Food is necessary, that there is no doubt about, BUT how many of us have ever stopped to consider how and why we eat the way we do? Has the choice come from us? By that I mean is what and how we feel to eat based on what we have been led to believe it should be? Is food our comfort of choice, our ‘go to’ when things get tough or do we simply want to avoid feeling what is going on around us? Whatever the reason, it is time we stopped to consider: is how we are eating truly supportive?
Over the years I made a conscious choice to begin to look at food on different levels – the impact it had and why I allowed it to rule my life and my choices.
Feeding myself was one thing, a level of responsibility that went without saying, but that level of responsibility was quite a watered-down version to that which I live today.
In the past, food was my ‘go to’, my comfort, what I chose over feeling what was going on around me. Never did I stop to consider how what I ate impacted on my body or me. Nor did I ever consider that it would dull my senses, stop me from being able to make decisions from a place of clarity rather than a place of overwhelm.
For me, overwhelm came because I was left feeling distinctly different after I ate to how I felt prior to eating. I found that I had a sense of clarity before a meal that I did not have after. I would often feel tired, heavy and bloated after a meal with certain foods having more of an effect than others. So I began my own experiment, one that only required a constant honest observation – to stop, feel my body, how it felt before eating, and then how I felt after eating.
How did I feel after particular foods? Did some foods have a greater impact than others? Did the quantity and time I ate impact on my behaviour, emotions and choices? There was always a lot to consider, and at times I would be on auto pilot and just eat, of course paying the price afterwards and realising eventually that it just wasn’t worth it.
I began to appreciate and enjoy the clarity, vitality and awareness that came with eating to nourish and support me rather than to dull and avoid me. The obvious was soon pointed out to me – the higher the sugar content, the more stimulating it was, or if it was more carbohydrates, then my body would be left feeling heavy, lethargic and at times quite irritated. My train of thought was also disrupted and my attention to detail was nowhere near where it usually was. Coping with life was always more difficult when I opted for food from a perspective of avoidance, convenience or habit.
Caffeine and alcohol were no brainers… they were the first to go. The impact they had on my body was obvious and so was my behaviour once they had been consumed. Other foods such as carbohydrates and sugar containing foods were next to go on my list. And as the awareness in my body deepened, so too did my list of foods to avoid grow.
The way and quantity I ate, as well as the preparation and storage of my food, changed and developed into more of a routine and ritual. The way I shopped, stored and prepared my food became an occasion. It was something I enjoyed – it was fun, there was no pressure, it was neither a chore nor a rush. Throwing a meal together or grabbing take-out simply for the sake of having something to eat no longer felt supportive or nourishing. My meals became about supporting my body to feel vital, not heavy or weighed down. After a meal, I still wanted to feel like I had energy, not like I needed a nap.
Ironically, I thought I had always eaten reasonably healthily, but looking at how what I ate impacted my body on a deeper level showed me that eating what I thought was healthy was not really ‘it’. I could really begin to feel the importance of listening to my body, eating what I felt to eat and allowing myself to feel how what I chose to eat left my body feeling.
Many of us have a tendency to eat food and avoid feeling how what we ate actually makes us feel. I know I never considered that food had such an effect on me, other than contributing to my weight or making me feel extremely full.
Eating became about bringing a deeper level of responsibility to my life and the choices I make. Shopping for food, cooking and eating food now holds a new understanding and a deeper awareness, an opportunity to bring the use of food back to a true purpose, one that allows me to feel what I need to eat, and eat what I need to support me to feel light and vital.
I cook what I eat, I love what I eat and I absolutely love how what I eat allows my body to feel everything all of the time, even though at times this can be uncomfortable and challenging. And yes, like perhaps most people I often get the urge to dig into more roasted almonds than I know I need, or eating multiple spoonfuls of cake mixture but the way I feel after eating any foods that do not truly support me is so much worse than the 5 seconds of stimulating flavour I may get at the time. So the challenge I feel within myself to not eat that food can be very uncomfortable, but the after effects of eating foods that do not support me last a lot longer than the actual flavour does.
Now the uncomfortableness is less uncomfortable. I have a marker in my body of knowing how I feel eating a diet comprised of foods that truly support and nourish me, compared to the feeling of overwhelm, bloating and exhaustion I once felt after indulging in foods that did not truly support me.
Sure, society may say that we need to eat a particular way, but have we stopped to question that perhaps society may be wrong – that there is actually a way to eat that supports our body to be truly vital and have a level of health and wellbeing that surpasses the current ‘norm’?
