Add this blog to the recent flurry of articles describing almond moms. However, I’m going deeper than the shortsighted perspective I continue to find online — in relation to this relatively new term.
What Is An Almond Mom?
The general consensus is that an almond mom is one who generally places a lot of attention around:
- healthy eating
- her own weight
- diet/health culture
- her children’s weight/image/appearance
Can we say orthorexia?
Where did this term come from and how did it become infamous?
Cue: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
In one episode, Yolanda Hadid — mother of two very famous supermodels, Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid — is in bed, super sick with Lyme disease.
Gigi calls out to Yolanda, telling her she feels “really weak.”
Now, I’m paraphrasing here, but Gigi explains she’s only had a couple of almonds all day. Yolanda’s advice?
“Have a couple of almonds, and chew them really well.”
This video and many others of the Hadids (and other almond moms) have been spliced together for comedic effect on TikTok (of course).
At first, I’m watching these clips and I’m like,
“Oh my gosh, these moms are horrible!”
But after watching a bunch of them, I realized that I probably fall into one of the categories of an almond mom.
The 2 Different Types of Almond Moms
1) Almond Mom Extreme: She’s very obsessed with everyone’s physical appearance and weight (including her own) and is constantly saying damaging things to her kids, like:
“Are you sure you wanna eat that? Actually, here’s a much healthier alternative.”
So, the messaging to the child of Almond Mom 1 is,
“This is good food and this is bad food.”
In other words, you are what you eat — so you’ll be bad if you eat badly.
Miss Extreme is also obsessed with food (in general), exercise and image.
2) Almond Mom Lite: This mom is doing all those things herself, like:
- drinking protein shakes
- eating a handful of almonds
- intermittent fasting
- exercising like a fiend
However, she’s not pushing it on her children. But — they’re darn well paying attention.
And yeah, as I watched a bunch of these videos on TikTok, I started to realize,
“Well, I guess there’s no getting around it. I definitely was an almond mom lite. Maybe I still am.”
For so much more related to this topic, including:
- My diet/exercise lifestyle when my kids were young (and impressionable)
- The importance of being self aware as a parent
- How/why my mom got it right re: body image and what she taught us
Then, you must listen to this episode of The Chalene Show:
And don’t forget to subscribe to TCS for weekly shows dedicated to your overall growth and personal development!
