Megan Boswell

Let’s challenge some diet rules today ✨

The way we talk (and think) about food and eating can make a huge difference to our relationship with food 🥙🍌🧁🥒🥝🍕🥯

This carousel shows a simplified version of the reframing process that I often go through with my lovely clients, but if you want to make the reframes more powerful then you can combine them with your ✨why✨ for challenging them.

For example:

“I want to challenge this rule because…

👉 I want to be able to connect with friends around food without feeling anxious or worried about the meal.”

👉 I miss having the freedom to eat when I’m hungry without being restricted by rules or time constraints.”

👉 I value my mental health and know that my relationship with food is negatively impacting on this.”

👉 Thinking less about food will give me the mental space and time to pursue other meaningful parts of my life.”

These are just some examples — Instagram posts are for general advice only and can’t capture everyone’s experience with food 🌸

👇 Let me know which diet rules you’d like me to cover next! ALSO drop any questions below 👀

— Meg 💖

2 years ago

The four types of hunger ✨🥯 did you know that hunger can present in a few different ways?

The first type is physical hunger 💫 which refers to ‘true’ hunger or the biological need to eat. It’s a body cue just like the urge to go to the bathroom and it’s important that we respect it 🤗 signs of physical hunger include headache, feeling lightheaded, low energy, difficulty concentrating and/or hunger pangs. It’s important to eat when you’re hungry (and not try to ignore it) otherwise you can lose touch with hunger cues over time 💛

The second type is taste hunger 👅 which can be the craving for a specific food or flavour, and may present alongside physical hunger or on its own. You can honour taste hunger by giving yourself permission to choose the food that you feel like, without having foods that are ‘bad’ or ‘off-limits’.

The third type is emotional hunger 💭 which is a totally valid type of hunger as well. It’s okay to eat for emotional reasons — food can give us pleasure and comfort. However, we do need other coping strategies in our toolbox, because food rarely meets our emotional need or addresses the root cause of why we are feeling that way 💖

The fourth type is practical hunger 🍌 which is basically eating because it’s a good idea to do so, even in the absence of obvious hunger. It’s a way to prevent future discomfort, undereating or going too long without eating.

I work with clients online through @thep

2 years ago

8 sneaky signs of disordered eating or a poor relationship with food // 🌸
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Eating disorders + disordered eating is estimated to affect around 16% of the Australian population. Disordered eating exists along a spectrum, and at its most severe can become characterised as an eating disorder.
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One of the emerging disordered eating categories is ‘orthorexia’. While orthorexia is not formally recognised at this stage for diagnosis, it refers to an obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating. Although being aware of the nutritional quality of the food you eat isn’t necessarily a problem, people with orthorexia can become so fixated on ‘healthy eating’ that they damage their physical and mental wellbeing in the process (e.g. increasing anxiety around eating, cutting out food groups and experiencing nutritional deficiencies).
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In this carousel I’ve included some key signs that you or someone you care about may have a poor relationship with food. That’s not to say that anyone who exhibits one or two of these signs definitely has a poor relationship with food — it’s context dependent. For example, someone with coeliac disease may feel anxious about eating out or foods prepared by others due to the risk of gluten contamination.
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But if you (or a loved one) feel like food is starting to be overwhelming, is causing stress/anxiety/guilt or leading to unusual behaviours, then please seek help 💛

2 years ago