C.H.U.L.A. Method Breakdown: Honor Your Body and Health
Written by Isabel Vasquez RD, LDN
Welcome to the second blog in our CHULA Method series! The CHULA Method is what we use here at Your Latina Nutrition to support you in living your most vibrant and authentic life by reclaiming the joy years of dieting have stolen from you. It’s an acronym that stands for:
The CHULA Method is our process for helping you connect to your body, ditch diets, and make peace with food for good while embracing your cultural food staples.
In this five-article series, we’re explaining one part of the CHULA method in each post.
If you missed it, here’s the first post on “Challenge negative thoughts”.
This post is dedicated to the H in CHULA: “Honor your body and health”. We’ll share what it means and how you can put it into practice!
Ditching Diets Doesn’t Mean Neglecting Your Health
Many people worry that if they stop dieting, they’re no longer taking care of their health. In reality, breaking free from diet culture does not mean ignoring your health.
It means that instead of focusing on weight as a marker of health, you incorporate health-promoting behaviors. Instead of rigid rules and restrictions around food, you enjoy the foods you love and practice gentle nutrition.
You honor both a need for rest and movement. You honor both a need for cake and veggies.
Diet culture tends to enforce very black-and-white thinking. “Eat this, not that”, “Go hard or go home”, “Eat ‘good’ all week and have a cheat day on Saturday’”.
In reality, true authentic health of your mind and body lives in the gray area. This part of the CHULA Method involves tuning into your body’s needs to honor its wisdom.
It’s About More Than Just Physical Health
Here at Your Latina Nutrition, we believe in supporting all aspects of health—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
Oftentimes, the stress and guilt that occur from dieting cause your mental health to suffer.
For example, it may reduce your ability to be present at social events because you’re preoccupied about the food.
Since you’re restricting calories (aka energy) you end up feeling tired and irritable.
You might feel more confident initially if you lose weight; however, it’s usually short-lived and reinforces the damaging idea that your worth and value lie in how you look.
Intuitive eating, on the other hand, has been shown to improve self-esteem, body image, and reduce anxiety, along with cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugars. Yes, it can support your mental, emotional, AND physical health.
Related: Intuitive Eating Before and After: What Results to Expect
Your Body Deserves Respect
Honoring your body also means cultivating respect, appreciation, acceptance, and/or neutrality towards your body. It means honoring all your body does for you and no longer bullying it into conforming to oppressive beauty ideals.
Know that health is not reserved for those in straight-sized bodies and you can take steps to prioritize your health without centering weight loss.
Don’t Forget About Systemic Factors That Influence Health
In our society, the responsibility of health is typically placed on the individual and the social determinants of health are not taken into account.
In actuality, our individual behaviors only account for a fraction of our health outcomes.
Other factors like genetics, access to quality healthcare, your physical environment, exposure to violence, social connectedness, and more play a greater role on overall health outcomes, but they’re not talked about enough.
We are often told by society that we can cure or prevent illnesses just by how we eat. While there is certainly value to nutrition, most extreme claims out there aren’t supported by quality research. There’s no one “superfood” out there that can cure every ailment.
It’s important to take into account more than just your eating habits when you think about how to honor your health.
Even within the category of individual behaviors, you can work on your sleep habits, hydration, movement, and stress reduction in addition to how you eat. These are all health-promoting behaviors you can work on that don’t have to involve food restriction or rigid workout routines!
Final Thoughts
This was a quick overview of how to honor your body and health that can kickstart your non-diet health journey. Remember, you don’t have to follow harsh rules and restrictions around food to work on your health.
Click here to read the rest of this CHULA method series.
For education on how to ADD nutrition to your favorite Latine cultural dishes, make peace with food, and focus on your health without dieting, join our nutrition library for just $27/month!
