#022 - Mindset and food relationship
For many years, I believed that being a healthy person meant cutting out everything I loved — including foods that reminded me of my childhood, with which I had an emotional connection. Comfort food. I gave it all up in the name of being "healthy." In our society, being healthy is often portrayed as eating skinless chicken, fish, cooking without oil, drinking four to five litres of water, eating loads of vegetables, avoiding sugar, gluten, lactose, and, of course, taking whey and creatine.
For individuals with allergies or intolerances, avoiding gluten or lactose is sensible. But for many of us, those foods are not harmful. On the contrary, they offer nutrients and pleasure.
Eating vegetables, drinking water, and eating high-fibre foods — all of that supports health. That's true. But that doesn't mean we can't eat a chocolate bar too. It's about balance. And finding that balance is not about copying someone else's routine — it's about knowing yourself. You can eat whatever you want. You have to ask yourself: are you willing to pay the price of eating that chocolate bar every single day? That's the real question.
Everything in life has a cost. We often say we want something, but we're not ready to pay the price that comes with it. And that's okay — but let's be honest about it. For years, I told myself the same stories that society tells us. That if I wasn't eating 100% clean, I wasn't healthy. That it had to be all or nothing — 8 or 80. That if I slipped, I was a failure.
But the fundamental shift in my mindset came when I noticed a pattern: the more I restricted myself, the more I craved food. It wasn't about the food itself — it was about the behavior around it. I lived in a long cycle of restriction. It would go like this: I felt unhappy with my body. So I cut everything. All the foods I enjoyed — gone. And yes, I would lose weight. But then the cravings came. And I would binge. Then came the guilt. And the cycle started again.
This is not just my story — this is a pattern that repeats for so many people. It's hard to say precisely what made me finally understand it. However, it came from examining my behaviors closely. I began to realise that I could eat anything I wanted. The issue wasn't the food — it was the quantity. That sounds cliché, but it's the truth. And even deeper than that, the fundamental transformation occurred when I began asking: What do I believe I deserve?
Because how I treated myself was a reflection of what I thought I was worth. Sometimes we lie to ourselves. We say, "I eat healthy and go to the gym because I care about my health." But if I offered you a pill right now that would make you lose all the weight overnight — but it wasn't good for your health — would you take it? If the answer is yes, then you're not really after health. You're after the body that you think will finally make you feel good enough.
When I admitted that to myself, things started to change. I stopped copying other people's routines and began observing my own reality. What are my goals? What are my expectations? And what am I willing to do — and not do — to get there? It took me years to build the life I have today. And I no longer share my routines online, because I know people might try to copy them without understanding the whole story behind them.
Self-awareness is everything. And so is self-kindness.
The truth is: your brain will always choose comfort even when that comfort is food that doesn't truly satisfy you. Especially when life feels out of control, you turn to food like a best friend — even when that friendship is hurting you. When you try to change a habit, your mind naturally resists.
That doesn't mean you're failing — it means you're human. Understanding that discomfort is part of the process — that growth isn't always pleasurable — changed everything for me. That's the mindset I want to help others build. Not one of perfection. But one of honesty, self-knowledge, and compassion.
Mari Giuseppe - Nutrition