It’s time for an end of year reflection on how your relationship with food has evolved.

You know it’s time, Chickpea, because if you don’t evaluate now, you’ll wait until you’ve gorged yourself on Holiday/Christmas goodies and then panic about your body image. 

Then, your plans to evolve your eating next year won’t be smart. Your weight loss urges will be impatient and reactive; strict and ambitious instead of conscious, compassionate and strategic. 

Let me walk you through a quick process to assess how it has been. 

Before you begin, make this agreement with yourself (read this aloud, if you’re alone): 

• I am not here to judge myself.
• I am evaluating out of curiosity.
• I am here to understand my relationship with food more and more deeply. 
• I can be completely honest with myself because I will not use what I see to be harsh to myself. 
• I will actively look for areas where I have had breakthroughs and tiny shifts of perception. 
• If I see areas that need to progress, I will seek help. 

OK, let’s do this. Grab a pencil and notebook. 

End of year reflection should start with your wins. 

Wins are harder to spot that things you wish you’d stop doing. 

Our brains are simply wired to look for problems! 

What is a breakthrough? 

Great question! Breakthroughs are shifts in perception. 

Moments of insight. 

You know them because something feels different. Things shift inside. 

Marianne Williamson calls them ‘miracles’!

For instance, they may be:

• Moments when you saw evidence that contradicted an old belief you had about yourself. 
• A cognitive reframe that allowed action rather than inertia, or motivation rather than self-forcing. 
• Seeing yourself acting in new ways that make you a tiny bit proud. 

Allow yourself, in your end of year reflection, to map out key areas where you are still ‘stuck’.

Or perhaps areas where you haven’t created lasting change in your relationship with food, body image, health and yourself. 

Notice if you have made assumptions about these areas – that you could DIY your changes based on a book or online programme; that they’d be easier to solve than they are; that you ‘should’ be able to do them by now. 

Bring self-compassion to the table for this part. 

Accept that there are things you’d like to change. 

Don’t hate yourself, or tell yourself you need to change to be OK. 

This is just data. Just the state of play at this point. 

Your ability to be really honest with yourself in your end of year reflection is really key. 

But not mean. 

Don’t let yourself wallow in overwhelm or confusion. 

Sure, you can be sad that you don’t feel the way you’d like to in your body, or don’t have a calm relationship with food yet. 

So what if you’re still working on this stuff, 30 years later than it all started? 

Who cares if you regained weight, or haven’t set the example you wanted? 

It’s all part of your journey. Say this now: “I’m uncomfortable, and I love myself anyway”. 

Round up your end of year reflection by thinking practically about what you have discovered works for you. 

So find five lessons that you learned about yourself and your eating. 

Give yourself credit for experimenting as you go. 

Acknowledge that nobody, NOBODY, knows what works for you better than you do. 

We don’t have a One Size Fits All relationship with food: We are all unique eaters. 

Thank yourself for paying attention to yourself, creating as you do so an ever stronger, beautiful relationship with yourself.