Is it time to rewrite your food story? | The Mindset Diet
If you keep falling back into the same eating habits, even when you genuinely want to change them, then perhaps it is time to rewrite your food story.
Your eating habits aren't just about willpower. The way you eat today has been shaped over time by your experiences, your environment and the messages you've absorbed about food, dieting, weight and your body. Together, they have created what I call your food story.
I'm Caroline Tyrwhitt, a food relationship coach and author of The Mindset Diet. I help people escape the dieting cycle by understanding the thinking behind their eating.
Perhaps you always finish everything on your plate, even when you're full. Maybe certain foods still feel “good” or “bad”. Perhaps you reach for something sweet when you're tired or stressed, feel guilty after eating something you think you shouldn't, or regularly promise yourself you'll start being “good” again on Monday.
These patterns didn't appear from nowhere.
Understanding where they came from can help you become curious about your eating habits rather than critical of yourself. Perhaps it's time to recognise which parts of your food story still serve you and which you might now be ready to rewrite.
Where Does Your Food Story Begin?
Long before you made your own decisions about food, you were learning from the people and world around you.
Think about some of the messages you heard growing up:
“Finish what’s on your plate.”
“Waste not, want not.”
“You’ve been good, so you deserve a treat.”
“You can’t leave the table until you’ve eaten everything.”
Perhaps food was used to celebrate, reward, comfort or show love. Maybe certain foods were forbidden or reserved for special occasions. Perhaps people around you were frequently dieting or talking about their weight.
And then there were the messages you absorbed about bodies.
Were people's weight or appearance commented on? Was being thin praised? Did you learn that losing weight was something to celebrate — or that gaining it was something to feel ashamed about?
You may not consciously remember deciding to believe any of these things. You simply absorbed the world you were growing up in.
What Happened to Your Food Story as You Grew Up?
Your childhood may have written the early chapters, but your food story continued to develop.
Perhaps you went on your first diet as a teenager and started learning about calories, restriction and foods you “should” or “shouldn’t” eat.
Then adult life arrived. Work, relationships, children, stress, money, socialising, changing bodies and increasingly busy lives can all influence how, when and what we eat.
You might have gone from sitting down for regular meals to grabbing something between meetings. Cooking might once have been enjoyable but now feels like another task at the end of an exhausting day.
Perhaps you started rewarding yourself with food after a stressful day. Or you've spent years moving between being “good”, losing weight, relaxing the rules, regaining it and deciding that you need to go on another diet.
Gradually, all these experiences become part of your normal. And because they're normal, you may never stop to question them.
Are You Following Food Rules You Didn't Choose?
This is where exploring your food story can become very revealing. You may discover that some of the rules you live by today aren't really your rules at all.
Perhaps you still finish everything on your plate because wasting food was unacceptable in your childhood.
Maybe saying no to food someone has prepared feels rude.
Perhaps you believe you have no willpower because you've repeatedly struggled to stick to restrictive diets.
Or maybe you've come to believe that being busy means your own needs have to wait.
None of this is about blaming your parents, your family, or yourself.
It's about awareness. You were learning from the environment you were in and the experiences you had. The question now is whether everything you learned still works for the person you are today.
Your Food Story Isn't Just About Food
One of the most interesting things about looking back at your food story is noticing the beliefs underneath your eating habits. You might recognise beliefs about being good, pleasing other people, not wasting things, deserving rewards, needing to be perfect, putting everyone else first or proving that you can cope.
And you may begin to notice where those same beliefs appear elsewhere in your life. That can be a real lightbulb moment.
Instead of simply thinking,“I need more willpower”or“I need to go on a diet”, you can become curious about the pattern.
Where did it come from? Is it still serving you? And what might you choose instead?
You Don't Have to Rewrite the Whole Story at Once
When you start noticing these patterns, it can be tempting to decide that everything needs to change.
It doesn't.
One small, frequently repeated habit can be an interesting place to begin.
It might be automatically reaching for cake with your afternoon coffee. Finishing your plate when you're already satisfied. Eating because you don't want to disappoint someone. Or telling yourself you've “blown it” because you ate something you hadn't planned.
The important part is noticing.
Awareness gives you an opportunity to interrupt an old pattern and consider whether you would like to choose something different.
And that's where rewriting your food story begins.
Ready to Explore Your Own Food Story?
I've created a free Rewrite Your Food Story mini course inside my free community, The Mindset Diet Revolution, to help you do exactly that.
I'll guide you through exploring the early and later influences that have shaped the way you eat today. You'll have a workbook to help you capture your own story, and I'll share my food story too — including some of the childhood messages, dieting experiences and career habits that influenced my relationship with food.
Then we'll go a little further.
I'll help you look back over your story for the lightbulb moments, choose one area you'd like to change and create a supporting affirmation to help you begin rewriting that part of your story.
You don't need to arrive knowing what needs to change. You don't need to judge the choices you've made in the past. Just bring your curiosity.
Join The Mindset Diet Revolution and take the free Rewrite Your Food Story mini course.
I'm Caroline Tyrwhitt, a food relationship coach and author of The Mindset Diet. I help people escape the dieting cycle by understanding the thinking behind their eating.
