The Emotion of Foods

We are one week into summer and I am loving my adventures so far! This week has been a lot about exploring passions and caring for my mental health. My days so far have included:

Day 1: Create this new website to build my passion project for health
Day 2: Swim (always an adventure) + read a fun book (my first non textbook/research article in several years!)
Day 3: Migraine yoga (because migraines don’t stop for summer adventures)
Day 4: Wake up at 4 am to center myself and create a life vision before the day begins
Day 5: Write out a evening routine (time to take control of my sleep)
Day 6: Mental Check in (AKA listing off every stressor and make an action plan to resolve them)
Day 7: Register for my very 1st sprint triathlon!! (no backing out now!)

There has been a lot of rain this week so I haven’t explored too much, but healing and rebalance can always start at home! 

As a dietitian, I spend a lot of time talking about food…Which is great, because I LOVE food 😉 The thing that people often don’t realize, is that food can be a very emotional thing. Food is involved with happy celebrations, mourning of lost loved ones, a way to cope with high excitement, exhaustion, stress, or pain. We eat food when we are bored, or when we want to get together with our friends. We eat to live and then our life starts revolving around food.

Since 1/2 the reasons we eat involve some form of emotion, it’s important that we are caring for our emotional health to help our relationship with food stay healthy. 

So what can we do to balance our emotions and rebuild our relationship with food? I would highly recommend making a list of reasons you eat. Some will be very positive and happy, so put a smily face next to those 🙂 Then take the negative, or harmful reasons, ask why questions, and create an action plan. 

For example:

• I eat out with the girls on the weekend to reconnect –>  😀 
• I eat a container of Oreos when I am overwhelmed and don’t have time to make dinner —> 🙁 
  • Why am I overwhelmed–> busy school/work schedule + taking care of 2 kids
  • Action Plan –> meal prep at the beginning of the week for easy freezer meals on stressful days + do a 10 minute yoga sequence before bed to relax, recenter, and allow for deeper sleep 

Let’s be honest and real with how we are emotionally tied to the food we eat, because we all are! There is nothing wrong with that. I mean you are emotionally tied to your spouse, and that can be a fantastic and beautiful thing if you are making that relationship healthy! But if you stop paying attention or stop developing that relationship in a healthy way, that emotional tie can be negative and draining. 

Here is to day 1 of building a healthy, beautiful relationship with the food we eat!