Nutrition Lessons 1: Intro
My youngest sister, India, has inspired me to share more about nutrition with all of you. She and I have been working together to help her change her habits around food and exercises so that she can feel good in her body, have energy, and continue to get stronger. She has made huge adjustments to her lifestyle by taking little steps in the right direction. Through this process she has learned a whole lot about exercise and nutrition. She suggested that I share some of the nutrition information that I have taught her with you because she has found it so helpful. This is the first of a series of lessons on nutrition. I will give you one task to focus on to help incorporate healthy nutritional habits into your life, at the end of each lesson.
Knowing what is in our food and how it affects our bodies can be an incredibly empowering way to take control of our health and wellbeing. Understanding our current relationship with food is the most important part of changing our food habits! The process of learning about our current habits and adjusting them to incorporate more foods that make us feel good is really a giant lesson in mindfulness. It is all about tuning into our bodies and continually asking ourselves how does this food make me feel? Do I feel good after this meal, or bloated, tired and in pain? Your body knows more about what foods are good for you than any nutritionist will ever be able to teach you.
Nutrition is personal. Yes, it can be broken down into science and we can look at our food like calories, fat, carbs, protein, minerals and vitamins etc. and we will, but if our aim is to learn about food in order to change our eating habits we have to talk about how food fits into our lives. The way that we eat is a reflection of our cultures, our families, our friends, our societal pressures, our emotional states, our feelings about our bodies and ourselves! It is incredibly personal. Learning to create healthy eating habits is a process and it does not happen without spending time reflecting on the influence of these variables in our lives. I say this because it can seem really simple to say I’ll just follow this nutrition plan or diet but in reality it is difficult to make lifelong changes to our current habits. It can be discouraging if we fall off track because we haven’t really spent the time and attention required to actually make a lifelong change.
So lesson number one is this: Before and after every meal you eat this week. Ask yourself, how do I feel right now? Get curious about when and why you eat. Is it because you are truly hungry? It is because of stress, social situations, or boredom? Do you feel energized, tired, bloated, satisfied, or hungry after your meal? This must come from a place of curiosity not interrogation, attacking, or shaming etc. This is simply a time to discover and observe yourself without judgement. Good luck and check back next week for my blog on calories, fats, protein, and carbs!
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