Relationship to Food

Before I go deeper into specific health topics, I would like to cover some different facets of the way we relate to food. While eating healthy food is certainly an important component of health, there are others aspects of eating that need to be explored.

Why We Eat
It is quite obvious that we eat mainly because we cannot live without food. Although this is the essential foundation of why we eat, most people eat for many other reasons. Eating habits may be based around emotional comfort, convenience, identity, safety, boredom, compulsion, instant gratification, or self-rewarding. Food can be like a drug for many people. Unfortunately, unlike other substances, food is something that we cannot eliminate. We have to eat. This means that we have to learn to develop a better relationship with food in order to improve our health.

How We Eat
Most of us do not make much of an effort to really stop and think about how we are eating. Do you eat fast? Do you eat while you are doing five other things? Do you eat when you are stressed? The way we eat has a huge affect on our bodies. If you eat too fast and don't chew well enough, your body will have a difficult time digesting and utilizing nutrients. This means that even if you eat the healthiest meal possible, your body will not be able to absorb all the possible nutrients.

Here are some tips for improving the way you eat:

• Smell your food before eating (it gets the digestive juices going).
• Sit down while eating.
• Put your fork down between each bite.
• Don't eat in front of a screen or while driving.
• Chew slower.
• If you are stressed, find a way to calm down before eating. 
• If possible, try and eat in a peaceful environment. 
• Cook and eat with people you care about.

Understanding Your Relationship to Food
Before making any diet or lifestyle changes to improve your health, it is important to gain a deeper understanding of not just what you would like to change, but why you would like to change.  

1. Keep A Food Journal
 Recording what you eat for a week, or even a few days, is a helpful way to understand what you are actually eating. When I did my first food journal, I was shocked to see what my diet looked like on paper. If you are a high-tech i-Phone kind of person, take pictures of everything you eat and drink for a week. When you record what you eat, make a note of how you are feeling before and after you eat: tired, emotional, bored, hungry, bloated, etc. Additionally, keeping note of your digestive patterns can be important as well.

2. Find Meaningful Reasons To Change
Many people try to be healthier simply to lose weight. While being a healthy weight is important, the desire to be skinny is often not enough to stay motivated. I am sure that many of you can relate with the "getting fit" New Years resolution that rarely comes to fruition. There needs to be deeper underlying reasons for change to happen. Motivation comes and goes. Maybe you want to be more emotionally and mentally stable, have more energy for a relationship or job, get healthy before having a baby, set an example for loved ones, or are just tired of feeling sick all the time. Having a meaningful reason to change will give you an extra wind when moments of weakness arise (and they will).

3. Don't Beat Yourself Up
Thinking about food in a "good" and "bad" mentality can be very detrimental. Working with nutrition the past few years, I have heard too many people call themselves good or bad in regards to what they eat.

I came up with an analogy to help me view health choices in a different light (I apologize for the cheesy inspirational writing). Say you make a budget to save up for an expensive trip to a place you have always wanted to go. In order to have enough money for your trip, you will have to make some changes here and there, plan, and focus on your end goal in moments of temptation. Making dietary changes works in a similar way. Instead of thinking a food as good or bad, think about whether the food is helping you achieve your end goal.

 3. Make Realistic Goals
When I first started school for nutrition, I became overwhelmed by all the new health information I was learning. I became obsessed with what I should and should not be eating (and probably drove the people around me crazy). Deciding what to eat was suddenly very stressful for me. After some time, I came to the realization that the expectations I had for myself were unrealistic. Unless you are the rare personality type that can make an extreme change overnight and stick to it, change is very gradual. From my personal experiences and observation, gradual change is the most effective way of making dietary habits that will last. For instance, I began focusing on what I wanted to eat more of, versus what I wanted to eat less of. I began by eating 1-2 more servings of vegetables a day. Once this goal was accomplished, I focused on eating a healthy breakfast every morning. So on and so forth. Just like any change, adjusting takes time. Before you know it, the changes that seem so difficult will be a part of your everyday routine.

Take some time to figure out what it is you would like to develop and accomplish with your own health. The way you decide to make changes should be unique to your personal needs and goals. Gaining an understanding of your body and eating habits is vitally important in being healthy.

As Dead Prez says, be healthy y'all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTAhSJt_8x8