We’re heading into a holiday weekend.

You might be seeing people you haven’t seen in a while. These people will undoubtedly make comments about their own bodies, and maybe even yours.

You might feel anxious. Anxious on how to navigate the conversations, nervous about how to eat so that your annoying grandma’s sister or whoever doesn’t say something stupid like: “you really shouldn’t eat that” or “oh, I stopped eating bread this year, I’m Keto!” Or “I can’t eat yet, it’s only noon and I’m fasting til 4.” Or, my personal favorite: “I’m being so bad right now!”

All of this complicates our eating.

But, eating is simple. At least, it should be. Eating ONLY feels complicated because of your relationship to your body and what it looks like.

Observe how you feel about food and your body this weekend. If eating feels urgent, first check primal hunger (did you eat enough breakfast?) or does it always feel urgent? This might mean you need more exposure to “fun” foods.

The goal is to feel normal and unbothered. Unless you’re like me and you’re ALWAYS excited about grilled hotdogs.

Rest assured that feeling at ease around food will come as you work on your body image. Your relationship with and to food is based *almost* exclusively on how you feel about your body.

You have a right to enforce boundaries. “Thanks, Karen! So happy keto is working for you. Have you considered jamming this fork into my eye instead of telling me about it?” I kid. But you really can tell Karen that you don’t want to hear it.

You don’t need one person to understand the journey you’re on. Let Karen be “good today”, practice the smile & nod. I wouldn’t even waste a single second trying to get anyone to agree with you or understand you. Karen is not going to change her mind at this party. Trust.

It’s hard. It can be so frustrating.

But as you feel yourself feeling some type of way about the food, the work is inward. Turn inward.

If you’re not in the states, enjoy your quiet weekend without idiots blowing off fireworks scaring the shit out of your dog for days on end. Take a long, quiet, uninterrupted nap for me!!!*