You can’t diet for any decent length of time without changing your relationship with food. For my figure show prep, I chose to work with a nutritionist, Lissette Cornejo MS, RD @lissettec16 in order to keep things as healthy as possible. If you are reckless (or maybe just unlucky) it seems relatively easy to come off of prep with a freshly minted eating disorder. While I’ve managed to avoid that, I do think about food differently now.
Food is sacred.
Alright now you’re CERTAIN that I’m off my rocker. But do you feast on certain holidays? Eat a certain food when you’re depressed? Have a cake to celebrate your birthday? Food already holds a ritualistic place in our lives. But when something is less available it gains value. (Absence makes the heart grow fonder.) And when something gains value you start to look at it differently. Think about how tribal cultures valued food. Or even just farmers. Food meant so much more to them and became so important in their lives.
Eating on prep became very special. I didn’t want people to talk to me during my meals. Sometimes I’d close myself up in my bedroom so I wouldn’t have any interruptions from my room mate. Every bite was special. And why shouldn’t it be? Taking time to slow down helps digestion, stops bingeing, and generally helps to make you more mindful. I enjoy eating out with others now, but sometimes I still find myself making a point to eat alone. It’s very meditative.
It has to be… perfect.
Nothing is worse than FINALLY sitting down to eat your meal only to discover your chicken is dry, or you under cooked your veggies. It becomes really important to cook your food well, because… it’s all you have! While I could have had a more diverse diet, I prepped a lot of the same meals just because macros were easier to track that way. And when you cook the same meal over and over again… you get REALLY good at it. Some of my meals changed over the course of the 15 weeks I was dieting because I found better ways of cooking them. I added ingredients, switched out spices… sometimes I put my rice cake in with my eggs or made it into a rice-cake taco. The cooking process, like the food, became more valuable. Like eating, it became a zen exercise.
Prep reinvigorated my love for food. Eating is a necessary part of life and it might as well be spectacular. Anything else is almost disrespectful. Not just to whatever animal you may be eating (if you choose to eat meat), but to yourself. Life is too short for struggle chicken. My old mantra was “food is fuel.” That may be true, but it can be so much more than that.
Olive Strength Eats 