Healing your relationship with food
Food is such an emotional thing. We are all attached to food in someway, whether it is looking at food and thinking it is going to make you fat, whether you don’t care about it at all and you eat whatever you like, whether you have dietary restrictions, forced or chosen, foods being used as a reward system, there are so many different emotional feelings that go with food.
I must admit that I do offer people other changes in their lifestyle sometimes as there is no emotional attachment to some of these other things BUT we can not move far from our food. Food can be one of the simplest and easiest ways to heal your body - however healing your relationship with food and what it means to you will help you to nourish your beautiful temple with all it needs.
I have certainly had a chequered past with my eating and thoughts towards food - and in reality it was never anything to do with the food itself it was to do my my feelings towards myself and my self esteem. I did learn early on that certain foods worked for me and others didn’t. At the age of 12 I was told to try not eating cheese and chocolate to see if it would help with my migraines (of which I was suffering 3-4 a week at this point). It was a miraculous change, I went to only having them twice a year… So you can imagine that I was VERY strict with this.. Haha imagine ordering a pizza back in the 80’s without cheese (haha whatever!!!). So I had learnt about restricting foods that didn’t work for me and this gave me amazing results, I still hadn’t learnt to find out the cause of the problem in order to heal my body of the migraines so that my body could tolerate these foods again…..
My next experience was definitely about self esteem issues. I had been overseas for a year on an exchange. I went over there fit and strong (and I used to eat anything - haha other than cheese and chocolate). I was in a different country and I wanted to try all the different foods that I could, and I was hosted by a family who were not into sports. So for the first time in my life I ate and ate and ate and didn’t really do much exercise at all (on top of that was in a country that it was snowing for most of winter!!). My host family were tiny in height and size and I felt like a bit of a giant in their house so there were comments on how I had put on weight!!!!! As the summer came around I got myself fitter again and thought a little bit more about what I was eating, I soon lost the weight that I had gained.. However, I was young and wasn’t really mature enough yet to understand how easy it was to eat well and exercise and maintain my healthy weight, so when I did eat something that wasn’t “good” for me, I would throw it up. I was lucky in some ways as it didn’t become a “thing” I did it a few times a couple of times in my life but then it never took hold of my life (THANK GOODNESS!!!!). Clearly I still had some issues around food though, that I would have to sort out.
Moving on throughout life after that, I became really interested in food and how you used it for sports performance, I was fascinated by what food you used to fuel your body to be at your peak performance. With the help of a fully trained Dietitian I got lots of help with my food while training for my Water Ski Racing. I loved what I was doing and then went on to study nutrition as part of my Sport and Exercise Science Degree. I have continued with my passion for food and what it can do to heal the body. I now have a deeper understanding about foods that heal and foods that can cause inflammation, about the importance of healing the body in order to be able to tolerate certain foods again. Wow, I just love this stuff.. So although I have had a chequered past with my own relationship with food, it is fair to say that I love learning about the amazing ability of food to heal and nourish the body (haha don’t get me started!!!).
Even if you don’t think you have issues with food, please take the time to have a think about your relationship with food. You only have one beautiful temple my gorgeous friends and although your body may let you get away with all sorts of “trashing” while you are young (if you are lucky), once you reach your 30’s and 40’s your body will no longer be so forgiving and you will get some pretty big taps on the shoulder to make some changes. And believe me it is easier to not have to work from a place of illness and disease, rather than a place of wellness.
Have a think about what food means to you? What are some of the inner thoughts that come to you around food? Do you feel guilty for eating certain foods? Do you feel like you deserve any food no matter what? Take the time to have a think about what comes up for you. Now try to change how you feel about this, try to come from a place of love rather than fear. A place of healing rather than being scared. If you come from a place of love about your food you will start to make better and better choices with your food. It might take some work, but please bear with me, please do the work, it will make a huge difference in your health and wellbeing.
I would like to share some of the ways that I make food a little easier for me and hope that this can help you out as well.
Eat mindfully - Take time to eat your food. Eat your food away from distractions and work - even if you only take 10 minutes out of your day with each meal, take the time. Don’t eat if you are angry, upset or pissed off about something - take the time to calm down first and then eat from a place of peace. Your body will love you for it and will be better prepared to digest the food you are putting into your mouth.
Cook mindfully - This is just as important as eating mindfully - If you cook when you are angry, rushed or pissed off your food will take on this energy. Bless your food, laugh, sing and have fun while you are cooking. This energy will transfer through to your food and then through to you…
Chew your food - You have one chance before the food enters your body. Chew it well, help your digestive system with the breakdown of your food. Your gut will love you for it. Be aware of this when you eat and see whether you are really chewing your food at each meal - it should be all mushy not big chunks when you swallow
Eat mostly cooked foods - especially if you are having any digestive issues, during times of stress, and during winter months. Not only is cooked foods easier to digest but it is also warming and more gentle and soothing on the body….
Save drinking for 30 minutes before and after meals and throughout the day. When we drink during a meal we are diluting our bodies ability to digest the food. If you must drink with a meal make it something that is going to aid your digestion (warm water with ginger, apple cider vinegar or lemon) and make it small. If you are thirsty at meal times, then you need to plan to hydrate more throughout the day.
Work towards 3 meals per day - stop the nibbling and the snacks. Your digestive system is not designed to be working all day every day. It needs a rest, you body needs time for healing and rebuilding and if you are always eating then your body is always focused on digesting the food. It can also weaken your “agni” your digestive fire, if you are eating all day. If you have a weakened immune system, have blood sugar regulation problems or adrenal problems, then you may need to have a snack every three hours, but make it something that is going to be out of your stomach before you eat the next thing.
Aim to fast for 12 hours per night. Again this will give your body the chance to heal and rejuvenate. So if you finish your meal at say 7pm at night then don’t eat breakfast until at least 7am the next morning - Fasting for 12 hours a day should be safe for most people - please be careful if you are pushing this out to longer - more is not always better!!!
Try to eat mostly organic foods where possible - limiting your exposure to pesticides and additional hormones and antibiotics will go a long way to decrease your toxic overload. If you can’t afford all organic look out for “The Clean 15 and The Dirty Dozen” - This changes each year so you can check it out here
I try and eat most of my food without numbers - ask my children if we are allowed wraps in our house (well yep only if they are homemade), it never ceases to amaze me just how many numbers there are in them. I go through my pantry regularly and remove old things that have expired and things that have numbers in the ingredients. This is getting easier and easier to do as I don’t really buy much of this stuff but you will be amazed at what sneaks in. Go through, check it out, make informed decisions about what you want to put into your beautiful temple.
And know that all of these beautiful acts are coming from a place of love. Choosing healing and nourishing food for your beautiful temple will help you to make better choices each time. Love your body and respect it enough that you choose to put these wonderful foods into your mouth. You won’t regret it… And this definitely doesn’t mean that you can’t have your favourite “naughty” foods, but it should not be all the time, it should be a treat… Have fun with your food, there are so many things you can do with your food to make it amazing, appealing and tasty… ENJOY THE PROCESS
I hope this helps in some way for you. I hope that this is not overwhelming, if you can get around eating out of a place of love and care for your beautiful temple, you will want to do everything you can in order to help you body. You so deserve to be well and have vibrant health, and as we age, we want to be taking even better care of ourselves.
Have the most amazing day.
With love and gratitude
Mel
xx