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Becoming an Intentional Eater
Sherrie Shepherd
How conscious are you about the fuel you put in your body? Have you ever stopped and thought about what you eat and why? There are many reasons we eat and choosing our food intentionally is very beneficial. Often food serves as a distraction from negative emotions that we don’t want to feel. Learning to feel our feelings is essential to our emotional growth.
Often we eat before we even have the chance to think about why we are eating. Take the time to think before you eat. Observe your thoughts. As we learn to view our thoughts and decide whether they are useful for us or not, we can then choose to change them. This takes a lot of practice.
“Choose foods that you associate with joy, energy, health and strength. You can gain a lot of satisfaction and gratitude from looking in your fridge or at your plate and feeling joy and gratitude for the abundance of nutritious, colorful, beautiful foods you have to choose from.“
Before you eat, think about why you are eating. Are you hungry? Tired? Are you feeling stressed, anxious, excited, sad, happy, depressed? Are you eating something because of social pressure? Are you bored? Eating for entertainment? Are you buffering an emotion with food or are you really actually hungry?
Once you’ve identified why you want to eat and have discovered that you really are hungry, now ask yourself what this food is going to do to serve you. Is this food fueling your body for the day? Are you replenishing nutrients after a run or workout? Will this food provide you with pure energy, good nutrition and sustenance? Do you love how it tastes? How will you feel after eating it?
If the answer is guilt or shame, take a moment to consider why. Remember that it’s okay to feel your feelings. Eating any kind of food is not going to erase feelings, but can potentially add to them. Food only solves for the problem of hunger.
Choose foods that you associate with joy, energy, health and strength. You can gain a lot of satisfaction and gratitude from looking in your fridge or at your plate and feeling joy and gratitude for the abundance of nutritious, colorful, beautiful foods you have to choose from. Colorful foods bring me joy. I love looking at my plate full of freshly chopped vegetables or fruits and taking a moment to express my gratitude for what these foods will do to serve my body once I eat them.
Become a person who eats healthy, instead of being a person moving from one diet to the next. Many current fad diets focus on the process of elimination. It emphasizes food in terms of value- good foods vs bad foods- eat this, not that. This thinking can lead to disordered eating, feelings of guilt and, as mentioned above, emotional eating. Jumping from diet to diet, looking for quick results, can create long term metabolic damage and can ultimately halt your progress.
We prefer to take a more abundant approach to nutrition. We like to place the focus on how the foods you eat will serve your body. Keeping the focus on the positive promotes positive, long term results.
“Become a person who eats healthy, instead of being a person moving from one diet to the next.“
When you join our coaching tribe, nutrition guidance is included in your package! We send you menus with simple, yet delicious recipes with real, whole healthy foods that nourish and strengthen your body. We teach you what foods will best serve you, your brain and your body for the best results. Having a plan in place ahead of time is key for conquering emotional eating.
We’re not in it to sell you a quick fix. We are not lose-weight-quick coaches. But our clients do find that weight loss and a more athletic looking physique are a nice added by-product to the main goal: to feel and be healthy, energetic, athletic and alive!
We will show you how to eat, train and feel like an athlete. And we will teach you how to channel your inner athlete right now!
Stop dieting. Start living.
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