Picture someone you know (one of your kids, your spouse, or maybe even yourself) who can’t seem to stick with eating healthy. Would you like a magic key to unlock their internal motivation? I’m going to show you how.
Start by identifying which of these four statements best describes this person:
- They get bored with “healthy” food and would rather just have something easy and fun to eat at home or go out to eat with family and friends.
- They don’t want to have to give up their favorite foods, family recipes, and everything that is comforting and familiar about food.
- They’ve tried it before, but they didn’t really feel any better, so why invest the effort?
- They are overwhelmed by all the differing opinions and theories that tell them one thing one day, and the opposite another.
Each of these reasons that someone might AVOID healthy eating gives you an insight into what makes that person tick. It tells you exactly how to make healthy eating successful, self-motivating, and permanent for anyone!
One huge help for me in this area was reading The Child Whisperer. In this book, Carol Tuttle has taken her energy-typing system and applied it to parenting. But its power goes far beyond managing power struggles. Not only will it help you understand and support any child better, but it will also help you understand and support yourself, your in-laws, your neighbors, and probably even the family pet!
Here is how this approach can be a magic key for success with healthy eating. Carol Tuttle teaches about the 4 different energy types in individuals.
- Type 1: is a vibrant energy type that lights up a room and relates to the world socially. These individuals thrive on variety, spontaneity, and social interaction.
- Type 2: is a quiet energy that is empathetic, detail focused and relates to the world through emotion and relationships. These individuals thrive on deep connections with people, traditions, and familiarity.
- Type 3: is a dynamic energy that is driven, passionate, and relates to the world in a very physical way. These individuals thrive on challenge, independence, and completing tasks.
- Type 4: is a reserved energy that is analytical, precise, and relates to the world in an intellectual way. These individuals thrive on facts, organization, and personal authority.
Each of us are a completely unique combination of all of these types. But we have a primary energy that is the driving force in our lives. Can you already see how differently these energy types will approach food and the whole concept of healthy eating? Understanding yourself and your family members in this way will unlock your power to make healthy eating natural and intuitive for each person.
For example, my oldest is a Type 1/2. His first words after every day of school are, “do you have a surprise?” He means food. He wants something new and different all the time. So I work hard to make him fun food so healthy is fun! He is also more influenced by the social aspects of food, so I spend a lot of time making healthy copy-cat food for social functions for him. In fact, he is the one who coined the term “editing” for taking unhealthy recipes that are fun and popular and making them into a 4 Cornerstones version. You can read more about that here.
My younger son is a type 3/4 and he is driven, independent, and much more logical. When he understands why something is good or not good for him that is usually enough. Peer pressure doesn’t override his own objectives. Believe me, he will let you know he thinks something is stupid. Picture our house at Christmas. Well-meaning neighbors drop goodies off and this son answers the door. He calls to me, loudly, “I think this is junk food.” And the neighbor is still standing there. Awkward moment. But no one will convince this kid to do something he doesn’t want to do, including eating something that he knows isn’t good for him. So I focus on helping him understand, and then know that the rest is in his hands.
My two boys are almost complete opposites, so from an emotional and intellectual point of view I support them in healthy eating completely differently. We may eat mostly the same food, but we do it from different motivations and approaches. Using this system will help you support yourself and your loved ones emotionally as you apply Simply Divine Eating’s 4 Cornerstones of lifelong physical health.
If you, or someone you love is a type 1, change things up! You aren’t afraid of trying something new, so use that to your advantage and experiment! There are so many recipes available online. Simply Divine Eating will teach you the principles that help you understand your own body, and then you can go crazy trying a million different ways to put those principles to use. The SDE Pinterest board will be a great resource for you. Try new things, make food into fun shapes and crazy combinations, and enjoy making 4 Cornerstone holiday treats to celebrate.
For type 2’s, food is much more emotional, and traditions and familiar foods are important. So use what you are learning in SDE to take those family favorites and tweak them be in harmony with your divinely designed body. You don’t have to give them up! To keep relationships strong, volunteer to host or bring food to social events so that you can still participate and have food that truly strengthens you.
For type 3’s, healthy eating is all about the results. Once you experience how you feel eating in harmony, no one will ever need to motivate you again. Because SDE is about helping you eat right for YOU, you WILL feel the difference. Type 3’s will also love the straightforward, no hype approach of SDE and the bullet point study guides that get right to the point.
For type 4’s, you just need to understand the facts, and then you will live with integrity with what you know. So immerse yourself in all the detailed information you get in the SDE classes (after all, I’m a type 4). You will understand your body backwards and forwards, and then you will be your own expert on your own body and choose food that fits your own needs.
If you haven’t read The Child Whisperer by Carol Tuttle, I highly recommend you do. Like Simply Divine Eating, it gives you the foundation to become your own expert on YOU. Combined with the in-depth understanding of how to eat in harmony with your own unique body that you get from Simply Divine Eating, nothing will stop you on your road to your ultimate health! When we learn how to truly honor both our unique natures and our bodies with food, the result is peace, joy and harmony, inside and out.
And for Child Whisperer fans, we have a special discount just for you. Join the Simply Divine Eating Community and get online classes, recipes, E-book, study guides, support group and more. Just enter code “carol” at checkout and save 40%!
Angie
Simply Divine Eating is a program designed to help you get past all the theories and one-size fits all approaches of diets, and instead recognize how to eat in harmony with YOUR unique body. We do this by teaching you the 4 Cornerstones: 4 unchanging principles that allow you to answer any food question you encounter. Then we help you learn how to apply those principles to all the specifics, one step at a time, and adapt them to your unique needs. No debates, no diets, now or ever again!
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