We eat to fuel & nourish our bodies. We also eat sometimes to fill an emotional need, with no regard to nutrition or nourishment. And that's totally ok🙂
“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.” - Anthony Bourdain
The key is to be aware of this distinction. When you are aware, you are in control of your experience. Just asking yourself a simple question, "Am I eating to fuel or fill myself?", will help turn that awareness on.
Also pay attention to times when you are prone to filling, and times you are leaning towards fuelling.
From my personal experience, every time I have challenged my body in some way - danced for an hour, lifted weights, did an interval training workout, I have sought to nourish myself with food.
And times, I am just lazing on the couch, or hanging out with friends, taking a mid morning break after finishing morning duties, I have sought to fill my body and emotions with food or a drink.
How can you use this awareness to your advantage ?
A. Those times you are eating to fill, instead of fuel or nourish, just slow down, savor every bite of your food & enjoy the experience. Being mindful, automatically reduces the tendency for excess.
And knowing exactly what you are doing & why, gives you a sense of control, which can reduce or entirely eliminate feelings of guilt surrounding food, after.
“Flexibility in your food choices is healthy. Eating a variety of foods is healthy. Focusing on enjoying your food is healthy. Not stressing about your food is healthy.”
Another thing you can choose to do is eat smaller portions. You can always add a second helping if you feel like it.
B. Give yourself a reason to nourish your body. Join a regular exercise program or have a daily physical exercise routine such as going for a run or to the gym. Choose something that challenges your body to an extent. Doing this, will automatically, make you more conscious of the need to nourish your body so that you can be better at your chosen regular activity.
A breathing technique to manage cravings:
Here is a breathing technique from Dr. Weil, that can help you deal with cravings. It hardly takes any time. Try it out, and use it when a craving hits you. This breathwork practice is very powerful and I strongly recommend you learn it. Perform the exercise for 4 breath cycles and see if anything changed. Here is the video link, where you can listen to Dr. Weil himself on how to practice:
https://www.drweil.com/videos-features/videos/breathing-exercises-4-7-8-breath/
I hope you will begin practicing questioning yourself if you are eating to fuel or fill and in the process improve awareness of your eating habits. Do it this week & drop me a mail on how it went. I would love to hear from you.
I will see you next week with another useful tip in the area of health, or nutrition, or personal growth that you can apply into your life and reap benefits.
Wishing you a fabulous week, ahead 💕 Leave me a hi, or a comment below, if you got a chance to read this post and resonated.
Am looking forward to doing this exercise...
Loved the write up! And what a superb heading.....Fill or Fuel👌👌