Health, confidence and nutrition

What is true health?

It’s no secret that nutrition plays a big role in health. But today, our social media feeds, the Internet, and even the movies and series we watch, are so saturated with conflicting messages of what healthy eating is and what society’s idea of “healthy” looks like, that it can actually have a negative effect on our self-esteem. I know I have certainly been there: after a scroll session on social media, I put my phone down, and compare my food choices with the picture-perfect images different influencers and fitness accounts have posted. Make no mistake; my real-life picture definitely does not compare to their highlight reel. Not even my own highlight reel.

Thing is, nutrition is so much more than calories, vitamins, minerals, looking good in workout clothes, or even performance. And health is so much more than a six pack abs or not getting sick. In fact, the WHO defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.

That means to be healthy, you don’t just need a healthy body; you need a healthy mind. You also need to prioritise a healthy social life, because we are not meant to live life in isolation. If attaining a healthy body causes you to wreck your social life because you either have no energy or don’t want to risk having unhealthy food, are you really healthy?

If you are constantly comparing yourself and feeling not good enough, and sacrificing your mental health for a certain physique, or even for a certain level of performance, are you really healthy?

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR NUTRITION?

True healthy nutrition means that you make nutrition choices that:

• Supports a healthy body – eating a diet rich in colours, nutrients and with enough energy.
• Supports a healthy mind – realising that nutrition is about the process, not perfection; to allow flexibility when you need to; to include foods that you love; and building a healthy relationship with food and your body.
• Supports social well-being – to not allow your relationships with others to be affected by your nutrition. If your food choices is poor, you will have less energy and capacity to pour into relationships. On the flip side, if your food choices is perfect, but does not allow you to have a social life, this also affects your social well-being.

NUTRITION AND CONFIDENCE

True healthy nutrition builds confidence. I love how Dr Zelena Montminy, author of the book, 21 days to Resilience states it in an interview on the TV show, Impact Theory:

“I think a bigger piece of the puzzle that is often missed in terms of nutrition and mental health, is that when you make healthful choices for your body, you are in a sense telling your brain that you are worth it.
And so you are activating a feedback loop in your brain that says to yourself, okay, I am eating this food because I love myself enough to buy this food, to make this food, and I am worth this food. So when you then eat it, this feedback loop starts building your self-worth and confidence that has immeasurable consequences on your mental well-being.”

Does your conscious self-talk about food (what you directly say to yourself) as well as your unconscious self-talk (through your nutrition choices) reflect how you WANT to feel about yourself, life and others?