your wellbeing and health goals. Be willing to stop judging yourself, as you are doing the best you can, with the information you have. 

3. Have clarity to what is exactly you want your physical and emotional health to be like. Know exactly what you want to work towards. 

4. You have to be willing to let go of past beliefs and opinions about food, to create a space for new experiences, to explore tastes and food without criticism, judgment, shame and guilt.

5. Have trust in yourself that you can overcome this challenge. It is possible to let go of old, to embrace new and live life freely where food becomes just food to enjoy, rather than the enemy to destroy your life. 

Please watch this video below to gain a proper understanding of energy balance and how we can impact it with our behaviours to serve us long term. 

If you are looking for support, accountability and coaching, please feel free to message me for more information or email me on adrijana@adrijana.co.uk 

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments in the section below. 

Wishing you a wonderful day! 

Adrijana x 

Nutrition, Weight Loss, Wellbeing, Women's Health and Wellbeing

Are You Looking To Lose Weight?

Have you been caught up recently in the weight loss trap? 

You wake up feeling you have gained weight and you have to do something about it, but you don’t know where to start and what to do? 

Is your day affected to that extent that the only thing you are thinking about is what food to eat and how much exercise you should be doing?

And then you end up doing nothing about it?

Sounds familiar? 

Since being in fitness industry for 11 years and in the past year I have mainly focused on online coaching, I have seen the frustration of weight loss, weight gain and in general weight loss fluctuations. 

I would like to change the conversation about weight, because weight will always fluctuate depending on time of the month, time of the year, certain life situations, challenges and difficulties and it is impossible to control that number on the scales. 

But what is possible to keep your focus on your wellbeing, health and fitness without getting so concerned about that number. I do think for many women how they look is very important and I will never undervalue their desire, as I share that desire with them. I have found my peace with my body, size and wellbeing and I have seen now what does it take to be ok with all those weight fluctuations, and here is my insight in this journey: 

1. Your weight should be a long term focus on habit and behaviour change. I cannot stress this enough. You cannot achieve long term results without changing what you do daily. If you have a habit to watch Netflix and scroll social media for hours every day, that will impact your self esteem, you will procrastinate and definately convince yourself that you have no time to do something about your health and happiness, which in a long run will affect your mood that will lead to overeating and sedentary lifestyle. 

I would like you to change the focus from the number of your pants, to what you can do consistently that will make you feel good every day. As a result of you feeling good, you will feel empowered to take action towards things that make you feel good, which will be to move more and nourish yourself with food, rather then to seek comfort in food. 

2. Acknowledge what meaning food has in your life – if food is your go-to to seek comfort, joy and happiness, you will always go back to food when life throws at you challenges. That is why is important to develop tools and strategies that will help you to find comfort in things that truly bring you joy. You can watch the video here what you can do to overcome emotional eating. 

3. Establish non-negotiables in your day. Start practicing few daily habits that will help you feel your best. That can be anything that makes you feel good. Here are some of my examples:

  • morning routine
  • bedtime routine
  • meditation
  • breathing 
  • journaling gratitude, self reflection
  • listening empowering music, podcasts, audio books
  • spend time in your day learning something new
  • writing
  • movement outdoors, spending time in nature
  • catching up vitamin D outdoors
  • talking to a friend
  • exercise
  • doing something good for someone else
  • colouring
  • finding a challenge to work towards
  • doing something positive for community
  • volunteer 
  • or you can write list of your own
I really think that seeking for weight loss for the sake of weight loss isn’t worth it. If you don’t learn how to maintain your weight through what you do every day, your efforts will always feel like you are battling the invisible demon, always going back to the beginning. 
I guess you wonder is it really possible to change? Absolutely. Here is the process of long term change: 
1. Learning WHY you eat the way you do, why you don’t do things that you know you should be doing and why you are in the same loop for decades. 
2. Learn tools and strategies to break the habit pattern. This will require self awareness, self compassion, patience and implementation of new tools and strategies that will help you break the pattern. 
3. See your change as a long term investment into learning how to manage your emotions, habits and behaviours and to establish the routine that makes you feel good and also to change the mindset about you, your life and the change you need. 
4. If you don’t know how to do it yourself, ask for help from someone who have been there and who knows how to help. 

I would love to hear from you what do you feel is your focus right now and how are you getting on, on your health and wellbeing journey? 

Just post in the comments below 🙂 

If you are looking in long term change, message me right here. 

Looking forward hearing from you, 

Adrijana 

Adrijana Tomas Goryn
Nutritionist, Personal Trainer, Online Coach