Finding food freedom. Our minds can be our best friend or our worst enemy.
They can manipulate us into thinking we’re not enough or that we’re on top of the world.
It’s far easier to believe lies than truth.
We can get so entangled in debilitating, irrational thoughts that it’s impossible to see reality.
And before we know it we’re trapped in a mental tornado that crushes our spirit and sucks every ounce of our energy.
Our minds can take hold of many aspects of our lives. Singleness, the corporate ladder, athletic ability, social status and most commonly…body image and weight.
We live in a culture obsessed with dieting and “getting fit” and eating clean and pushing harder, sweating more, and perfection perfection perfection. You’re eating carbs past 7pm…uh oh. You’re not watching portions meticulously, that must be to blame. Maybe you’re working out at the wrong time, not eating grains at the right time of day, mismeasuring your peanut butter in the morning, eating too much fruit….maybe it’s the bananas?
Or maybe you’re so consumed on what you must be doing wrong and what you should do instead that you’re missing what’s actually holding you back.
Letting go of depriving yourself of food groups.
Letting go of exercising when you’re exhausted.
Letting go of always doing more and just doing less.When it comes to weight loss or heck, weight maintenance we’ve got to start letting go.
And eating more.
Eating when we’re hungry and as much as our body wants.
Letting go of how much we should eat and start eating what our bodies need.It’s a downward spiral of analyzing every little thing that you could be doing wrong or that you should be doing to lose the last five pounds. And all that does is increase stress, therefore increasing cortisol, and putting our bodies into a chronic state of energy storing. No matter what you eat or how hard you exercise, if your stress levels are through the roof, you can restrict your food and sweat till the cows come home and you won’t lose a pound….you’ll probably gain some.
It’s when we simply surrender to all the coulda-woulda-shouldas and just start embracing food as fuel, rest as necessary, and sweating as an option, that our bodies begin to heal. Over time, hormones become balanced, cortisol decreases, and they can start burning energy efficiently. And that is when true, what I call, food freedom occurs. When we stop analyzing everything we eat and every calorie we burn and start doing what our bodies need and what feels good. And that is when your body can settle into it’s healthy set point rather than you fighting your body constantly.
Food is nourishment, not something to be policed.
Food is a gift, enabling us to thrive and be well.
And food is just one part of our lives, not our entire lives.
If I’ve learned one thing about nutrition and true health, it’s that eating enough, eating nutrient rich food, and just letting go is the golden ticket to a lifetime of happiness and well being.
And on this WIAW, that includes all kinds of yummy eats!
After a morning Bike & Barre class [30 min of cycle with 30 min of Barre], breakfast was a green smoothie [1/2 scoop vega one, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, spinach and almond milk] with a bowl of cranberry vanilla oats with almond butter!
Lunch…big salad with cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, pumpkin seeds, avocado and olive oil + lemon juice for dressing. Along with some tomato soup with nutritional yeast and some homemade crackers using this recipe…these are so good and SO easy to make!
Afternoon snacking included pumpkin chia pudding [2 tablespoons chia seeds, 3/4 cup almond milk, 1/4 cup pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract and cinnamon]
An apple + almonds and chocolate chips
And some sliced veggies while I cooked dinner.
Dinner was a plate of randomness I pulled from the fridge because I did zero meal planning this week. But it actually tasted really good! Sauteed mushroooms, zucchini, and bell pepper with two fried eggs, steamed collards topped with leftover avocado and a spelt flatbread with buttahhhh.
And then I took at hot bath and made a batch of cookies.
Every night should end with PB banana chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate.
And every day should be about letting go.
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