Nourish Retreat Blog One
“Speaking of food: try to do a little better. I think you know what I mean.” -Anne Lamott, 12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing
While I’m so excited to host a retreat based on the theme NOURISH, I’ve also really struggled with how to talk about our relationship with food in healthy ways. All of us have a narrative about our relationship with food, and often we have complex emotions associated with food. (If this is just not for you, feel free to skip this blog!) I want to keep this extremely positive, with emphasis on the joy of nourishing the body. (..and without the ugliness of toxic positivity around the topic). I also want to be real with my experience and growth in relation to food and mindset.
As I was thinking about how to frame up this topic, I thought it might be helpful to start out by asking you all to journal about your relationship with food. Write down your personal narrative. What are the stories you are telling yourself about food? Are they real or imagined? Are they outdated? Are they helpful or hurtful?
To get your wheels turning, I’ll share some examples. The first is written from my perspective during a time when I had an unhealthy relationship with food and was immersed in diet culture. The second is written from my current perspective. I’ve been through two pregnancies with gestational diabetes, and learning to shift my internal narratives around food was critical.
From ages 16-23 my narrative was something like this: Food is the enemy. The less I eat the better. I eat Special K for breakfast daily, snack on 100 calorie packs, and try to keep my calorie intake below 1,500 calories per day. I often calorie restrict and crash diet. I also binge eat when I “can’t take the diet” anymore or I need to “let loose” for some reason. I use exercise as a way to punish myself when I overeat. I don’t like vegetables, salad, or new flavors. I experience extreme guilt when I eat foods I consider “cheat foods” like ice cream and chocolate.
With a lot of work and attention, my narrative now is something like this: I love to eat in ways that nourish my body. Food is a daily source of joy and every meal is an opportunity to provide fuel and energy to my body. When my counter is overflowing with the vibrant colors of fresh fruit and vegetables, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for all the people who made this wholesome food available to me and for the privilege I have in access to healthy food. I am thankful for my body in all its imperfections. I try to eat in ways that help my body feel energized, limit inflammation, keep my heart healthy, and will contribute to lifelong health. I enjoy food. I also enjoy eating wholesome, energizing foods. For me, this means limiting my intake of sugar, aspartame, hydrogenated oils, gluten, highly processed food, high fructose corn syrup, and generally ingredients I can’t pronounce. I have a healthy relationship with food and with my body. I love learning new recipes and experimenting with ingredients and flavors that challenge me. I love dinner parties, preparing food for my family, using food as a way to show my love for others, and eating food in group settings as a means of celebration. The book Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow helped transform my understanding of food, and provides the foundation for how I enjoy cooking for my family. I don’t enjoy salads but love cooked vegetables.
*As you can see my narratives are a bit rambling. That’s okay.
As you can see, quite a stark contrast between the two. We live awash in diet culture. Like it or not, we have internalized many of these messages.
What is diet culture?
Counting calories
Weighing yourself daily
Saying things like “beach body” that set unhealthy body ideals
The belief that body appearance is more important that physical, mental, and psychological well being
The idea that limiting what you eat is normal
Saying things like, “I feel fat,” “I look fat,” “I’m having a cheat day,” or my personal favorite (cringe) “nothing tastes as good as skinny.”
The narrative of “good foods” and “bad/naughty foods”
Exercising in order to “earn” calories
Diet culture is so pervasive in our culture that these messages are internalized in us. We’ve heard them repeated thousands of times. It can be helpful to bring awareness to that little voice in your own head and work on witnessing the thought and shifting the narrative.
It is also worth observing the way these narratives are harmful to those around us.
When we say something like, “I feel fat” around others, we are subjecting others to a toxic and unhelpful narrative. We owe it to our friends, family, mothers, and daughters to learn to observe these unhelpful thoughts and learn to keep them to ourselves. Similarly, it’s unhelpful to say things like, “I worked out today, so I can eat this cupcake” or “it’s a holiday, so I can eat this cheat food.” Saying things that perpetuate diet culture can be awkward and hurtful to those around us.
Ideas for this month:
To begin, write for 5-10 minutes about your personal narratives around food. Then, rewrite your narrative in a way that focuses on the positives in your narrative. You can use my negative and positive narratives as example templates.
If you feel open, feel free to share your story with us at hello@borealblissyogaretreats.com . We can send you an email response cheering you on, and if you are willing to share your narratives anonymously on the blog, that’d be awesome too! Let us know. :)
Place a small notebook in your kitchen to jot down moments of awareness and gratitude. Some examples to get you started:
the aroma of fresh mint or basil from your garden
The vibrant colors of fresh berries
the satisfying texture of a perfectly ripe watermelon
the first sweetcorn of the year
the atmosphere in your kitchen
using an item in your kitchen you inherited from a loved one
a vase full of seasonal flowers
a funny moment enjoyed around the table
If you haven’t yet, purchase a copy of Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow by Shalane Flanagen and Elyse Kopecky. One thing I love about this book is that both women are very inspiring to me. They both continue to run, they have life experience, they have children, and they advocate for eating food that will fuel your day. Some great recipes to get you started:
The Honey Balsamic Grilled Chicken is a go-to in my household in the grilling months. It’s super, super simple and very delicious! Feeling ambitious, grill with some veggies and yum yum yum! If you’ve purchased the book, find the recipe on page 135. If you haven’t, I found the recipe online here.
Superhero Muffins. Wow. I cannot tell you how much we love these. We make them all the time. I’ve given this book to several friends, and everyone who owns the book also agrees, the Superhero Muffins are the star of the book. There are three variations on the recipe on pages 60, 62 and 63. Try one! If you haven’t purchased the book, I found the recipe online here. These freeze super well. I usually try to make a double batch so I can freeze half.
All that being said, I hope you find yourself by a pool or a lake over the coming weekend. I hope you put on your swimsuit without a care, get in the water, eat the hot dogs & chips, and enjoy it all!
Pro tip: how to have a beach body?
Step One: have a body.
Step Two: Go to the beach.
That’s a wrap on the first blog for the Nourish retreat. Xo!
Amanda
P.S. The sankalpa “I eat in ways that are nourishing” was very helpful to me during my personal food perspective revolution. Want a reminder/introduction of what a sankalpa is? Check out this blog: Setting a Sankalpa.
