How to Correct Your Relationship with Food with Confidence

Your relationship with food may be healthy, but many times even the healthiest eaters struggle with mixed messages. The noise from the media, friends or new diet fads mess with their confidence, too. Let's not forget why food exists: to keep us alive, fuel us and provide us with nutrients. It's purpose isn't to make us sick or to make us insecure. This is what occurs when your relationship with food turns abusive or damaging.

It's hard to feel confident about your relationship with food when the entire world is giving you mixed messages about what food is good or bad to eat. The doctors say one thing, or many different things, nutritionists say another; books, magazine and social media all give us quick tips to get healthier, but all of these messages are confusing. Mixed messages lead to an unhealthy body image and an abusive relationship with food. More and more people are finding that they feel insecure when making food choices, which leads to feeling guilt and shame after eating. Let's stop this madness. Food is our friend. Learn to feel confident about your relationship with food.

How Your Relationship with Food Became Unhealthy

When the anxiety or frustration with yourself becomes prevalent, it's time to start thinking about the message and noise you picked up from the world. This is the noise that makes us insecure with anything -- not just food. If you're not mindful, some of others' unhealthy thoughts and behaviors can impact your relationship with food.

Whether it's the friend that posts all her pictures of "clean eating" to show the world that she is secure with herself (but she's not if she has to post about every morsel she ingests) or the friend online that posts about their daily hot yoga classes -- the people you follow on social media, not just in real life, can be disrupting your relationship with food. Even a healthy magazine or online version that sends you emails about how to lose weight or feel great can make you feel bad. If it makes you feel insecure about your weight or food choices, it's impacting you and your confidence.

Food Is Our Friend -- Confidence Around Food

Sure, there are some nasty genetically-modified organism- (GMO) laden, monosodium glutamate- (MSG) filled foods out there that no one should make, let alone eat. Your relationship with food isn't about what the world is telling you is wrong, it's about what your body is telling you is right. Sure, cravings can take over and juicy hamburgers sound delicious after watching a commercial for fast food, but the truth is, the more mindful you are and connected to your body, the more that food will become your friend again.

How to Improve Your Relationship with Food

When it's getting close to mealtime, try this: ask yourself one of these questions or all of them. Get mindful and just do the best you can:

• What is it that my body really wants right now?
• What am I craving? Is it an emotional craving or a physical craving?
• How hungry am I -- emotionally and physically?
• Does that food choice seem like it will be satisfying to me right now (not later, not tomorrow, now)?

As you're eating, try to spend a few minutes just eating. Not Facebooking, not watching TV, not texting, just noticing the food that you are fueling your body with.

• Am I being mindful of what I'm putting in my body?
• Does this taste good? What do I enjoy about this?
• Am I grateful for this meal? If so, why? How is this helping my body and mind?

If I'm having a busy day or I'm just overthinking what I want, I'll ask myself: "What will fill me up to a comfortable place and satisfy what am I really craving?" The other day it was tacos. I really think my body needed some iron or meat. But I also wanted something crunchy and I noticed that my veggie intake was very low on this day. So I thought, "Okay, I have some raw cucumbers, celery and carrots at home, and that sounds satisfying with this taco and guacamole. I don't need the chips." I was satisfied on a physical level and emotional one because I was mindful before making my order. If you really think about it, we crave what our bodies are lacking.

When we stop and become more mindful, our relationship with food becomes healthier. We become more confident and nice to our bodies, when we ask what it wants and needs, we start to build trust between our bodies and mind again. This is my hope for you, too.

Emily is the author of Express Yourself: A Teen Girls Guide to Speaking Up and Being Who You Are. You can visit Emily’s Guidance Girl website. You can also find her on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.