5 Steps to improve your relationship with food
What is ‘Healthy’ to one person is completely different to the next, and guess what… that is ok! Just because something works for your friend and not for you doesn’t mean it is ‘bad’ nor are you are failure.
Every day we are inundated with different health hacks and diet ideas. Mainstream media is constantly telling us what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ and what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’. What this is doing to us is making us lose our relationship with our food and intuition with our bodies.
If you are sick of being on the diet train and finding yourself becoming obsessed with the ‘good’ and bad’ when it comes to nutrition. Read the following 5teps on how you can slowly move from health obsessed to becoming nutritionally in tune.
1. Stop looking at the ‘caloric equation’
The more food that you eat without a nutrition information label the better, but some good food also comes in packaging. When you look at the label of your food do you only look at the caloric equation? The lower the calories the better, right? When was the last time you looked at the ingredients behind the product you are eating? To create a real relationship with your food and to understand what you are really fuelling your body with, read the ingredients and understand how they are serving a purpose in your body.
2. Understand where your ingredients have come from
Make friends with your local butcher and fruit and vegetable stores. Understand where they source their ingredients from, are they local? Understand how your favourite brands create their products, are they fair trade?
Understanding exactly where your food comes from helps you create a relationship with it. Learn about what you are putting into your body, where it comes from, the story behind it and once again how it fuels you.
3. Try something new once a week
Search a new recipe, try a new food that you haven’t had before, check out a new whole food restaurant. Expand your horizons, get yourself out of your nutritional comfort zone, you never know what you might enjoy and what your body may have been missing out on. Learn to love what is on your plate rather than fearing the calories it yields.
4. Be grateful
Instead of worrying about calories and macro-nutrients BE GRATEFUL for every meal that you eat and enjoy it! Be grateful that you live in a country where you can choose between organic and non-organic vegetables, be grateful for the farmers, whole food stores and that you are in a position where you can take full control and responsibility of your health and nutrition.
5. Eat with intention
Why are you eating what you are eating? What are you fuelling? Is your intention for pure enjoyment or is it for medicine? What is it that you truly want to nourish when you eat a certain meal? Understanding, what you are eating, what your body is craving and eating with nothing but your full intention beats any diet or health hack on the market. Get in tune.
