subject: A Conscious Guide To Feeling Freedom About Eating [print this page] I feel really good about my relationship with food. In fact, I pretty much eat whatever I want. I splurge when I feel like it and don't feel regret when I eat something that I usually wouldn't eat (like fondue or a big bowl of ice cream). I rarely crave sugar and when I do, I know that it means that something is out of balance for me. I have a pretty good understanding of what my body needs, pay attention to it and find it easy to make healthy food choices.
But it wasn't always this way. In fact, I was very misguided about what that even meant until I was well into my 30's. I grew up in a house with calorie counters. By the time I went to college I would do a mental calculation of the number of calories in everything that I ate and then a total for my day. I did not understand the idea of food as nourishment. I knew that it could give us pleasure and I loved good food but that was about all that I knew.
When I was in college, I also ate a candy bar basically every day. Not good quality chocolate, something from the vending machine. So what changed for me? How did I get to the relationship that I have with food today? Or more importantly, how can you feel the kind of freedom that I feel about food and eating?
For me, it was a health crisis about 13 years ago, when I was a practicing lawyer, and I was lucky to have a doctor who recommended a detox diet as a starting place for my getting well. After 2-3 days of detoxing I started to get really clean and clear. That was when I realized how what we eat affects how we feel and I then began to learn what I now know that supports the way I live and what I teach today.
Here are the top 4 things I recommend to get you started:
- Pay attention to how you feel and learn what works for you: Begin to pay attention to how you feel when you eat certain foods. Are you sensitive to sugar? Are you sensitive to dairy? Begin to pay attention to how you feel when you don't eat certain foods. If you have protein with your breakfast, do you feel differently than when you just eat carbs? If you have a lunch that contains fat, do you feel differently than when you have a low fat lunch? Do you crave sugar? If so, notice when it most often happens. Do you feel like you want more to eat if you haven't slept well?
- Get to know ingredients: Use ingredients that are as close to the way nature created them as possible. Shop Farmers' Markets when you can so you can know how your food was produced. Cook from scratch as often as possible and use single item ingredients when possible (eggs, vegetables, nuts).
- Learn to cook for yourself: If you rely on someone else to make all your meals you're not going to have complete freedom. Cooking is a basic independent living skill and I am a firm believer that everyone should know how to do it. You don't have to make elaborate dishes but if you know how to make what works for you, you will have a greater level of freedom around food. That way, when you know what works for you and what doesn't, you can tailor things to your needs. I learned to cook when I was young and I think it's one of the greatest things that a parent can teach their child.
- Give yourself a break: Don't label foods good and bad and don't feel guilty when you've eaten something that you wish you hadn't eaten. Your next meal is an opportunity to do things differently. A great teacher of mine once said "consider it research". It's just part of figuring out what works for you and what doesn't work. And sometimes, you know that it doesn't work and you choose to eat it anyway. That's part of the freedom. And remember to be flexible because your needs may be different at different points in your life.
You too can have freedom around food and eating but only you can create that for you.
