Tell me if this sounds familiar:
- You overhear a comment that you need to lose weight. It could come from a teacher, a peer, or your own demons. It could also not even be about you…but you, being so low on self-esteem as is, automatically assume the worst. Because everyone is always talking about you, judging you, waiting to pick out your flaws, right? (This is another demented demon…but we’ll get into this mental fix at a later point.)
- You immediately start evaluating your food choices and eating habits and decide to go on a diet to lose fat.
Except, you don’t know what changes to make because you get so overwhelmed by all the different diet camps out there – vegan, paleo, low-carb, keto, vegetarian, low-fat, high-fat…
So, you end up arbitrarily picking diet rules to follow that you don’t really understand.
When you don't see results fast enough, you start restricting your eating even more...whether it's cutting your overall intake or swearing off certain foods.
You wake up each morning anxious to see results for all the hunger & self-denial you are enduring, but you still don't like what you see. On top of that, you are starting to feel real lousy in your body from all the restriction - weak, dizzy, no energy or drive, loss of focus, no pep in your step or spark in your life. What happens to your dance technique with all of this? It plummets. And that makes you feel even worse about yourself (Hello, rock-bottom-self-esteem!).
Eventually you cave. All your hard work and self-torture isn't paying off anyway, so screw it. You eat an entire bag of chips and wash it down with that pan of brownies.
After that last bite of brownie is finished...you immediately regret your actions. To make up for being "bad" and cheating on your diet...you double-down with your diet restrictions the next day….until you can take no more and binge again.
This binge/restriction cycle goes on and on...taking you nowhere towards your goals of fat loss. In fact, despite all your hunger and misery, you might actually gain weight. But the dagger to the heart is that this process demolishes not only your self-esteem but your dancing ability (the very thing you hoped to improve when you got into this mess in the first place)! You constantly fluctuate between 2 stages of either feeling too weak and miserable to dance your best while overly restricting your calories…or too bloated and uncomfortable in your body to dance your best while in binge-mode.
I hear your struggles...I've been there. Food (and my body!) used to be the enemy. Eating was a constant struggle I couldn't win. I would either deny myself the pleasure of food to get the body I wanted…or hate myself for giving in to my urges & indulging. It wasn't until I learned to see food differently that I finally found peace with my eating and my body. The key was realizing that as a dancer I actually had to address 3 different needs with my diet – performance power, fat loss, and pleasure – and that different foods nourished those 3 aspects.
Knowing which foods to eat to get the specific results you are looking for can transform the way you approach your diet. This mindset has the power to end your war with food…while still allowing you to make progress with your dance and body goals.
Do you have a copy of my mini e-book "How to Love Food & Still Get the Body You Want" yet? If not, grab a free copy below. It takes you through the nutrition philosophy that has given me freedom from my food frustrations while providing structure to reach my goals:
You deserve to feel confident in your body and powerful in your dancing. You also deserve to enjoy life (including food!)! A little knowledge and a few mental shifts can go a long way in helping you end this war you’ve been waging on food and your body!
Photo credit: Rachel Neville Photography