Food Freedom Friday Edition 8

Improve Your Relationship with Your Food

The true pleasure of eating is embracing and accepting your need for tasty and appealing food while finding the tools to balance pleasure with nourishing eating. Take a few minutes and go through these 10 strategies to create presence, joy and appreciation for nourishing your physical and spiritual self. Your body and mind will thank you.

1.  Breathe

Take 5-10 long slow deep breaths before each meal. Through the nose, breathe in for a count of four, retain for a count of four and breathe out for a count of six. Oxygen is a literal nutritional enhancer. It is the key nutrient for your most powerful metabolism. Oxygen is everything. When you breathe fully, you affirm that you are here, present, and committed to your vitality.

2.  Relax

The more you relax, the better you will digest, assimilate and metabolize. The physiological relaxation state is the body’s preeminent nutritional state. Relax more with your meals, and your life. Trust more. Play more. See if you can commit to inner peace, and to finding the stillness, both mental and physical.

3.  Slow Down

Slow is the speed that best regulates our natural appetite, and moves the body into a parasympathetic dominant state which is ideal for metabolic supremacy. Take more time with meals. Let go of the rush. Value the eating experience. Slow down with food, your loved ones, and your life.

4.  Feel Nourished

Let food warm you, love you, feed you, and nourish you. Allow each meal to touch a place of satisfaction inside you. Feeling nourished is a great form of self-care.

5.  Be Present

Whenever you eat, simply be aware of your meal. Give food the presence it deserves. Attend to your body. Keep the mind in the here and now. Capture every eating moment. Forget about multitasking. Focus on eating.

6.  Be Pleasured

Pleasure is a nutritional requirement, a potent metabolic force, and an agent of health. Pleasure catalyzes metabolic efficiency. It makes life worth living. Welcome pleasure to the table, always, in all ways.

7.  Celebrate

Food is life. It wants to remind you that you are here to live, to enjoy, and to celebrate. Allow your meals to be a time when you can smile, share with loved ones. It is a time to celebrate and show gratitude for the miracle of life.

8.  Listen

Your body is asking you to listen. It speaks to you. It offers generous insights about how and what you eat. Listen to your body. It speaks in a special language, and has some powerful messages to share.

9.  Let Go

Once you have eaten, let go. Give all the worrying a rest. Let go of unkind thoughts about your weight, your body, and your meal. Food allows you to fully embrace it, and fully let go, as long as you are willing.

10.  Be Thankful

You have been gifted with food. Be thankful. Allow gratitude to be an essential ingredient in each morsel of food you eat. Life has given you so much and the time to be grateful is always in the present.