How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything

Whether its shopping for a new outfit, driving your kids to soccer, cooking the family dinner or folding laundry, how we do anything, is how we do everything, include how we choose to eat.

Even if you've developed some bad habits over the years relating to food, rest assured, these habits can be changed. Its important not to label yourself an "impulsive stress eater", even if at times you do numb yourself with food and drink, because the labels we attach to ourselves can de detrimental to our personal progress and positive change.

Remember, you get to choose whether you eat with mindfulness, intention, attention and pleasure. No one can do it for you, just like no one can rob you of your ability to eat this way.

When you put your powerful hat on (as opposed to your victim hat) , you realize that you can choose to eat, from this day forward, in a way that honors and respects your body. You can choose to remain in the comfort zone and not overdo things.

Have you ever secretly observed your naturally thin friend eating? I can almost guarantee that they take their time with food, they are selective (aka fussy) with their food choices, not afraid to leave food on their plate, especially if they've had enough already and, whether they realise it or not, naturally thin eaters stay connected to their hunger and fullness cues as they eat. It may be unconscious for them, because, for whatever reason, they never lost touch with their inherent connection to their body cues.

Ironically, when we aim for more pleasure with food, we naturally eat less of it. We become satisfied sooner and quite discerning and we start noticing the quality of our food choices. When we are acutely aware of quality, its way easier to say no in the face of a mediocre piece of cake. I mean, if we're going to indulge ourselves in cake, it had better be the best possible cake we can find, right? after all, we need to make sure its really worth it, because we are pleasure seekers when it comes to food. This is where the French ladie helped me a lot!

But let"say we order/buy/make some food and it just doesn't quite live up to our expectations? Do we eat it anyway? Hell no! There is no point. If you can't get maximum pleasure out of every bite, you are best to put the fork down. Yes, it may be dissapointing. You might have put effort into buyin or making the food. Alas, if it"s any consolation, you were better off without it, especially if it didn't absolutely rock your socks!

As a side note, leaving food that you have paid good money for requires an abundant mindset, as opposed to a scarcity mindset. We will work on how to adopt an abundant attitude around food a bit later, but for now, just be mindful of what's going through your head when this situation arises.

In summary, if you are a patient, deliberate, pleasure seeker who aims to treat her body like its the holy grail that it is, then how you eat will reflect this.

So the next time you sit down to a meal, take a moment to pause and reflect of how you want to approach eating, and life, because how we choose to eat and behave around food really does flow over into every aspect of our lives.