These days, we’re taught to respect the grind; respect the hustle. We’re encouraged to be “girlbosses,” and to “get this money” and “secure the bag.”

We’re taught to go, go, go in order to be successful.

And these days, lots of people are go, go, going and are really proud of everything they’ve accomplished. Let’s give us all a round of applause, because we SHOULD be proud!

But…

(Come on, you knew a “but” was coming.)

Sometimes, what you’re giving up to go, go, go isn’t QUITE the flex society paints it as. 

As in, I want to draw attention to the fact that there are unhealthy behaviors that can be championed as we are “grinding,” and so our health can suffer. 

Something that we’re faced with every day is normalized disordered eating practices that are disguised as “girlboss” behaviors. 

So, let’s get into it (yuh, as Doja would say). 

First, coffee. 

Coffee is not a meal. Coffee is not a meal. Coffee is not a meal. Coffee is not a meal.Coffee is not a meal. Coffee is not a meal. Coffee is not a meal. Coffee is not a meal. Coffee is not a meal. Coffee is not a meal.

Coffee! Is! Not! A! Meal!

Coffee ≠ meal

I don’t know how else to write it, but this is something that is so normalized in our society: not eating breakfast, but just having coffee. 

And believe me, I know all of the regular reasoning people use for engaging in this “I don’t need breakfast, I have coffee” activity. 

“I’m just not hungry in the mornings.” I’ve found that if I eat something like a pastry or a granola bar or something along WITH drinking my coffee, I can fool my body into wanting food. Sometimes we have to trick our bodies in order to nourish them properly.

“Eating in the morning makes me nauseous.” Oh, and drinking coffee on an empty stomach is doing wonders for your gut, is it?

“I just don’t have time to eat in the mornings.” Ah, the quintessential girlboss response. You’re too busy solving the world’s problems and being a professional powerhouse. Here’s a hint: if you eat breakfast, you’ll have EVEN MORE energy and strength to save the world than you would on simply a coffee the size of your head alone. 

I’m not going to lie to you, sometimes I really don’t want to pack my lunch. Sometimes I DON’T pack a lunch, because I’m either an exhausted girlboss at the end of the day or I just feel lazy. 

And then in the morning, when I inevitable am running late, I forgo bringing a lunch altogether. This leads me to my next point, and that’s the “sometimes, I’m just too busy to eat” mindset.

I don’t really care what you do for a living. 

(Okay, that’s a little harsh. I DO care. I hope you enjoy your job. I just also want you to eat.)

There is no job that you can have where you don’t need nourishment throughout the day. Whether you’re working outside, or with your hands, or at a desk, or on TV, or as an on-the-go mom, your body needs to eat. 

If you’re “too busy to eat,” then something needs to change. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to eat. Convince one of your coworkers to be your lunch buddy and keep each other accountable for feeding yourselves. Meal prep like your life depends on it. Set aside time AS SOON AS YOU GET HOME after work to do a little meal prep for the week or the next couple days. 

(That’s really a note for myself, because I make the fatal mistake of getting home, getting cozy, watching Netflix, whatever, and then I really don’t feel like un-cocooning myself and doing some meal prep. Hence the “ehhh, I just don’t have time to do it right now. I’ll worry about it another time.”)

Worry about it now. 

Something else that can plague the eating practices of a girlboss is fear of looking a certain way if you “cave” to your, uh, human need to nourish your body. Maybe everyone else in your office is skipping lunch because they stopped to get doughnuts that morning (if that’s the case, send them this blog post, because I have words for them), and you don’t want to be the only person in the office eating. 

Maybe you’re self-conscious of your snacking habits. 

First of all, that’s relatable. When we were in grade school, when we talked about “peer pressure,” it was always in the realm of drugs. Well, these days no one is foisting their drugs on us, but we might feel the pressure to eat less (or not at all) in the workplace. 

What is UP with that? 

I don’t know what to say about that other than just try to worry about yourself. Listen to YOUR body. It’s hard to ignore the toxic diet-culture noise coming from within the girlboss realm, but just try to listen to what your body needs and attempt to drown out the bad diet practices of everyone else.

I know it’s easier said than done, but we have to try, right?

I could honestly go on for hours about the diet culture in the workplace bullshit. Just the other day, one of my friends sent me a photo from the bathroom at her job, and there was a scale in the bathroom. 

What is THAT about? Do you know that when I’m at work, toiling away, sweating all over the place, working my ass off, the LAST THING I’m thinking about is weighing myself?

I would say at this point, this blog post is just an excuse for me to rant about how diet culture has pressed itself into all kinds of places where it doesn’t belong, including our professional lives. Pressure to not eat, scales in the bathroom and glorification of being “too busy” to take a meal break are just the tip of the iceberg. 

We all know I could go on for ages about the dangers of letting this pressure seep into your work experience, but I’ll cut it off here, with a final takeaway:

You should never be too busy to eat, because nourishing your body should be a priority. You need that energy to tackle your workday, so treat it as just another thing on  your girlboss plate.