Nutrition doesn’t have to be complicated. If we allow the definition to be our guide & focus on nourishing our bodies, letting go of food rules and fad diets, and eating for enjoyment nutrition becomes simple.
I have been in the Wellness industry for decades… my thoughts, feelings, and knowledge surrounding nutrition have been ever changing. It’s sort of like coming of age & finding who you are as a person. I’ve definitely done a lot of nutrition soul searching in my life and when I hear the word ‘nourish’ I feel that it sums up how I view nutrition. I want people to know that eating doesn’t have to be an all or nothing phenomena, a good/bad food shame game. Nutrition is more than counting calories. If we adopted an 80/20 philosophy, we might be able to finally end the war and find PEACE with fueling our bodies.
The media has built up nutrition into this huge thing that needs to be all consuming, that’s burdened with rules, and takes the fun & enjoyment out of eating. One of my favorite quotes about nutrition is by Ellyn Satter – “When the joy goes out of eating nutrition suffers.” – I believe this to be so telling. Why do we have to follow these food rules from some famous person? We don’t. How do they truly know what is going to work for our lifestyle, our body, and most importantly, how do they know our wants & needs? They don’t. I’m not suggesting I do either, but I know there has to be a more loving way to fuel our bodies- and it is not by shaming ourselves into the latest fad diet. We don’t need to rely on some diet book or famous person’s nutrition plan – because honestly, if that was the answer – it would have already worked by now.
What is going to work is taking a step back, getting ready to do a little bit of soul searching & finding what works for you as an individual (sleep, hydration, metabolism, hormones) It’s sitting down & checking in with yourself to see what you truly want & need – both food-wise & emotionally. This all circles back to nourishing the body. I think nourishment comes in two parts – nourishing the body with food & nourishing the soul with love & understanding. When I talk about designing a life you love – nutrition is a HUGE part of this. When you start to design a loved life you become aware what you want to do & where you want to go. What kind of an impact you want to make…it all starts to make sense.
You’ll see that connection between the mind & the body and how they are so interconnected. You’ll see how when you were on a diet plan, what you were putting into your body & how you were feeling about it was working against what you actually wanted to be doing. You’ll see that you were following these strict, made up food rules that were promising you this magical, unattainable goal. When you step back from that diet mentality & focus on nourishing the body instead, you’ll realize there’s more to life than being obsessed with what you’re putting into your body, following rules, and being on this continuous cycle of on track-off track, which leads to feelings of unworthiness.
We can do better – we are worthy.
Nutrition doesn’t have to be this complex thing. If we just come back to the simple dictionary definition & focus on nourishing our bodies, letting go of diets, and eating for enjoyment, we can stop the war. When we nourish our bodies with food and nourish our soul with understanding we can find this beautiful balance of taking care of our bodies & living our lives with peace and love that no diet plan will ever give us.
