I love food.
Like a lot.
WIAW breakfast // blueberry buckwheat pancakes with almond butter, a peach and lots of coffee
I love to browse recipes. I love to try new recipes. I love to host people for dinner. I love going to restaurants. I love exploring a new city through its food. And when I’m not in NYC, I love to grocery shop. I freaking love food.
But at the end of the day, food is just that. Food.
It’s meant to nourish us, give us energy + life, and there for us to enjoy. Simply put, it’s just food. But more often then not, we make it into something it’s totally not. As a society, we perpetually glorify food.
post run green smoothie // 1/2 scoop Vega One, 1 cup almond milk, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup frozen organic spinach
By either restricting and manipulating food to carve our body into a certain shape and size. Or by indulging and gluttonizing as a means to escape our emotions or reward ourselves. Or by attaching positive or negative judgments to food to foster both self righteousness or guilt depending on our food choices. We give food way too much glory and power.
The longer I talk with women through Nutshell, in my church community, in friendships and even acquaintanceships, the more it becomes abundantly clear of how enslaved we can become to food. But what if we simplified food, and thought of it as just….food. Something with zero morality.
lunch // salad with mixed greens, bell pepper, tomato, nutritional yeast and balsamic vinaigrette + super seedy bread + celery and hummus + strawberries
A gift for us to nourish our bodies, satisfy hunger, and make our tastes buds happy.
That kale and broccoli would be something that can taste good, but also feel good. And cupcakes would be something that of course taste good, but they are also just that…cupcakes. Enjoy the cupcake, soak up the experience and move on. No calculating calories, no wondering if the carbs will balance out given what you’ve already eaten and what you might eat later on, and simply enjoying it because it makes you feel good, because it tastes good, and because it does both.
This can at times seem almost impossible with all the false messages we are told by society about food and exercise and beauty. Nutrition advice changes more often than the sun rises. But what if we started tuning INTO our bodies instead of abiding by external, arbitrary rules.
snacks // kombucha and half this chocolate bar + vegan banana bread with coconut oil and strawberry jam
Listen to your body. And to your cravings.
Use some gentle nutrition so you include carbs, proteins, fats and veggies in most meals.
Practice compassion with yourself.
View food from a neutral place. Detach morality from food.
Enjoy foods that feel good and foods that taste good.
When you’re hungry…eat.
And just let food be food.
dinner // hummus + pita and fattoush salad with more pita + a glass of red wine at Gazala’s Place
late night snack // three OSG dream cups
There are enough things that can cause us stress and anxiety and emotional turmoil. Although society and diet culture makes it very easy, food shouldn’t reign over our lives, enslave us to self hatred or starvation or lead us to mindless binging. It’s hard, because our society give it so much power. But can we look at it has just food.
Neutral food.
And while I love kale and lentils, I also love ice cream and wine. And those foods should be seen through the same lens. Just food.
![5 Minute On The Go Breakfast [Daily Eats]](https://www.thereallife-rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FullSizeRender-1-150x150.jpg)
I always look forward to not only your food pictures, but your wise words. You are such an inspiration. You have a wise old soul and it is beautiful. Have a great Hump Day! XOXO
LOVE your posts and always look forward to them, Robyn! Thank you for speaking truth and life here on the internet. So grateful.
This message is becoming easier with your voice. Thank you! I always enjoy reading your posts. It gets my mind right for the day. 🙂
Gosh, this is something I always need to remind myself of. I love eating food, shopping for food, cooking food… but when it BECOMES my life is when I have problems with overthinking my meals and restriction or binging. Lovely post.
Love your perspective on food! I definitely agree with you! Also, those dream cups look so yummy! 🙂
Such a relief to read your posts as I’m sat here feeling guilty for over eating this afternoon on food that I hadn’t planned and now thinking I should skip dinner.I find your post and think hold on its food…
My body needs food, stop punishing it, food was eaten, it wasn’t planned but it’s fine now and been eaten and can’t be changed… Eat your dinner woman!! And that I shall after reading your post
Thank you so so much for helping me to remember I am special and need to care for my special self.
I started my post off today with a similar sentiment. I’m so disheartened by the way people look at calories as evil and food as a deal breaker for their weight goals.
I’m so glad to know you will be working with women in your nursing endeavors. I hope that they can glean from your perspective.
I love your posts!! I couldn’t agree more with your perception on this topic, and I wish more people realized these things. BTW your eats always look so delicious 🙂
Thank you…I love this. I’m wondering if you’d write about how to learn to accept your body. I’ve been working on my recovery from anorexia for almost 6 years. While I consider myself almost recovered, I continue to be held back by my body image and size. It’s not necessarily weight that concerns me, but how my clothes fit and how my body appears since gaining some weight recently. Thanks!
Beautiful food post. once again I don’t have much to say besides THANK YOU <3
You are correct that food is not God. I will say that food is a huge part of my relationship with God. I lean on him when I’m struggling, I glorify him through his amazing creation of the food we eat and I love on others through food. I used to try and look at food as sheer numbers.. weight, calories in and out and had a very legal view. All this to say it robbed me of joy and freedom. As you said have balance and treat your body with respect. Food is a huge blessing and it irks me when people torture themselves through it. It’s not the food we should hate, it’s God we should pray to for self control and that we will learn to treat our body as temple.
This is a really great message. I read quite a few blogs but rarely comment, because most of it is just the same things over and over. “Healthy food to eat in an airport” or “new tabata workout” or whatever. Your blog really stands out as something different. Your topics are thoughtful, relevant, and refreshing to read. Something as simple as food should just be food is a great thing to keep in mind, yet so easily overlooked. I love seeing how you incorporate all these ideas in your own life – in a balanced and not obsessive way. I agree with an above poster who says reading your posts is often a relief, and a welcome reminder that we’re all human. A critique I have of many HLB’s or other bloggers is the constant humble-brag about their regimented workout routines accompanied by pictures of small portioned, restrictive meals; rendering many of their positive messages hollow and uninspiring. All this rambling to say – thanks for your thoughtful posts, they’re wonderful to read and a real resource for me when I need some perspective.
I love this, I have been guilty of putting food (and exercise) before so many more important things of family, friends and God. It is so important to remember that food is just that food, its not good or bad it just is what it is. Thank you for reminding me of this 🙂
Thank you so much for this! I love your posts, I especially needed this one.
Loved this message Robyn! Also, Fattoush salad is one of my favorite meals. The first time I had it was in Nigeria actually…crazy!
This is good, and that reminder is something that really hits so much of what I struggled with for a long time. I didn’t treat food as ‘just food.’ Food isn’t something to glorify, because we glorify God. Food is a means, but not the end. We eat to live, but when I ‘live to eat’ I’m absolutely miserable.
Hi Robyn! I’ve been admiring the “seedy bread” in all of your pictures and decided to make it this weekend… but it totally fell apart! I had to make a few substitutions… I used coconut flour instead of chickpea flour, and ground flax instead of psyllium husk powder (because I couldn’t find either of the correct things at any of the stores that I checked!). Do you have any thoughts on which of these substitutions (or if both of them) wasn’t a good option? Or maybe I should have just added more water? I definitely want to try it again if I can get some good tips on how to do it with a bit more success. 🙂
I agree. It is so simple, but we make it so hard. Food choices don’t make us good or bad people, they don’t dictate success or failure, they don’t make us strong or weak. They simply fuel our bodies and have an opportunity every day multiple times a day to make healthy choices 🙂
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