One of the biggest changes for me in my completely revising my relationship to food was to pay attention to how food made me feel. I used to scarf down food as fast as possible in an attempt to not have to feel the discomfort of my body and life, so paying attention to how it made me feel was never a priority until I realized that the choice in my life was being suffocated through my compulsions with food.
As you may have heard me say many times, changing your relationship to food and body isn’t a game of being a perfect eater or have pristine confidence, it is about turning up your conscious awareness so that rather than being run by your impulse to eat or criticize your body, you have choice in how to respond.
Turning up the awareness of how food makes you feel is the best start for building more choice when it comes to food and body.
As I did this, one of the things I noticed is that I frequently felt bloated, constipated and would gain 2-3 pounds overnight if I ate pasta, cereal or bread the night before.
This didn’t immediately have me stop eating these foods, but it did give me pause that possibly my body did not like those foods given this physical response.
Additionally, I began to notice that if I ate sugar like gummy bears, candy bars or ice cream, I would be irritable and bitchy in just a few hours afterward.
I have countless examples of watching to see how certain foods, even wine and alcohol, made me feel physically and emotionally.
Eventually, the reward of those foods lost their pull as the desire to feel good (which is why I embarked on revising my food relationship in the first place) became louder than any short term fix these foods gave me.
But please don’t read between the lines that this was a quick fix. Because it wasn’t. Turning up your consciousness awareness is not an overnight process, but it WILL change your life if having a different experience with food and body is what you seek.
Your body is sending you signals all the time, but if you are not in the practice of listening, it might be challenging for you to hear them over the din of your mind telling you what is good or bad, right or wrong.
One way to easily begin doing this is for just one meal a day, have no other distractions. No cell phone, no eating while on your laptop or watching tv or reading a book. Just you and your food.
Pay attention to the texture, the way it feels to chew your food and how it feels within a few minutes of eating it. Take your time to chew the food and really give yourself the space to let the voice of your body rise to the top.
Then, set an alarm on your phone for two hours after your meal and check in with yourself. How does your body feel? Maybe you notice tightness or hardness in your abdomen. Or maybe you’re energized and focused.
There is no right or wrong feedback because it is all merely information that helps you course correct on your journey of taking your rightful place as a woman with conscious choice around food and body.