Eliminating Foods from Self-Hate vs. Self-Love

Reducing or eliminating a particular food could be driven by either self-hate or by self-love. Motivation is everything.

Should you stop eating sugar? Should you reduce gluten?

Should you put parameters around your diet? Can you heal from binge eating if you have any parameters? What about your physical health, don't we need to limit certain things?

It's all about looking at why you want to restrict or eliminate a food, because motivation is absolutely everything.

Do you want to stop eating sugar because you hate yourself if your body isn't perfect and you want to force yourself into that shape? This would be a self-hatred driven choice.

Or are you wanting to stop eating sugar because you notice lots of sugar inhibits your sensitivity to your own emotions, and you've realized being connected to your emotions is important for your relationship with yourself? This would be a self-love driven choice.

Do you want to reduce your gluten because you heard gluten causes bloating and you feel you have to have visible abs to be attractive enough? This would be a harsh motivation.

Do you want to reduce gluten because you have realized that it does indeed bother your stomach and that your digestion is better without it? This would be a more loving motivation.

It’s best that we make choices from self-love: love of our soul, love of our emotional self, love of our spiritual connectedness.

It’s best that we make loving choices for our body based on internal factors more than the external.

We should be more concerned with what's good for our heart and our liver and our kidneys than what our bodies physically look like on the outside.

There was a time in my life where I forced myself to eat salads and melons because I felt I was worthless unless I was as thin and glowing. I never thought about my pancreas health or my blood health, and I never cared about my emotional self or my soul. It was just about how I looked and what I weighed.

Now, I eat salads and melons because I am thinking about my pancreas and blood health, and because I have better mental focus and energy on healthy foods. I sleep better, I digest better, and my body feels healthier on the inside. By the way though, I also eat chocolate and cookies at times — yes, even ones with sugar in them! It's not all salads and melons, though I feel best eating healthy the vast majority of what I eat.

The good news as well is that motivation can change. So even if you find you are motivated by self-hate or fear now, you can work through those issues emotionally so that your choices to reduce or eliminate a food are driven by the right reasons.

Photo by Tamas Pap via Unsplash