In today’s episode, we will be talking about food. When people are trying to lose weight, they often get scared of eating but food is such a big part of a healthy lifestyle. 

We have a lot of misconceptions about food and that dieting is the only answer to losing weight but that’s not true. Today, I will be talking about what food you should incorporate into your daily diet to achieve a healthy lifestyle and how to use tools, like a food journal to help you nourish your body.

You shouldn’t be afraid of food because this is where our bodies get most of its nutrients. You should however, be mindful of the food you take. I will be sharing with you important information that you should know about each of the food groups. 

I encourage you to embrace the food on your table because these blessings are one of the ways you could improve your body. 

Let’s do this, friend!

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Hello, friend, welcome in. I hope you’re having a beautiful day.  Today I want to talk about food – because food is such a big part of health and many women come to their health journey wanting to lose weight.  Food is essentially the answer to that. 

A lot of times we have these misconceptions about food, or we think that dieting is our only answer. And then what does dieting look like? It always feels so restricted. 

I want to help you understand food a little bit clearer, so that you are making the right choices all the time in this chronic dieting, or the idea of restricting food can stop in your life and you can just choose which food is going to best fuel you that day. 

One of the best ways to really start understanding your eating behaviors and patterns is to keep a food journal.

This doesn’t have to be a big drawn out thing. It can be very simple, or it can be as detailed as you feel you’re ready for. 

It might look like recording what time you eat, and what you have, that would be very basic. If you’re ready for a deeper dive and really are ready to start to understand your behaviors around food and dive deeper. 

The food journal might look like:

• What time you eat
• How you’re feeling before you eat
• Very detailed about portion size – so maybe you get out your scale, and you weigh your portion so you understand how much you’re consuming
• You can also record your feelings around when you’re eating 
• And then after you’re eating on how you’re feeling. 

I focus a lot on the feelings because we don’t realize how much our feelings really affect what we eat, when we eat, when we choose to eat. If you take time to start bringing intention to what you’re eating, and bringing your attention to your emotions surrounding food, that is where you’ll start to really realize that some of your eating behaviors are more habits. And some of your eating behaviors are deeper than that. They may be looking to substitute for some of your feelings.  We want to start getting away from that because when we’re eating, for our feelings, even if they’re good feelings, we are not being intentional about our food choices. 

We’re kind of getting into this cycle of letting the flesh lead. Letting the body lead because of the cravings and because of the habits. Then we’re out of letting the Spirit lead, we’ve fallen out of alignment. And we’re not letting the Spirit lead because we’re satisfying the flesh with the foods because we’re leading with our emotions as well. 

Starting to heal this involves bringing awareness to our times of eating and to how we’re feeling around eating. The food journal helps us build our awareness.

Now let’s dive into really what food is because when we look at it through an emotional lens, we’re letting food really be a lot of things for us that it’s never been intended to be. 

We know that food nourishes the body and it is meant to fuel the body or give us energy. 

Genesis 1:29 says, “then God said, look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth, in all the fruit trees for your food”, and Genesis 1:30, “and I’ve given every green plant is food for all the wild animals, the birds in the skies and the small animals that scurry along the ground, everything that has life in it, and it was so.” 

And then the Bible goes on in Genesis 9:3 referring to these animals. “I have given them to you for food just as I have given you grain and vegetables.”

So the Lord already starts to direct the way we should eat very early on in the Bible. And I’ll do a deeper study into that, and we’ll dive deeper into more biblical ways of eating in future podcasts and in future groups so that way we can really get clear on what the Bible says on ways to eat. 

What is mentioned, there are fruits and vegetables and meat too, so we want to start looking at whole foods for our nutrients – for our energy and for our fuel. 

We want to start looking at the way that God has created these things and the ones that are made by him are best. 

Because food is fuel, we want to start getting away from letting food be wrapped up in our emotions. 

By tracking food in your food journal and just keeping a sheet of paper – writing down, the times that you eat, and the feelings that you’re having, will start to help you separate the emotions and the idea of food as fuel. 

We want to start making this a clear distinction because that way, we are keeping everything in its proper place. We’re keeping food in its proper place.

We’re not letting it come into our emotions to be things that it’s not – to be our comforter, to be our soother, to help us relieve stress or to help us with fear.  These are some of the different ways that we’ve eaten food and had it be more than fuel.  I’ve eaten food this way and it has really warped this relationship of my relationship with God. That’s because if I’m turning to food as comfort, I’m not seeking Him as the comforter, that we know that he is.

When we make that wrong connection, we’re living more in the flesh and in the body and we want to get away from that. 

We want to be living and letting the Spirit lead. 

