HTM QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

Here is a question from our private Facebook Group.

 

"I am 26 and live at home with my loving parents.  How do I handle comments from them about my food choices?"

Because from your parents perspectives, as you build your Healthy Thin Mentality (HTM),  it may look like you are foregoing nutrition and not adhering to commonly held beliefs about eating "healthfully."

And they care about you!

But like the great majority of people, they probably have deeply ingrained diet mentalities.  

You love them and don't want to criticize them,  so how do you handle this?

For your HTM to thrive you need:

1.  An environment that supports stress-free eating.

2.  A safe place to learn, or relearn because you knew these things as a child, what your favorite foods are, what your food rhythms are, and what food makes you feel the best and most nourished in X circumstance.

3. To allow yourself to get acquainted with hunger and the lack of hunger, which requires some stop and starts with eating.  As in, you sit down to dinner but you don't eat much, or you eat at 4 because that is when you are hungry, but that is not the official dinner time.

In short, you need freedom. 

And in order to gain and keep that freedom, I would suggest you choose from the following, or do them all!

1.  Show them some of our videos, or have them check out a few pages of our book or workbook that really resonate with you.

2.  Have them watch my favorite documentary from the BBC The Men Who Made Us Thin.

3.  Show them some of our mantras that are listed in the workbook such as "Nothing is fattening when you are hungry, Everything is fattening when you are not."

4.  Show them discussions in our group where people talk about their transformation.

Do this in a non-confrontational tone, just giving them information to digest that they may have never seen.

Express that you need the opportunity to live your life without food as a major stumbling block.  Assure them that you are not criticizing them and that you appreciate them, but that you need their support, because you are living with them.

If you were not under roof with them, my answer would be different.  You could basically skirt the issue and get your HTM strong and then discuss it.

But, it is important that you feel the freedom to let go of all those diet mentality thoughts that have held you back for so long, and that freedom will be so much stronger if you are living in a situation where you don't have to hide what you are doing.

And wouldn't it be nice if you could become an awesome role model for your parents.

That would be a true gift.