Your Wellness Journey Shouldn't Just Be About Food
NEWSFLASH:
Your wellness journey shouldn’t just be about food.I have been a member of the high achieving clean plate club since, well, it seems forever.
Growing up, cleaning my plate was an expectation. Even if I was full, it was not ok to leave uneaten food on my plate. I remember as a child having to remain at the table until I finished everything on it, even the sautéed summer squash I detested (but now ironically love).
Maybe this only happens in the South, I am not sure.
My plate was prepared for me and it was my duty to eat everything that was put on it. I remember several standoffs between me and the dreaded squash, because... “there are starving children" and I needed to be more grateful.
Perhaps it is because my parents grew up in the post-depression era, but phrases like "a penny earned is a penny saved" and "waste not, want not" were common to hear in my childhood.
This continued way of eating, however, is not really in alignment with honoring our bodies.
Sometimes what is missing is a true connection to what we are eating.
And eating should not be about checking off the box of another badge in the clean plate club for fear of being wasteful.
But here is the thing...
It is not just about food.
It is about a relationship you have with food.
There is a connection between what you eat, how you eat and your connection to yourself.
Sometimes there is a need to unlearn the messaging around food that you grew up with, and have now adopted into your adulthood.
Sometimes food was used to comfort or avoid feeling certain feelings. Food could also have been used for control or power, taken away as a punishment, or used as bribery.
Sometimes food was offered in place of authentic emotional connections.
Sometimes the dinner table was a source of great stress which made eating a more stressful activity and became something to do quickly to move on to more pleasant things.
What I have seen in over a decade in mental health is that…
There is a connection between what we eat and how safe we feel with our emotions.
Once we are able to break through some of those untapped emotions, we find ties to our current eating behaviors.
But I’ll tell you…
Once you being to love yourself fully, you’ll strengthen your relationship with food.
Because the relationship you have with food is based on the relationship you have with yourself.
If you don’t feel worthy and deserving of nourishing yourself with good foods, you wont.
When you see yourself as a divine being, full of love, it’s reflected in the way you care for yourself, and the foods you choose to fuel yourself with.
My work is not just about “eat this not that”.
It is deeper.
While you may feel better, lose weight, sleep better and feel more energized once you begin on your wellness journey, it may surprise you that you will also learn to feel more connected to your body, emotions, energy and mindset around food.
What may also surprise you is that you will develop healthy relationships, not only with food, but with yourself and with those around you.
Especially if you struggle with understanding how food connects us to our higher selves.
You might still clean your plate in the process. You also might start off with a smaller portion to make sure your eyes don't stretch the lens of being "bigger than your stomach." You might even decide to eat more mindfully and slow down to bring more awareness and senses into and actually enjoy and savor your meal.
What you can also learn is to feel safe around food.
Feel nourished.
Feel grateful.
Without guilt.
Without shame.
Without dishonoring your intuition of how, what, when to eat and stop eating...clean plate or not.
It is time to view wellness through a much broader and deeper lens.
It is time to really feel well.
If you're ready to commit to yourself, and take the next steps to better overall wellness, check out The Well, my 3-part virtual course where you’ll learn ways to unite mind, body, and soul and tap into resources for lifetime wellness.
-Jada Butler
