ARE YOU IN LOVE…With Your Food?

What kind of relationship do you have with your food? Is it a love/hate relationship? Is it an obsessive/compulsive relationship? Is it a relationship of unmet expectations and confusion? If you are fortunate, it is a relationship of nourishment, satisfaction, and contentment.

What would it mean to you if you really were in love with your food? For me it means that I love myself, therefore I care about what goes into my body. Loving myself means that I choose my food carefully. Because I know that I literally become what I eat, I only eat food that I love! When I buy or prepare food for myself, I only choose foods that I like and that work well in my body.

The following are a few tips for falling in love with your food:

1. Re-connect with your body. In order to know if your body loves a food, you have to pay attention to your body’s response. You may love the taste of brownies, but does refined flour and sugar work well in your body? Your gut is where you digest your food and is the center of your intuition. Pay attention to what your gut is telling you, both on a physical level and an intuitive level!
2. Eat the foods you enjoy and see how you feel after eating them. You may have heard that broccoli is good for you, but do you really enjoy eating it? You may think that you enjoy donuts and coffee, but do they truly make you feel good in your mind, body, and spirit?
3. Try something new. Try something exotic like a fresh lychee nut or durian fruit (available at international food stores). Be adventurous and daring. Have you ever had okra? Maybe today is the day!
4. Pay attention to the sensory aspects of your food. Consume fruits and vegetables with bright colors such blueberries, pomegranates, red beets, or purple cauliflower. (Purchase local and/or organic to avoid added dyes that may not be on the label.) Try new textures found in sprouted grain bread or an avocado. Before you put food in your mouth, inhale its aroma.
5. Make a conscious effort to connect with your food. Consider where it came from. Who grew it? Were they nourished, satisfied, and content? Support a local farmer and get to know him or her. Being connected to your food means being connected to its source, which ultimately brings you back to connecting to yourself, because the same energy that grows our food is the same energy that grows us.
6. Express gratitude. Whatever you choose to put in your body, give thanks for the nourishment. If you begrudgingly eat your healthy food, how much love are you really showing yourself? Eat with a thankful heart and you will begin to love the food you are eating.

If after trying the tips above, you still have not fallen in love with your food, then it is an opportunity for you dig deeper. Instead of searching for answers outside of yourself, look for the answers inside. Do you love yourself? Do you love your job? Are you in love with the people in your life? The answers may not come immediately. They will come when you are truly ready to see them and face yourself. It is not always easy to face the truth of what is inside, but when you start to embrace all of yourself (including your eating habits) falling in love with your food becomes innate to your way of being.

Each day you are faced with choices about how to live your life. If your life is not working, consider where you want to start making better choices to add love into your life. Maybe you want to add another healthy food in to your lifestyle. Maybe you want to find a friend who really understands who you are and supports you 100%. Perhaps you want to do something just for you… something you really love.