That’s how I want to be living my life – is listening to the Lord, and stepping away from fleshly worldly things, and living in His presence.  I have noticed when I’ve taken the time, one of the first steps, it’s really increased my faith, it’s increased my relationship with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus and the Father by taking time and bringing attention to what I’ve eaten. I did this, and I found so much freedom in it, because it just allowed me to say, wait, I’ve been substituting these things for you God, and I was able to stop and repent, and forgive. He forgave me for using these things. 

Then I could forgive myself for mindlessly eating sometimes, or seeking soothing, seeking all these different things from food. And by bringing my attention to it by writing down in my journal what I was feeling, and then writing down what I was eating, I was able to break that chain and say no. 

Now when I go to eat certain things, I have broken if there was an addiction to it, or for example, like if I’m stressed, I want some chocolate, right but after doing this after taking the time and journaling, I was able to break that chain. 

Now when I’m stressed, I don’t go running to the pantry so that has been severed for me all from Jesus and His redeeming of it. I was able to drop that need for chocolate when really what I need is to sit with the Lord and hear what his plan is for this, this thing that’s stressing me out. 

Chocolate can’t solve my problems. It doesn’t give me anything.

It might release endorphins in my brain and satisfy me that way, but it doesn’t really give me anything. I’m still in the exact same place after I eat that chocolate. So it was not fulfilling what I truly needed, which was to sit with God and sit in his presence and ask how am I going to get out of this stressful situation? 

What’s the answer here, and to take that time and to let Spirit lead instead of giving in to the cravings of the body. 

It’s such a beautiful thing, but it’s very intentional and it takes time and practice. 

Although I feel like I’ve mastered it, I still don’t always get it right. So I want you to give yourself grace. I want you to try this. I want you to put in the time and effort into it because you will find freedom in this – so taking time to journal – taking time to bring your attention to what you’re eating, and then being intentional about what you eat and sitting and thinking am I eating this for emotional reasons? Or am I eating this because food is fuel and these are nutrients that my body needs, because there is a difference when we’re just eating for emotional comfort than when we’re eating to nourish our bodies. So then what is it that we should be eating? 

Well, I already referenced Genesis 1:29 and 30 and then Genesis 9:3. We want to be eating whole foods, right. So a lot of times, it is said that outside of the grocery store is the best place to shop. I mean, we know the produce section, right? Choosing things, there are things that are not man-made things that do not come from a box. So there’s nothing added, no chemicals or anything like that. Give yourself permission to buy conventional things. And not everything has to be organic, organic is best, yes, but I understand that it’s expensive so let’s still make these changes, without limiting ourselves by our budget. 

If conventional blueberries are $2, and organic are a lot more, and that doesn’t work for you, then buy the conventional ones, you’re still getting all the nutritional value, that is all the exact same. The only thing different is the processing, and a limitation on what kind of pesticides and things have touched these foods but if you’re bringing them home and washing them, you are doing great.

Just make sure if you’re buying conventional and organic, you come home and you wash your fruits and vegetables, okay, we want to wash off any contamination that might be on the outside, because we don’t want to ingest that into our body so let’s continue on with what other kinds of foods we should eat. 

I don’t want you to get caught up in what kind of diet or different things like that. I am very open to all kinds of diets. You want to be vegan, be vegan, you want to be a pescatarian, be a pescatarian, you want to do paleo, you want to do keto, I don’t teach just one way because different body types need different things. And at different stages of life. We have different hormones going through our bodies. If we’re nursing children, we have to increase our calories and eat different things. So I try not to be pigeonholed into one diet. 

I want to just inform you about what food does so you can make the best decision for you every meal, and every day. 

Because some days, especially women with our hormone shifts, we need different things. We’re active at different levels. Some weeks, we’re going, and other weeks, we get to pause and sit back and relax. 

I want you to understand what food does for your body so you can make educated decisions. So let’s jump in. I’m going to talk about carbohydrates now. So what carbohydrates do – the main thing when you think of carbs, many people think right now that carbs make you fat? Well, that’s not necessarily true. What carbs really do is they fuel the body. 

Now, if you eat too many carbohydrates, and you don’t need all that energy, yes, it’s stored as fat. And that’s true of all food, too. If you’re eating more than you’re using, it will store as excess fat. So carbohydrates, let’s not be scared of them because they fuel the body. They give us energy. 

