Finding Self Love Through Adaptive Eating

What does your body want?  When do you feel the best both physically and psychologically with your eating?  When we answer these questions, we can trust our body.   We can then identify when things often considered ‘treats’, or ‘cheats’ such as pastries, alcohol, and sugars, etc., are going to satisfy mind and body in a lasting way and bring joy vs. facilitating inflammation in the body and mind.   Joy and sustainable pleasure through eating, and sharing food is just as important for our well-being, healthy metabolism, and quality of life as specific nutrients are for our body chemistry. Finding the ‘System of Balance’ that fits our individual bodies, empowers us and leads us toward self-love and acceptance and away from the ‘cheat’ mentality that can bring up feelings of guilt or shame surrounding food.  Without guilt and shame, this further perpetuates a positive feedback loop of caring and nourishing our bodies and minds.

This is not a one-size fits all approach.  One’s environment, including accessibility and availability of foods, cost of foods, cultural associations with foods, and specific likes/dislikes, as well as allergies or sensitivities to food will all come into context when figuring out each individuals plan for adaptive eating.  So, for some individuals, their system of balance may include some dietary restrictions, i.e., no gluten, dairy, processed foods, soda, alcohol etc., and they may find that when they have ‘treats’  they still align within these boundaries which allows them to still feel empowered that they are taking care of their bodies in the best way while finding pleasure and joy.  Others may find that including all foods, and some just in more moderation than others is how they maintain the balance.  Each plan for each individual will be slightly different.  The goal with defining the boundaries within this nutrition plan is that they are derived from our personal experience and how our bodies and minds adapt to that experience, thus called ‘Adaptive Eating’. Your practitioner at Universal Family Wellness Clinic can be supportive in finding a balance plan for nutrition that serves you.

Knowing how to balance within each 24 hour period is a beautiful part of adaptive eating.  As we can see as with so many examples in life, balance is where nature thrives and will always return to in a healthy system, day/night, hot/cold, wet/dry.   So, if you have more ‘treats’ one night, the goal is to be able to fully enjoy them, the taste, the flavor, and the beauty of how eating and sharing them makes you feel.  Then, the idea that you have a system of balance in place to maintain the desired internal environment in your mind and body, i.e., good energy, good mood, good sleep, and good digestion, allows all judgment and guilt surrounding eating to melt away.  We are left feeling empowered by the opportunity to keep our mind and body in balance, and to treat ourselves with the beauty of flavors, and sensations and sharing these with our people.

An example of this is that you have a celebration dinner one night or maybe even a weekend of celebration, and have some rich food, and sweet treats with friends.  A system of balance, first is that this type of event is less frequent so as to maintain overall health and balance, and then when a special event happens you enjoy and at the end of the night employ the system of balance you have designed for your self care.

• 2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar in water

• Take a methylated B-complex

• Get lots of rest

• Next morning have a green juice and healthy breakfast and lots of water.

• For the next few days, focus on getting good protein and veggies at each meal, and drinking at least 3L water per day.

Now you have been able to enjoy your event without guilt or shame and your physical body has not become too inflamed and you feel empowered because you took care of you!

When we have the things 'we want', when we want them, but are tapped in enough to know what makes us feel good and what doesn't we are less likely to overdo or go to excess.  Without deprivation, excess is less likely to emerge.  Again, this is all within the System of Adaptive Eating that is right for you.   When we can reconcile what we want with what is good for us, this is also fuel for the metabolism because the body and the mind are working together, and there is not the same resistance between what 'we should eat', and 'what we want to eat'.    This in it of itself fuels more good choices around food which facilitates self love, and acceptance which wildly also begins to shift the physical body to align with our best vision of ourselves.

Brooke Niss, L.Ac.