Watching Nutrition | Information for a Healthy Life

Having nutritional information is all well and good, but what do we do with it? Everyone has some concept of what foods and how much of them we should eat, but we can be lacking in the integrity to “walk the walk.” Some of us try to mask negative emotions with food, completely subverting reality; i.e., rewarding negatives with sweets will encourage you to become negative and will make you fat. But that little ego in us says “I deserve it, I need a ‘pick me up’” or “just one won’t hurt” (but one every day sure will). We subvert overall health to the short term pleasure. It can become a fight of willpower and when that battle is lost the damage to self esteem and health can be high.

Integrity and Food

How can the rational mind and emotions become integrated? How can you emotionally gravitate toward best choices? It is possible to make this a philosophical goal and in time feel great about living consciously and objectively. But using that path of mental brute force is not for everyone. Some substitute diet plans for thinking and have success. But those diets aren’t always the most logical approach, and if you subconsciously know that eating only one kind of food probably isn’t good for you, then your mind and emotions are not integrated.

Eating Consciously

Simply being aware of what we are eating, and not clouding awareness of what it will do to you, can produce remarkable changes in your diet.

Measures that increase diet consciousness are varied.

• Sitting down to eat, as opposed to grabbing things on the run.
• Counting calories, or portions or food groups.
• Eating in front of a mirror.
• Planning meals and only eating at those times.
• Think of eating what makes sense instead of automatically cleaning your plate
• Bring awareness to your diet by talking about it, reading about diet, thinking about it
• Value yourself. Know that you are worth taking care of properly.
• Develop a spiritual relationship with food.

We can either go about in an emotional fog, living on fast food and candy bars, or we can wake ourselves up, pull up our self esteem, stop using foods as an emotional band-aid and start eating healthy. No rule book or specific diet plan is needed if you make this shift to eat consciously. Amazing changes are possible right now, this very instant. With awareness you will absorb more knowledge about nutrition and that knowledge will be integrated in your food choices. This awareness for some can come with a simple decision to do so. For some it may be necessary to begin habits or even establish spiritual thinking when it comes to food.

Spiritual Eating

Food worship? That conjures up images of fat Baccus lounging around indulging himself with food, wine, music and women. “Why ignore the pleasures found on this bountiful earth?” your emotional ego mind argues. But great pleasures can be found in food without eating badly, not only by enjoying the flavor of healthy foods, but also by a spiritual awakening that can accompany them.

Spirituality can Bridge the Gap between the Emotional and the Rational

I’m not Buddhist, but I often find Buddhist teachings helpful. I’ll try not to get too flaky here, but using food as an object of meditation is a great spiritual tool. Quieting the mind and thinking about where the food came from, what it is, the nutrition it will provide you; this will bring awareness to your diet and clear your mind, reducing the background noise of your daily life. Practicing this meditation and awareness as you prepare food and as you eat will have many benefits. Food can become like a “bell of mindfulness” triggering a spiritual response in you to treat your body as a temple and be mindful of all that goes into it. Being mindful in this way with each bite of a meal can obviously make an enormous difference.

I have a weakness for brownies and other sweets when I grab a cup of coffee. I also enjoy reading a book or newspaper while grazing through a meal. If I am in the habit of spiritual eating, those two “low awareness” behaviors don’t happen, and they are replaced by happier unexpected results; small miracles occur if you are available to see them and aren’t self consumed with vain attempts to fill yourself with caloric pleasures.
Oh, and eat your veggies.

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Tags: Buddhism, Diet