Are you eating your food?

Weird question, right?  Am I eating my food?  Yeah, of course I am!  Well here is the follow up question…

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Are you FEELING your food? 

Think on that for a moment.  What do you FEEL when you eat?  Are you applying emotions to food?  Do you LOVE X?  ELATED by Y?  HATE Z?

The downside of applying emotions to food, even if it is tongue in cheek, is we tend to then start categorizing food for FEELINGS.  COMFORT food.  CELEBRATORY food.  STRESS eating.  The actual FOOD is not making things better, applying a hard earned win or removing stress.  How can you step away from applying FOOD for EMOTIONAL support, good or bad?

Acknowledging your emotional attachment is the first step and really seeing how you FEEL when you eat something.  Taking a moment to reflect on what, if anything, you are feeling and why?  Are there other words you can use to describe the food you are eating?  Instead of LOVE, can you describe the flavor?  Instead of Celebrating with a food, what can you DO in it’s place?  How will STRESS eating lessen the actual stress?

Next, when you have the thought to eat for a FEELING, change the direction.  

Need comfort?  How about trying to talk to someone?  Or having a good cry or scream?  

Celebrating something?  How about focusing on the actual reason to celebrate?  A person?  A milestone?  Put your effort and focus into the thing worth celebrating, not a transient food.

Stressed?  Do something physical; something constructive.  A walk, a run, some Kettlebell Swings…go for a manicure, a massage, meditate.  DO something, don’t EAT something.

Lastly, when you do eat a meal, take a pause and think about what the food IS doing for you.  What is it physically providing you?  Nutrients and energy. THAT is what EATING your food should be about.  Eat with the intention of building the body you want.  So are you eating your food or feeling your food?