Diet. I shiver just hearing the word. Don’t you? How many diets have you tried? Most importantly, how many diets have failed you?

Food is always a part of our experience. In my home country, Sweden, we socialize a lot around food, and it’s connected to good times meeting with friends. In the healthy world of fitness, nutrition is a cornerstone in progress and energy levels.

We know that in a baby’s life, what we feed it is a necessity for life and development, and when we get old, we are very aware of the same thing. So why, then, do we get lost in the middle? In our most conscious part of living, between childhood and elderhood, we develop a fear of food. Most people I know, myself included, have a difficult time with food. Hearing the word “diet,” or having the experience of eating out, not knowing what is right or wrong, culminates in a surrender or many times fear.

For this second week of the Body-Mind challenge, let’s work towards creating healthier patterns that can help us celebrate food and eating again. There is no reason why we cannot enjoy our food experiences. After all, food is what keeps us alive and healthy, and gives us energy and even joy. To start enabling the Good Food experience, practice these four concepts this entire week, or for as long as you need to:

1) Give your Good Food the good qualities it deserves. Think to yourself: “The food I put in my body is healing my body, giving me energy, and it tastes good, too!”

2) Stick to the foods Mother Earth gave us as much as possible. Eat whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and proteins (animal or your own choice). Play with colors, combinations of foods, and textures. After some time, the body adapts to clean healthy foods, and it will reject processed unnatural foods. Listen to your body and it will tell you what you need.

3) Create an even, solid flow of energy intake. Start your day with breakfast, and put something in your body every three hours for a total of four to five times per day. If this is difficult to remember, use your phone or alarm to remind you every three hours and have a snack readily available. It will soon turn into a habit and your body will start telling you that it is hungry without the alarm.

4) Enjoy your healthy food. Eat with a loving heart since you know that it is benefiting you so much and you have made good choices. Spend at least 20 minutes eating each meal, and allow yourself to TASTE the food. Chew slowly and thoroughly. Stop eating when you feel satisfied but not full. Can you feel where that is?

I am wholeheartedly going through this with you, constantly. I, too, get lost in a controlling web, and sometimes it is hard to find the joy in the things we have to do every day.

Take your diary (if you haven’t bought one yet, I recommend it – it is going to be your guidebook to yourself when it is done!) and write down the four concepts. Practice them this week, share them with your loved ones, and discuss them with me or your friends. Integrating them into your life will make them more attainable and you will be on your way to a better, healthier, and more joyous you! Most of all, try everything with an open heart and a mind of a child.

Please let me know how it goes and Live Life Loud!

Image: D Sharon Pruitt

Tags: diets

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 7:37 am and is filed under 10-Week Transformation, Body-Mind Health, Fitness, Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.