In our lives we build many relationship; with our parents, children, partners, colleagues, pets.... this list is endless.
But one relationship we all have in varying degree's is a relationship with food.
Some of our relationships are good, pleasing, strong, healthy, wholesome, convenient, kind, enjoyable; other relationships are bad, substandard, poor, disagreeable, harmful, damaging, unpleasant.
Physically, our bodies need food for fuel, nourishment and ultimately for sustaining life its self. But food is so much more than its biological necessity.
Food is the core of societal relationships forging and building bonds, though memories and experiences.
Food plays a multitude of roles in our lives, bringing comfort, sentimentality, self-help or celebration.
A lot of us don't recognise hunger or satiety, due to eating our emotions and self medicating with food; often binging.
A healthy relationship with food begins by paying attention to our bodies signals of hunger and satiety.
By practicing mindful eating, taking smaller bites, chewing it a piece at a time, embracing the texture, flavours, whilst also observing the bouquet, colour, and delight to the eye. Slows down our eating allowing us to observe our bodies signals of satiety.
By executing mindful eating and mindfulness we can consider listening to our bodies if we are hungry or reaching for food as a coping mechanism allowing ourselves to react accordingly.
"We should feel in control of the food we eat, compared to feeling like food has control over us."
As a comfort eater I know and recognise this is sometimes easier said than done, even so if we can practice mindfulness the majority of time and only let food have the upper hand the minority, we can change the relationship over time for a much healthier one.
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