Dancers can create a healthy relationship with food by using this step-by-step guide. As a dancer, your relationship with food plays a key role in the sustainability of your career. This not only involves eating previously deemed “bad” foods, but also, utilizes self-discovery to understand how your thoughts, emotions, and feelings of satisfaction also play a role in your food choices.
A healthy relationship with food allows us to understand cravings from a place of non-judgmental curiosity. Rather than feeling ashamed by these desires, we embrace our body’s communication skills. We utilize evidence-based nutrition knowledge to learn what our body needs both at the moment and in the future. It’s a learning process! Eventually, you can discover what foods support you physically and mentally.
Step #1: Unlearn The Dieting Mentality
The first stage of The Healthy Dancer framework involves learning about how to Ditch Dancer Diet Culture. Diet culture is a system of beliefs that idolizes weight loss. This is unfortunately exacerbated in the dance industry. To learn more about diet culture and how to detangle it, read this article.
Step #2: Grant Unconditional Permission
Remove any rule or condition that you’ve placed upon your food and/or exercise choices. So, for example, banish thoughts of “saving” calories or “burning off” XYZ. Reflect upon the foods that bring you joy and consider journaling a list. From there, begin reintroducing these foods (totally okay to do it one at a time!). For help, read this article.
Read this article to learn about why fears of food addiction are your biggest obstacle to healing your relationship with food. Read this article to begin alleviating feelings of food guilt.
Step #3: Practice Food Neutrality
Viewing food through a neutral lens strips the moral value from food in a way that removes the judgment, shame, stress, and guilt associated with those foods. Read this article to learn more about using food neutrality as a tool to unlearn the “good” and “bad” messaging around food.
Step #4: Consider Food Flexibility
Food Flexibility allows dancers to adapt to an ever-changing food environment. The more flexible you are in your food choices, the more willing you are to move through life’s vast experiences with agility and ease. Read this article to learn more about how you can increase your food flexibility as a dancer.
Step #5: Mindful Eating Practices
Mindful eating is a tool on your everyday journey of building a balanced relationship with food. It involves bringing all of your senses to the table. As you do this, you’ll be better equipped to process your body’s feedback in determining what foods support you and what foods do not support you. This might involve whether or not you experience stomach distress, higher feelings of satisfaction, and higher (or lower) energy levels. To learn more about how dancers can integrate mindful eating techniques into their day, read this article.
