Something that comes up in my nutrition sessions with clients often is that eating is hard. It sounds kind of silly. Like, what do you mean eating is hard? Eating is fun, and as humans, we’re kind of designed to love food (and survive off of it). In the United States, food is everywhere. It’s on every corner, it’s in our media, it’s usually part of our gatherings. So if it’s so integrated into culture (not just American culture, but all cultures), why would it be hard?

When I sit in sessions with patients, I often hear them describe things like “Ugh, I’m so tired of thinking about cooking” or “I hate buying groceries, it stresses me out” or “I don’t really know what to talk about today because I have ____ going on.” In hearing that, I often reflect back that it sounds like eating is feeling like a chore. “YES,” my clients exclaim, “exactly.”

Acknowledging this is so important. Because we often see topics like Intuitive Eating and a non-diet approach to nutrition paired with terms such as “joyful eating, peaceful, empowering.” And those words can absolutely be a part of the description of what one might experience with approaching food under a non-diet lens. However, a big part of the journey that does not get talked about enough (IMO) is the WORK that it is to reroute ourselves to thinking about nutrition and food in a new way.

Something I drill into my clients is that the work we are doing together in sessions (and what they are doing outside of sessions) is WORK. And it’s hard work at that. It can feel exhausting, tiring, draining, sad, emotional, cumbersome, etc. And there are a lot of factors that can make it feel this way, including (but certainly not limited to) experiencing food insecurity, having a history of trauma around food, being a busy human with lots of responsibilities, exhaustion from life, decision fatigue, overwhelm from navigating diet culture…the list goes on.

Eating is not simple. Many decisions both in and out of our control go into the food we eat. There are so many “why’s” behind our food choices, and those “why’s” are not always easy. If you’re feeling like eating is a CHORE, I see you and I’m proud of you for doing your best.