Episode 5 Nourishing Your Body With Intention & Wisdom
Welcome to episode 5 of Wellness Wednesday’s Audio Series.
I’m Nissrine, registered holistic nutritionist, mindful nutrition & wellness coach and founder of holisticniss.com
I created this series to bring a fresh perspective to nutrition and wellness, one that is centered on and lead by you.
There’s a plethora of information out there and it can be really hard to know what to do and eat to feel good in your body.
It’s easy to get caught up in fad diets and wellness trends, often questioning, doubting and second guessing your decisions when it comes to the way you nourish and care for your body.
I wholeheartedly believe that; reconnecting with your own innate wisdom to know what your body needs to thrive is the first step to a life-changing transformation and true lasting wellness; and that progress is made by taking small steps, mindfully, intentionally and consistently.
In today’s episode, I’m diving into what it means to nourish your body with intention & wisdom.
People often think of mindful eating as taking deep breaths before you eat, giving gratitude for the food before you and chewing every bite meticulously.
While that’s all certainly an important aspect of mindful eating, as it forces you into a state of presence and awareness during the eating experience, it’s not all of it.
Mindful nutrition is also the act of nourishing yourself with intention and wisdom.
To unpack that a bit….
Eating with intention is about making healthier choices deliberately, intentionally, on purpose - but it doesn’t mean forcing yourself to eat something you don’t enjoy just because it’s universally considered to be health promoting.
And eating with wisdom is about listening to your hunger, fullness and satisfaction cues - in other words, it involves listening to your body and being more intuitive with your choices.
Ultimately, eating with intention and wisdom is about knowing what your body needs to thrive and trusting yourself to make food choices that are in alignment with those needs….
…while being able to enjoy the foods you eat and eat the foods you enjoy…
…without subscribing to food rules, restrictions, fad diets or judgemental thoughts about food or your relationship with it.
It’s about closing the gap between what your body wants or craves and what your body needs to feel nourished, energized and balanced, in any given moment…
And it’s about trusting yourself to make the right choices for YOU!!
BUT...
...and this is a big but
...how exactly do you know what’s right for you?
Here’s where so many people get tripped up.
We want someone to tell us what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat.
So we hire someone to give us a specific meal plan to follow
eat 5 almonds for a snack
don’t eat after 8pm
don’t eat solids until noon
eat x amount of points or calories per day
eat within a time restricted window
And so on and so forth.
We may think this is positive, because we finally have a plan, when in reality all this is doing is taking us further away from our own innate wisdom.
We’re essentially relying on outside input instead of our own built in signals and the longer we rely on this external input the further and further away we get from our own inner knowing.
We lose touch with ourselves and begin doubting our own choices, decisions and bodily cues. We lose our interoceptive awareness.
And when all that external input is no longer there, we may feel lost, confused, overwhelmed and unsure of how to nourish and care for ourselves the right way.
So again, how exactly do you know what’s right for you?
Rather than relying on external input to tell you what to eat, a mindful eating practice will allow you to journey back to yourself, to reawaken your innate wisdom and start listening to your internal cues and signals.
Couple that with the right guidance, support, tools and resources and you’ll be well on your way to nourishing your body with intention and wisdom.
If you’re listening to this and thinking, great, but where do I even get started? I have no clue how to listen to my body and what tools and resources are you even talking about?
I know I said you should stop relying on external input, but that doesn’t mean you can’t seek professional support and guidance.
You don’t have to do it all alone.
There are plenty of coaches out there, including myself, who have the experience and training to support you.
The key however, is to find the right fit for you, to find a coach who will meet you where you are and guide you with empathy and compassion while empowering you to build a solid foundation to stand on and providing you with a set of tools and resources that make a positive contribution to your life.
These tools and resources might include, things like:
Learning the basics of nutrition and how to adapt the guidelines to your unique needs - how to build a balanced meal for example and what that might look like for you personally, given your preferences, your cultural background, your ethical and moral beliefs and your family values, traditions and habits.
Another example might be, gaining a greater understanding of the inner workings of your body and how to care for it beyond just nutrition. So this means, understanding the importance of sleep, stress management and intentional movement on your physical wellbeing but also not overlooking the various other dimensions of holistic wellness beyond food and beyond the physical - so emotional, mental, spiritual, occupational, sentimental.
It could be learning basic and/or new cooking skills to help you prepare your meals with less effort and more enjoyment.
Or changing your mindset by actively disengaging from narratives that aren’t serving you (like diet culture & the wellness industrial complex and it’s fixation on the physical “ideal” beauty standards)
These are just some examples of tools and resources that are far more helpful than a rigid meal plan or diet to help you reach your goals and form habits that stick with you for the rest of your life.
If nourishing your body with intention and wisdom is something that sparks your interest, I invite you to book a no obligation complimentary wellness consultation with me to chat about your goals and how mindful nutrition and wellness can help you prioritize your nutrition and self-care without fad diets and trends, so you can find balance & energy and feel healthier & happier in your body.
Thanks for tuning in!
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and share with a friend and be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Wellness Wednesday Audio Series, where I share a short audio clip each week to inspire you to reconnect with yourself on a deeper level so you can start nourishing and caring for yourself, more mindfully and intentionally.
Until next week,
Stay healthy, happy and safe,