You remember the adage growing up that you are what you eat. In so many ways today that has been proven true by science. And, even with this insight, we all struggle to some extent today with the mountain of food and beverage options that nutrition self-care can be challenging.
In this week’s edition, I cover the basics of nutritional self-care and resources available to make nutrition resolutions more achievable in 2020.
Nutrition Self-Care, an Overview
Nourishing our body with good food in the right amounts (as I discussed before in Getting Back to Nutrition Basics) is a radical act of self-love. It’s important to remember that we are taught from young ages that taking care of ourselves first is somehow doing something wrong. I believe a Golden Rule corollary for food applies here: eat as well as you would feed others. So often, we don’t eat as well as we would if we had colleagues or friends visiting our homes for lunch or dinner. Let’s start a radical nutrition self-care movement right here, right now. And, it starts with you!
Eating is one of the strongest, most basic human drivers. We must eat to survive. Before the dawn of the previous century, food scarcity in the Western World was common. Only in the last century to past half-century has the abundance of food you and I experience existed. Because of this marked uptick in food stability and surplus our minds and bodies don’t know what to do with all the food available all the time. We need to learn moderation in abundance today.
That’s it. That’s the simple truth. Nutrition self-care isn’t about losing weight (as that’s a different challenge altogether), but it is finding a healthy relationship with what you eat and drink. That’s usually find the best food for you; that means the highest quality, healthiest food for your budget.
Over the next week or two, carry around a piece of paper or a small notebook and track what you eat and drink. Try to capture everything you’re eating, but don’t worry if you miss a few meals. At the end of the week, ask yourself, is what you’re eating/drinking serving your body and your goals?
You know you need change if the answer is maybe and/or no. From there, look to the resources below to see about making small, consistent adjustments to your nutrition plans to start down a self-care routine that will work for you.
Nutrition Self-Care Resources
You can look at nutrition self-care websites all day long. Much of it is going to talk about “diet” and exercise, but not much about truly whole-health nourishment. This is a listing of resources below that will get you eating for nutritional self-care and not just another “diet”:
- This is a seminar workbook, Eating for Whole Health: Functional Approaches to Food and Drink, from the Veterans Health Administration. It’s well worth downloading and reading through the program to see how Whole Health functional nutrition planning can really help you do nutrition self-care well.
- Functional Nutritionist Jackie Mulligan and Self-Care Expert Danika Brysha presented this wonderful video presentation with some good nuggets on how to work on your nutritional self-care.
- Harvard Medical School’s Monique Tello, MD, MPH, writes in Self-care: 4 ways to nourish body and soul important medical guidance about nutrition under the short section, “Eat well.”
- And, finally, a little more dense reading but fully worth the investment in understanding and implementing a functional nutrition plan for your self-care plan, The Journal of Nutrition published Functional Foods: Benefits, Concerns and Challenges—A Position Paper from the American Council on Science and Health. If nothing else, read through the “What are functional foods?” and Table 1 of the paper.
- Harvard Medical School’s Monique Tello, MD, MPH, writes in Self-care: 4 ways to nourish body and soul important medical guidance about nutrition under the short section, “Eat well.”
- And, finally, a little more dense reading but fully worth the investment in understanding and implementing a functional nutrition plan for your self-care plan, The Journal of Nutrition published Functional Foods: Benefits, Concerns and Challenges—A Position Paper from the American Council on Science and Health. If nothing else, read through the “What are functional foods?” and Table 1 of the paper.
These resources should get you started on your new year’s nutrition self-care practices.
Where to Start With Nutrition Self-Care
As always, if you need more nutrition health self-care than you believe you can provide yourself, seek help. You can reach out to Four Directions Wellness for services and always talk through any serious issues with a medical professional.
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Is nutrition self-care the area of your life that you are focusing on this year, this month, or even this week? Let me know in the comments and how you plan to better your nutrition health in 2020.