Asking the Right Questions about Your Relationship with Food

Asking the Right Questions about Your Relationship with Food

To keep on track it is so important to keep asking ourselves questions and to keep checking in with ourselves about how we are doing. I call it the "pinch test". It is hard to always be present in our lives, especially when we eat. But if we are not present then it is easy to play games with ourselves about what we are eating and how much we are eating. Not being present also takes away from the enjoyment of our food and the ultimate satisfaction we get from good food and a good meal. If we can't get to satisfaction then we will never be able to succeed in living a healthier lifestyle.

Marc David, Founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, recently posted an article that suggests some questions we should ask ourselves regarding us and our relationship with food. I found them very helpful. As he says, "Asking the right questions inevitably points us in a right direction." Here is what he wrote:

Here’s a suggestion: if you care about health, if you care about nutrition, if you care about good eating, then it’s a good idea to keep asking good questions.

Asking the right questions inevitably points us in a smart direction.

The greatest advances in science, technology, philosophy, art, and culture have so often come because somebody somewhere was asking the right questions.

Questions can be quite powerful.

 Who am I?
 What’s my purpose in this world?
 How can I reach my highest potential?
 How can I contribute?
 How can I find true love?
 What do I need to be happy?

Such questions activate the mind and guide the soul. They’re like fine tuned honing devices that help us access a greater wisdom.

So in the interest of having a healthier body, a well functioning metabolism, and a nourishing relationship with food – here are 5 powerful and important questions to ask yourself about you and food.

1.    Do I eat in the ideal state of digestion, assimilation, & calorie burning?
This is a foundational question that I consider one of the top two questions that anyone could possibly ask in the realm of eating and nutrition. That’s because we could be eating the healthiest food in the universe, but if we’re not eating under the ideal state of digestion, assimilation, and calorie burning – which happens to be the physiologic relaxation response – then we’re in no way getting the full nutritional value of our meal.  If we eat under stress, we’re excreting nutrients, digestion is impaired, hormones such as insulin and cortisol are secreted which can stimulate weight gain and de-regulate appetite, the function of healthy gut bacteria is impaired, and the list goes on and on. We are physiologically designed, by the brilliance of evolution and a higher wisdom – to be optimal processors of nutrition when we’re in the state of parasympathetic nervous system dominance – a fancy term for relaxation. Ask yourself this powerful question at every meal, and commit to techniques such as deep breathing, slowing down, taking time with food, and calming your mind – and you’ll officially be a nutritional superstar.

2.    Am I nutritionally flexible?
Being nutritionally flexible means that we’re willing to explore when it comes to food and diet. We live in a time when the nutritional landscape is changing rapidly. We re exposed to stressors, toxins in the environment, poor quality food, and all kinds of assaults on our immune system. It’s a good time to be flexible and experiment. Are you willing to try different supplements? If you’ve been a heavy meat eater for all your life, are you willing to go vegetarian for a while? If you’ve been vegetarian for a long time, and your health is suffering, have you considered eating high quality animal foods? Are you open to cleansing?  Would you consider going gluten-free for a few months? Switching to organic foods? Buying locally produced foods? Have you tried including more healthy fats in your diet? Do you try new foods? Nutritional flexibility gives us the greatest chance for long-term health and long-term survival. Plus it can be a lot of fun.

3.    Am I in my body?
This might be the hardest question to wrap yourself around. A lot of people eat well, exercise, and do good things for their body. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are “in” the body. Another way to say this is that there are a lot of us walking around a bit “checked out” from the body. Such people are disembodied. This is a subtle distinction, but it has profound effects. When we’re checked out of the body, we’re not fully present, we’re not fully sensitive to body wisdom and body feedback, and the mind is always wandering somewhere else and not paying any attention to the thing that the body is doing in the moment. When you exercise, are you focused on your body or are you in your head? When you eat, do you focus at all on the food, or are you living inside your mind that’s chattering away? When you’re touching your loved one, or hugging your kids, are you really feeling them and truly embracing them? Fully embodying your life is a powerful practice and a metabolic game changer. Simply asking yourself, “am I in my body?” throughout the day helps us to embody. And the more we embody, the more metabolically powerful we become.

4.    Do I put love into the equation?
Good for you if you focus on good nutrition, good for you if you read up about health and healing, and congratulations for learning as much information as you can about food and eating. What I often see happen with people who have a solid interest in nutrition is they forget vitamin L – love. Love is the missing ingredient in a majority of weight loss diets and nutritional approaches, it’s a missing ingredient in the food industry, and it’s often absent in the offices of practitioners who help us with food and body. No matter what you eat, what kind of nutritional philosophy you adhere to, or what foods you think are the right ones for everyone to eat – if there’s no love in the equation, then our nutritional strategies are deficient. This is a great homework assignment for you: get creative about all the ways you can add more love into your relationship with food.

5.    How do I nourish the world?
Nutrition, food, and health are no longer a mere personal affair. How our food is grown, produced, marketed, and consumed impacts all of us. There are a lot of people out there who don’t have enough. There’s a lot of people out there who are lacking in education and understanding of good health. There’s far too much social and nutritional injustice in the world. So, how do you nourish the world? How do you give back to others? How do you share your good bounty? What goes around comes around. Nourish yourself, and nourish the world, and the best of who we are is automatically born.
 
See more at: http://psychologyofeating.com/5-important-questions-food/