How do you Enjoy the Taste of Eating Healthfully?
Registered Dietitian Day is Wednesday March 12th and in anticipation of it the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is having a contest for RD’s. The winner will have their photo on a Times Square banner for the day.
The question for the contest is: How do you help clients enjoy the taste of eating right?
My immediate answer is “there’s no right” way to eat since it is different for each person. Since we have individual genetics, family history, and ways we each metabolize food there is no one right way to eat.
To change the question, how do you enjoy the taste of eating healthfully? Again, motivation for change is individual. There is no cookie cutter approach but here’s some food for thought (pardon the pun):
What are your health values? Have you thought about what you put in your mouth today will affect your health tomorrow? Food is concrete and right in front of you and the reward is abstract and in the future which can make change difficult.
Focusing on the future benefits and its importance to you may be helpful to realign your eating.
Transition your Tastes with Time. If you eat predominantly processed and fast food meals, consider making yourself a meal a day. Buy the ingredients, follow a recipe, and sit down to enjoy the flavor and taste of your labor.
Be Mindful about your Meals. Eating fresh food without a label provides your body with nutrients the body can readily absorb. Being thoughtful about providing your body with healthful foods is essential to wellbeing.
If you are familiar with Maslow?s pyramid, the foundational section encompasses basic physiological needs such as breathing, food, water, and sleep. If these basic needs are not fulfilled, then the higher levels of the pyramid cannot materialize such as safety needs (financial security, health and well-being), social needs (friendship, intimacy and having a good family) or growth needs (self-actualization).
Oddly enough, many people in our society put more emphasis into work and other endeavors without learning how to properly fuel and nourish their bodies.
Values, time and mindfulness: all essential to healthful eating, and true enjoyment of food!
