We all crave certain foods from time to time, salty, savoury, spicy, sweet, sour, they are part of who we are, and the flavours drive us to the nutrients we need to keep us well. Once upon a time, that was easy, because a sweet taste desire would lead to a healthy sweet tasting food.
Fast forward to our modern day, as we have evolved, we have discovered more and more ways to create tastes and flavours we like, without the nutrition. So a sweet taste may drive you to a tasty sweet and juicy pineapple, for example, or it may drive you to a pineapple flavoured sweet. A desire for salt could lead you to some fish, or seaweed snack or it may lead you to a pack of crisps.
Where am I going with this you may ask. There are so many directions I could go with this, but I will focus on just one pointer here. Have you ever noticed how you feel affects your food choices. If you feel tired, or worn down, or have received some tough news, you may hang up a healthy eating routine for just one diet coke, or just one bar of chocolate or may be just one take out.
If you are strong and resilient you will pick yourself up again tomorrow, and go back to nourishing your body. However, if you are not feeling so strong at the moment, or maybe the issues are ongoing, or you do not have the energy or mindset to invest the time and headspace into you right now, this may be a path that leads you to somewhere your future self will not appreciate.
So, what to do? Have you ever taken the time to reflect and maybe monitor how you feel and what you are eating. I know, here I am giving you yet another job to do.
I am not asking you to spend hours on this task. You can make it as easy or as time consuming as you want. I just want you to record how you feel three times a day (keep it simple, happy, sad or straight smiley faces is enough), and I want you to record your general eating habits (so can be detailed, or you can just rank eating from 1 to 5 – 5 being the best, and 1 being rock bottom).
Do this for a week, then a fortnight, then a month. Just take it 1 day at a time. If you miss a day, it is not the end of the world, but will be most helpful feedback for you if you can actually see what is going on in life for you. The amount of times I share “avoid food x” with a client on their biofeedback test and they reflect and say “actually, I was wondering if that was suiting me” is phenomenal.
So, do you listen to yourself? Do you need some help and support hearing yourself? Personally, I think we all do from time to time. We all need some help and guidance. That is why I have created three helpful charts for you to download, print off and use. Pick one or all to work with, what ever suits your style. Or use them as inspiration to create your own system to track your moods and foods. Pin them to the fridge, pop them in your diary, pin them by your desk. Do what works for you.
What are you looking for when you review your charts? A pattern is the simple answer. It may be you crave chocolate when you are sad. It may be you become more sad the day after. Or it may be you do not need it anymore.
It may be you fancy a food, and then develop a symptom (either physical, emotional or both!) a or two, or even three after. The only way you will know is to collect your data (or come for an appointment where we can run tests if you prefer).
If you do see me regularly for appointments, this information is still relevant to help you learn about you and your patterns. It is good to know yourself, and still enjoy a bit of chocolate.
If you need help, please get in touch, I offer a free 15 minute call for all new clients. If you are an existing client, again, please reach out so we can work out what you need right now.
I hope you can see the patterns you have in your life to empower you to be your best you, and I would love to hear how you get on.
Fast forward to our modern day, as we have evolved, we have discovered more and more ways to create tastes and flavours we like, without the nutrition. So a sweet taste may drive you to a tasty sweet and juicy pineapple, for example, or it may drive you to a pineapple flavoured sweet. A desire for salt could lead you to some fish, or seaweed snack or it may lead you to a pack of crisps.
Where am I going with this you may ask. There are so many directions I could go with this, but I will focus on just one pointer here. Have you ever noticed how you feel affects your food choices. If you feel tired, or worn down, or have received some tough news, you may hang up a healthy eating routine for just one diet coke, or just one bar of chocolate or may be just one take out.
If you are strong and resilient you will pick yourself up again tomorrow, and go back to nourishing your body. However, if you are not feeling so strong at the moment, or maybe the issues are ongoing, or you do not have the energy or mindset to invest the time and headspace into you right now, this may be a path that leads you to somewhere your future self will not appreciate.
So, what to do? Have you ever taken the time to reflect and maybe monitor how you feel and what you are eating. I know, here I am giving you yet another job to do.
I am not asking you to spend hours on this task. You can make it as easy or as time consuming as you want. I just want you to record how you feel three times a day (keep it simple, happy, sad or straight smiley faces is enough), and I want you to record your general eating habits (so can be detailed, or you can just rank eating from 1 to 5 – 5 being the best, and 1 being rock bottom).
Do this for a week, then a fortnight, then a month. Just take it 1 day at a time. If you miss a day, it is not the end of the world, but will be most helpful feedback for you if you can actually see what is going on in life for you. The amount of times I share “avoid food x” with a client on their biofeedback test and they reflect and say “actually, I was wondering if that was suiting me” is phenomenal.
So, do you listen to yourself? Do you need some help and support hearing yourself? Personally, I think we all do from time to time. We all need some help and guidance. That is why I have created three helpful charts for you to download, print off and use. Pick one or all to work with, what ever suits your style. Or use them as inspiration to create your own system to track your moods and foods. Pin them to the fridge, pop them in your diary, pin them by your desk. Do what works for you.
What are you looking for when you review your charts? A pattern is the simple answer. It may be you crave chocolate when you are sad. It may be you become more sad the day after. Or it may be you do not need it anymore.
It may be you fancy a food, and then develop a symptom (either physical, emotional or both!) a or two, or even three after. The only way you will know is to collect your data (or come for an appointment where we can run tests if you prefer).
If you do see me regularly for appointments, this information is still relevant to help you learn about you and your patterns. It is good to know yourself, and still enjoy a bit of chocolate.
If you need help, please get in touch, I offer a free 15 minute call for all new clients. If you are an existing client, again, please reach out so we can work out what you need right now.
I hope you can see the patterns you have in your life to empower you to be your best you, and I would love to hear how you get on.
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