Eating without Judgement, a Concept.

I find it so interesting how consumed human beings are with food. Food is obviously needed to survive and is really one of the only things human beings need to live. From an evolutionary standpoint, hunting and foraging was how we survived (that and trying not to get eaten by lions of course), and it took most of our brain power in order to plan and prepare. Even though food has always been a necessity, somewhere along the way we got so obsessed with the way we consume food, that we have forgotten why we need it in the first place. Through food, we not only fuel our bodies and brains, but we also create connections with the people around us. I have always loved that food has the power to bring people together. Think about it: name a time where you went to an event or took a trip, and that event or trip involved food. I'll give you a couple of minutes to think!

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1. Thanksgiving dinner at your Grandmas house? That's a family gathering centered around coming together to eat food prepared by people you love.

2. Your cousins wedding? Even though you're there to celebrate love, you are also there to eat some good food that was hand picked by the Bride and Groom (or most likely Bride!) who put a lot of effort into picking the perfect food for the occasion.

3. A trip to London with your best friend? You know that most of the memories that you created on your trip will be from the foods you experienced abroad. Those foods that, even years from now, you'll look back on and remember because it was a time where you experienced new flavors in a new city.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. My point is that food is a delightful tool that gives us some of our greatest memories.

Yet, somewhere along the way, food became a chore, especially for women. Women have been inadvertently told what to eat and how to eat for so long. Through the threat of weight gain, which is synonymous with unattractiveness, food consumption has become a valuable currency in the way women feel about themselves. We've been fed the concept that weight is a determinant of beauty for so long that we have forgotten to consume actual food along the way. Thankfully, that archaic and hurtful way of thinking has started to shift in recent years.

We still don't live in a world where body positivity (regardless of size) is the norm, however we are moving towards it. I love how encouraged it it is nowadays to actually love the size you are, and how this is literally a new concept. Like people! How is this a new concept??? How is loving the body you have for its so called 'imperfections' a new idea? It seems so simple and yet as a woman, I know how foreign this feeling can be. We have been trained by society to look in the mirror and not like what we see. We have been trained to point out everything wrong with our bodies, instead of promoting the parts of them that make us who we are. Think about it: It's so easy to look in the mirror and think "Why are my legs so big?" or "I wish my arms were thinner". It's harder to look in the mirror and say "wow, my legs are so strong, I am so thankful I can walk a mile with them" or "My arms are exactly the way they should look, and they allow me to hug the people I love or lift a weight". Although challenging, I hope that as a society we can get to a point where we look in the mirror and automatically like what we see, without needing to be coached on how to do it.

I am only 22 years old. I have never struggled with being overweight. I know that I am not like everybody else. I know that people look at me and assume things about me that aren't true. I have my own insecurities, and so does the woman next to you. She has thought at some point in her life that her body is unworthy. She has gone through the same level of disappointment in body composition that you have. Maybe not to the same extent, but she's felt it in her own way. It is a challenge as a woman to actively love your body, but the minute you do, you realize you can do anything.

All of this body positivity and body shaming has something to do with food. Food is a way to control your body, and has been used more often as a weapon than a tool. But, let's not forget that food is what gives us life. It's what brings us together and makes us happy. It's brings up to gather, laugh together, and make memories. I can't count on my fingers the amount of happy times I have around eating. And yet, I can definitely recall the amount of times where I've hated my body. At the end of the day, I want my happiness with food to out weight my insecurities about my body. I actively work everyday to praise my body for what it is, instead of wishing it was something else, simply because of what society is telling me it should look like.

So eat the way you should with the way you want. Eat to fuel your body and to make memories. Eat to live and live to eat. Get ice cream with your boyfriend and don't think about it. Make pasta with your parents and enjoy it. Drink wine and cocktails with your friends and love the way it makes your body feel. We have unintentionally let food control us for so long, that it's time to take control and start eating intentionally again.