295: True Food Freedom: What It Really Means to Stop Obsessing, Restricting, and Feeling Guilty Around Food

Again, I'm so excited to chat with you about food freedom.

For some people, food freedom, and maybe this is you, it means not tracking anymore.

Maybe when you think about food freedom, you think about being able to eat more, having more flexibility, eating dessert without guilt, being able to go on a vacation and indulge.

And yes, all of these things can be a part of food freedom, but it truly does not explain what food freedom actually is, and this is why I wanted to do today's episode.

It's not just about taking a break from tracking or having a treat meal or even saying, "I'm going to enjoy my vacation," or, "I'm going to have this treat and not have any guilt around it." True food freedom is a lot deeper, and it took me years to understand this.

It really is.

True food freedom, my friend, is when food no longer has emotional control over you.

Let me repeat that again.

True food freedom is when the food you eat has no more control, emotional control over you.

It's when you can indulge and you do not feel like you did something wrong.

It's when you have a higher carb meal and you immediately don't feel like you need to restrict the next day or the next meal, or you need to go burn extra calories at the gym.

It's when you can go on vacation, enjoy your food, be present with your family and kids, and not spend the entire trip mentally calculating all the damage you're doing.

Do you know how many years in the past I spent milt- mentally calculating what I was doing wrong? How every single meal, every drink, every, all the things were adding up, and how much damage it was doing? I wasn't even present in my vacation.

Now, this was before I had children, but still, maybe you have children, maybe you don't, but you may be doing the same thing I was doing and many women are doing every single day.

It's the mental exhaustion as well.

It's when you can enjoy a holiday without guilt, shame, or, as I just mentioned, constantly feeling like you need to punish yourself when it's over because a lot of us have done this, or maybe you're currently doing this, and you don't realize that you still do not have food freedom because you're not tracking, or maybe you say, "I enjoy a treat meal." But again, if you're not able to do it in all the ways that I'm chatting about, not having that mental calculation, not feeling guilty, not feeling shameful, not feeling like you did something wrong, your food no longer having that emotional control over you, that's truly not food freedom.

So the biggest thing is being able to step back and realize that you do not have to perfectly control everything to feel okay, or that if you're not controlling every single thing, then you're going to regress and f- and fail.

I do get this, and this is why I wanted to talk to you about this woman to woman today, and not just as your coach.

I have lived in that space.

I know what it feels like to personally be afraid of carbs.

I know what it feels like to eat too much and feel bloated and miserable.

I know what it feels like to not only mentally tell myself and calculate the damage, but actually go to the gym and have to make up for all the calories I ended up eating.

I know what it feels like to be so disciplined on the outside, but mentally exhausted on the inside.

That's not freedom.

That's not health.