By Nicole Serafin, Tintenbar NSW, Age 45yrs
Further Reading:
Food Choices – From Eating from Taste to Eating to Nourishment
Self-Care and My Inbuilt Automatic Feedback Loop
Food Culture
543 Comments
I attended an exhibition recently with colleagues and we wanted to get some lunch, we walked up and down the food hall but there was nothing that we wanted to eat we all agreed the food looked heavy and stodgy. So we walked out to a restaurant that we had been to the previous night and had a meal there, it was more expensive but the food was freshly cooked and very appetizing. We had all agreed that if we ate the fast food we knew we would feel bloated and sleepy and we felt our responsibility to the customers who we would meet to be fully aware and engaging with them and we were it was a long but great day.
“I began to appreciate and enjoy the clarity, vitality and awareness that came with eating to nourish and support me rather than to dull and avoid me.” This is a beautiful recipe for true health and well-being.
Food is such an important subject, that gets little attention, even when we are ill because we feel it is our right to eat what ever we want, even when it contributes to our ill health.
Thank you Nicole, we can all deepen our understanding of how foods react in our bodies and learn from the experience so it can be seen for what it does to our wellbeing.
I am going through a time where I am looking at what I eat more and why and also feeling how I actually do not need that much food (or not as much as I have been eating! ?) it feels really good to do ✨
What food we choose is such a great indicator of where we are at and how we are feeling about ourselves.
I agree LE. There are it seems some foods that we really shouldn’t eat because our bodies just cannot process them and so stores the excess as fat in our bodies, so it’s no wonder we then feel lethargic as we are clogging up a finely tuned system.
Eating is about bringing a deeper level of responsibility to our lives as Nicole shares, ‘I could really begin to feel the importance of listening to my body, eating what I felt to eat and allowing myself to feel how what I chose to eat left my body feeling.’ The food we eat has a big effect on us, it is important to feel how we are feeling after eating during our day.
This is so common with many people, I can still feel tired after eating, ‘I found that I had a sense of clarity before a meal that I did not have after. I would often feel tired, heavy and bloated after a meal with certain foods having more of an effect than others.’
A great blog to read so close to Christmas when there is so much indulgence of food going on. It’s interesting to note how everything is made so easy for us – we can buy everything pre cooked or pre prepared. For me some of the most memorable times of Christmas as I was growing up was the preparation of the food, Christmas, puddings and cakes being made months or weeks before. And the clearing away and washing up on Christmas day was one of the rare times that my Dad and Uncle were seen in the kitchen with drying up cloths in their hands helping with the dishes. This coming together felt really lovely, everyone joining in and having fun after the meal.
Using family meals as a way of connecting with everyone in so many countries is the norm – from the shopping to the cooking to the eating. It is a really missed opportunity on so many levels in the British culture that so many prefer preparation by microwave and eating by TV! Some of my happiest memories as a child were in the kitchen when my Grandmother was teaching me how to cook and then sitting down together to eat the meal that had been collectively prepared.
Maybe the whole food pyramid thing should be turned upside down for what you have shared Nicole makes very simple sense! Those who want to put us on a diet that serves only the people in power when it is obvious it is not working when we look at the rates of preventable disease caused by dietary consideration based on eating according to a set of guidelines from a food pyramid?
I have found that it is way more helpful to be totally absolutely honest about how I am truly feeling and what I am really doing/choosing than it is to try to eat what I think is best. Honesty is always a great place to start with going deeper within.
I can see how, in a society where there is a massive amount of food choices, it is very important to have a broad and detailed education of the affects that different foods have on our bodies. And because we have the choice about what to purchase and to eat, this education must be all about empowering the person to be the authority of their own body.
The way I eat and what I eat really effects my day and how I end up feeling or not and this is so clear simple and well worth noting with our choices and the responsibility this brings to our lives and that of others around us.
The way I eat and what I eat really effects my day and how I end up feeling or not and this is so clear simple and well worth noting with our choices and the responsibility this brings to our lives and that of others around us.
What we eat is a great marker of how we are going in life. There are foods that we know well that will either dull us down or make us racy if we eat them and sometimes we choose to be dulled or made racy. The choice is always ours.
So many of us know that what we do doesn’t actually match with what is true. Rather than the ‘perfect diet’ what if we studied why we resist and avoid what we know is good for us?
My choice of food really affects my day – either lightens it or loads it up.
This is profound Jenny, and yet why do many people override this simple message from our body.
The vitality is the key isn’t it… Some foods leave us vital, and some foods deplete us… We just have to tune in and feel which is which
“… to stop, feel my body, how it felt before eating, and then how I felt after eating” – what a great and simple eyeopener to oneself.
I’ve been experimenting with food and I’m clocking how when I eat certain foods then I get crazy thoughts. I have to ask myself is it worth eating the food for.