Healthy Eating: Being Body Aware

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IMAGE: These long lived beings take their time to live and eat. Perhaps we could take a leaf out of their lettuce.

In this busy 21st century world, many of us have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in.  This makes it very easy to just grab some food, chew for a bit, swallow fast and quickly get on with our day.  However, when we don’t take that bit of extra time to sit with our food our digestion suffers, the nutrients from our food are not going to be absorbed efficiently and we won’t get the full benefit from what we are eating.  Often anxiety, fatigue and illness follows.

Being aware of our bodies means taking care to notice if we are actually hungry or just want to eat something because we are bored, stressed, tired, lonely or emotional. It means choosing foods that are going to give us energy, strength and clarity instead of a crash later and it means we are taking the time to give care and love to ourselves.  This self-compassion is often the missing ingredient in our diet.

When we are with our food, it is one of the few times of the day we can have a break and do one thing at a time, pushing our multitasking skills aside for the moment.  It’s the perfect time to take a breather, relax and pay attention to what we are eating and how our body is responding.  We can ask ourselves some simple questions such as; Is this food going to benefit me? Am I starting to get full? Do I feel like I’m racing to get finished, or am I really stopping to take this time for me?

If you realise that you aren’t actually hungry, take this time to be with yourself, even just for a few minutes. Just breathing and noticing how your body is beginning to relax, have a glass of water and then find something else you find rewarding for you in that moment.

Being able to live in the moment, a skill that promotes relaxation and feelings of joy, came naturally to us as children and can be re-learnt through our relationship with food.

Enjoy your week with yourself,

Jesabe Warner

Naturopath, Affordable Wholefoods

Further reading

Read what Jesabe has to say about Stress Anxiety and the Wholefoods Diet or try one of our favourite nutritious recipes Cauliflower & White Sweet Potato Soup or our warming Winter Dahl using delicious black lentils (black urid dahl).