I have been talking about the power of nourishing ourselves through the practice of self-love and the importance of self-care.
Food is the greatest panacea from elevating our health and nourishing our bodies.
Food is most essential form of nourishment . But unfortunately, food and our relationship with food has gotten to complicated. Our food supply is so muddled and our emotions about food is muddled too, it’s good, it’s bad; paleo is best, no vegan, no raw… ohhhhhhhh that chocolate cake is soooo tasty and makes me feel really good!
Essentially our bodies use the elements in our food, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, regulate all the body functions. Also, our very important GI flora (bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal tract) interact with our food to preform many function, including nutrient absorption, serotoin production and regulate our immune system. The food we each has a direct connection to how we feel, our sleep and energy level.
When we eat whole, nutrient dense, unprocessed foods, we create an environment where our bodies can work optimally, allowing our hormones fire and respond to appropriately, our immune system is well tuned and not over-responding, we sleep well, our blood sugar is stable, our body weight is “normal” and we have great energy.
But unfortunately the typical western diet doesn’t typically consist of whole, nutrient-rich, unprocessed foods; it is full of high sugar, low fiber, low nutrient manufactured food. And because food is our bodies’ messaging system, every time we eat or drink something, we are signaling our bodies to react in a certain way and these reactions often have cascading effects throughout our bodies. So if the food we take in is high quality, then our messages are clear and correct; if we eat low-quality food, our messages are low quality.
Let me give you an example of how a cascade of mis-messages: let’s talk about that chocolate cake, eating this causes a really big spike in our insulin, and this is a “stressful” event so cortisol is released. When cortisol is released the liver has to neutralize it and it needs magnesium for that, but because that beverage doesn’t have magnesium it uses the free floating magnesium. And Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of extra magnesium and your body was going to use that magnesium to create melatonin from tryptophan to help regulate your sleep, but because blood suagr regulation and detoxification is more essential it has to choose. Now your sleep is disrupted , so your energy is low and you can’t process through the stress of the day effectively, so your cortisol increases again, further depleting your magnesium stores, effecting over 300 processes, including immune function, therefore, increasing inflammation. Also, now you don’t have enough magnesium to create serotonin (mood regulation hormone), so your mood is off, and feel fatigued and low energy because of poor sleep and inflammation…making you feel blah. This can lead to a cycle of being inactive and self-medicating with eating and drinking, including that chocolate cake. This cycle also cause weight gain because high and frequent insulin releases, and insulin is a fat storing hormone, us to store fat more easily. (Now mind you, this doesn’t scenario doesn’t happen when eaten every once in a while, but is a problem when its a regular part of our diet, especially if there is no good stuff to provide balance.)
Weight and overall body dissatisfaction is one of the most common reasons women give for overall life dissatisfaction.
This dissatisfaction with body and self, leads to looking for a solution and, yep, you guessed it dieting!
And because the current dieting model is centered around deprivation, limitation and calorie counting and with this model, long term sustained weight loss is a very slippery fish spiny fish, which you will try to grab at, but it slips away a cuts your hand in the process.
Then many of us get caught in the losing battle of punishing ourselves for eating or not eating certain, dieting or not dieting, gaining weight, feeling hungry, feeling lazy, struggling, failing and feeling like losers.
And hating our bodies and ourselves.
It feels terrible, I’ve been there.
Does this at all sound familiar?
But there is a better way.
You can develop a loving nurturing relationship with food and yourself.
When eaten in it’s whole purest form, food has everything it needs to nourish your body and fill you up (both physically and figuratively).
Let’s take an apple, it has sugar, just like in the last example, where sugar was the culprit behind the harmful cascade. But eating an apple is nourishing, where chocolate cake is not, why? The answer is simple, the apple provides everything our body needs to metabolize it correctly, fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. These nutrients allow for your genes, hormones and cells to react correctly. It is also food for the right kinds of beneficial bacteria, so they send the correct signals to your immune and endocrine systems.
Soooooo, how do we nourish ourselves with food?
Here are my basic recommendations:
- Your diet should be plant based, focus on adding whole, fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet. I like to say try to have them with every meal and snack. ( you can have frozen whole fruits and veggies too.)
- Eat lots of healthy fats– nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut oil, and olive oil
- Drinks lots ofWater. This helps our bodies function smoothly and detoxify.
- Eat whole, non-processed meats and protein sources like chicken, turkey, beef, fish, soy and eggs. If you preference is to avoid meat, that works too ???? just focus on getting other forms of protein (beans, nuts, seeds, soy, dairy..ect)
- Eat whole grains(pasta, rice, bread) only. Avoid the white bread and pasta. Also, decrease your grains to just a portion of your meal, not the basis for the meal ( this was a hard step for me, we use to each a ton pasta and rice!)
- BeMindful. Give yourself the curtsey and space to relish and enjoy the good food you are putting into your body. Notice when you are feeling out of control around food (during or after) and try to identify these feelings and thoughts. What are the habits, even thinking habits you can identify and alter that are getting in the way? (this is one of my specialty, reach out to me if you need help with this)
- Add kindness, especially to your body talk. We can really take action lifestyle changes and improving self care when we truly love and value ourselves, because we are willing to work hard for something we think is worthy and deserving. This may sound obvious, but our bodies are part of what us, and if we are hating on it, we are hating us…who wants to work hard for someone they hate?
- Sleep!Get enough sleep, there are many, many studies that correlate lack of sleep with overeating.
- Eliminate sugar, processed foods (foods in a package), and sugar-sweetened beverages
- Stop counting calories and start feeling your feelings. What I mean is, eat wholesomely and regulate your food intake by monitoring how hungry or full you feel and notice (mindful) how you are reacting and soothing with food, aka emotional eating. When we diet we stop allowing to our hunger and fullness cues to tell us to eat or stop eating and we start eating by the clock, or out of emotions (boredom, sadness, social or even mindless snacking).
Food is one of the greatest opportunities to nourish your body and spirit, so take every opportunity to love yourself!
Sending you love,
Sally
P.S. Let me know how to support you, this is a struggle I know well both personally and professionally as a dietitian for over a decade! If you could us someone in your corner to support you to greater health, self-love and self-care, contact me today!
