What is harder – relationships with people or with food? Going to go with food since the feedback seems more critical from food than from people.

Our personalities, patience levels, physical bodies, really everything about us evolves – hopefully for the better. I was never a picky eater, but my kids appreciate more than chicken nuggets and ramen these day. Environmental factors shape what we do, how we handle things and what we eat. Emotional factors do the same. Did ya’ ever hear about stress eating? A little comfort food? Great job, let’s go get ice cream! You need to finish what is on your plate – don’t waste food. There are so many emotions (guilt, shame, reward) to process just in what we choose to put into our bodies, we may not be paying attention to why we are eating the way we are.

My relationship with food has been tenuous at best. I can call it intermittent fasting, but really I was not eating until noon, having a salad and then binge eating everything I could while making dinner, and then eating dinner after. Plus having a cocktail or two to relax after a busy day. All of that led to bad sleep which in turn led to waking up and eating in the middle of the night as well.

There is all of my dirty laundry. Nutrition-wise at least.

The majority of my caloric intake was an hour or 2 before bedtime – causing disruptions to the recovery process and affecting my sleep. PLUS adding more food in the middle of the night starts the digestion process all over again. Read more here.

My relationship with food is definitely tied into my relationship with myself. That load of laundry is getting sorted out. Constantly taxing my blood sugar levels and stressing out my hormones was wreaking havoc on my body. It was triggering more flareups of my autoimmune conditions causing fatigue, vertigo, migraines and skin health. I could see it and feel it. I needed to make a commitment to being healthy. This is where I decided put my oxygen mask on first. Different figure of speech, but follow along.

Nutrition plays such an important role in the way we feel and little tweaks here and there can be quite impactful. I can’t do my job when I don’t feel well. Physical pain/fatigue takes on an emotional role as well, leading to stress and depression. It was time to fix this problem.

First step was cutting down on alcohol. There is an emotional component to this – I buy a kombucha every day to have when I get home from work. Still a reward, but a healthier choice. PLUS good for my inflammation. Read more about inflammation here.

I’ve made some other changes and movement feels better, I feel stronger and joints aren’t aching as much. We will talk about more of that later.

What does your relationship with food look like? Do you feel like it is out of control? Cravings are in charge of what goes in your mouth? Or do you use food as fuel for your body? Do you eat whatever you want whenever you want?