Love Your Food!

A loving relationship of yourself to your food is a direct connection through your traveling senses. We actively eat with our eyes well before our mouths…eating invokes the awareness of chromatic pleasure by the array of foods spanning the colors of the rainbow. Ingesting the aromatic scents can stir the current self to past by way of unlocking ambiance that only our intelligence of fragrance can open in its keyhole of connection. Hearing and touching become their own libraries as we catalog the sounds and feels by textures/tastes that inventory our food into well-crafted scrapbooks.

When we fully savor the WHOLE atmosphere surrounding a meal, we embody presence and care for what we are fortunate to eat, for our personal food choices, provisions and preparations. Take in all parts of the food’s path from your plate to your palate. Affirm acknowledgement to our land for the abundance of seasonal foods, for the farmers/suppliers, water, animals and lands that offer inherent sustenance to a bounty’s growth. Express thankfulness for the family/community we share mealtimes with or even in the quiet solitude of self. Our bodies need people, places and experiences that bring us alive and fill us with delight and our mealtimes can incorporate this trifecta, in addition to, the food’s essential nutrients themselves. Science has proven that when you eat with gratitude and mindfulness, you absorb that food’s nutrients/minerals at a higher level than if you don’t. There are many choices we get to freely make, and for the most part, food is one of them. That’s empowering… as we profit greatly through our intentional choices. When we take the time to show appreciation for the prize of what we eat, then we are already loving ourselves on a more meaningful, cellular level by the nutritional values we purposefully elect.

The power we hold to the choices we freely make in the foods we choose can offer us immeasurable benefits when the nourishment we deliberately seek (a practice of loving ourselves and our food choices) can greatly soothe, calm and de-stress our internal systems. We can activate our coping pathways by engaging in thoughtful company with food. You will inherently feel brighter, happier and more positive because you are consciously aware and purposefully selecting foods that become habits or behaviors with eating. It’s a win-win, you feel better because you will be eating with deliberateness (as opposed to emotionally eating) and in turn the nutrients and vitamins will greatly underpin you physically as well as social/emotionally.

We are in a time of new knowing and we alone can reap the tangible rewards of loving ourselves to wholeness …feeling tranquil balance with body and mind by way of our food!

Love your Foods as you Keep Calm and Choose On!

1) Whole Fruits and Veggies: This can be fresh produce, raw or cooked.

Blueberries (these littlest berries pack a punch on our immune systems and defend against stress. Also, a protective effect on the brain with memory and anxiety relief).

2) Foods high in nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants, brain health and release a

‘feel good’ hormone…there’s a heap: Asparagus, Beets, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, broccoli, spinach, kale, garlic, raspberries, lemons, mangoes, cranberries, guava, papaya, grapefruit, tart cherries, oranges, pomegranates, eggs, seaweed, soy, turkey, black beans, turmeric green tea, water, chamomile.

3) Eat foods rich in magnesium…an elixir to lower risks of depression, steady the mind and fuel the body for energy: Swiss chard, spinach, kale, arugula, avocados, pumpkin (pepita) seeds, black beans, quinoa, halibut, mackerel, salmon, almonds, cashews.

4) Up your Omega-3 fatty acids: Documented to reduce depression, specifically included…mackerel, salmon, herring, oysters, sardines, trout, tuna, halibut, flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, pistachios, soybeans, avocados.

5) Say ‘YES’ to Complex Carbs! These foods activate the brain’s release of serotonin, which helps lower stress and offer the body long lasting sustenance.

Sprouted grains, quinoa, millet, spelt, kamut, farro, barley, oats, lentils, green peas, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, brown or wild rice.