Okay, carbohydrates so when you’re sitting down, and you’re planning your meal, or you’re getting ready to eat, look at what the carbohydrates are on your plate and know that they fuel your body. Now, do you need a huge scoop of mashed potatoes? Or do you need just one small scoop? Like what does the rest of your day look like? Do you need a lot of energy right now? Or is it or is it dinnertime and you’re just getting the kids ready for bed and winding down. Okay, so when you look at your carbs for that day, you might need more in the morning because you have the rest of your day going on. And you might need less at night. Carbohydrates fuel the body and the brain. 

You really want to select ones that are long-standing that have vitamins and minerals in them and that include fiber, so carbohydrates that are grown are best.  So we’re talking sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, grains, so quinoa, rice, millet, all ferro all these different greens are going to be excellent source of carbohydrates. 

Now protein.  A lot of people think high protein diets are excellent. There’s been a huge shift in America to go towards that, especially if you’re looking to build a physique of muscle because what proteins do is they build the muscle tissue. They also support the immune system. However, the amount of protein many women get isn’t enough protein – especially in the morning. 

Think back to your breakfast – did it contain any protein? If it didn’t, take the steps to increasing your protein at breakfast. 

Studies have shown that 30 grams of protein in the morning is best for weight loss. That is a lot but you could do that easily if you were doing like a protein smoothie or something, or eggs in the morning. Protein in the morning has been shown to help women lose weight. So if you already know that you don’t get enough protein, make that switch and start increasing your protein intake first thing in the morning, because it’s going to help build your muscles. And it’s going to help support your immune system. It’s really important and protein also helps control hunger and weight gain. 

Women, if you don’t get enough protein, and especially in the morning, start increasing that. 

Alright, let’s move on to fats. 

So what fats do, they don’t necessarily make you fat, we’ve learned that from all the low-fat options and all the ways that food has changed, especially over the last 50 to 60 years. 

So fats are not to be feared ladies, fats are full of nutrients, and they’re full of antioxidants. And they repair your joints, your organs, your skin, and your hair. And we all want beautiful skin and hair, right? Plus we want supple joints. They release energy slowly as well to help regulate your blood sugar. And, they bring you satiety. What that is, is the feeling of being full.  

So we want to eat fat, we want to eat it in moderation, but we want to eat good rich fat that comes from plants. So oftentimes you’re thinking, avocado, and olive oil are beautiful fats to bring in. 

Now, fruits and vegetables, and really what I like to say is vegetables and fruit first, because we never get enough vegetables, and especially leafy greens, these are so important. 

So with vegetables and fruit, what these things do is they help prevent diseases. And they help prevent illnesses, because there are so many vitamins and minerals in the fruits and vegetables that they repair the body.  So, especially at this time, especially when sickness is very common, especially when we all just want to be healthier and be at our peak health – focus on those in case a sickness comes to us. 

Fruits and vegetables are the answer. They help prevent diseases. So include ones that are rich in fiber, because that’s needed for the digestive system. And if you didn’t know – a lot of the immune system is held in the gut, which is our digestive system. So we really need our digestive system to be healthy, so that we’re healthy. What helps with that is fiber and fruits and vegetables, vegetables and fruits are full of fiber. An optimal serving of vegetables and fruit would be three or more colors with every meal, ladies, so make sure you are getting your vegetables in the morning. 

Sometimes, if I’m prepping vegetables in the morning, let’s say I’m getting lunch ready or something, I will put cucumbers and carrot sticks and peppers out on the table for breakfast. And my children eat them. 

Why? Because they’re there. And they’re already prepped, and they look good, because they’re colorful, and they’re fun. And they know what they taste like. And they like them. So there are no real rules. Yeah, it might be weird to serve raw vegetables at breakfast but that’s only because society has made it that in my house, I’ve made it normal. 

So if they see vegetables out on the breakfast table, they’re free to grab them, there are no rules, you get to decide what is best for your family and just kind of rock it. I really wanted to touch on just teaching you the way food can be viewed from such a healthy viewpoint because we want to move away from ‘oh, that’s high in calories’, or ‘I can’t have that because of this in this kind of diet’. I really want you to understand what food does for the body. So you can start making healthy choices. So decide today like ‘where am I, am I healthy, or do I need to build my immune system so that way I can prevent diseases?’ 

And if that’s the case, then pick the vegetables and the fruit more because those are going to help benefit you to help prevent diseases. 

Do you need more fat in your diet? Have you been doing the low fat and you understand that this is going to help repair your organs and your joints and your skin? So you’re going to start choosing those plant-based fats because fats protect. 

Are you ready to build muscle? A lot of women are starting to strength train and not build like a bodybuilder, but just put on more muscle so that they’re secure as they age, right and muscle is heavier, it helps support our bones as well. 

So if you’re ready to start building muscle, up your protein intake, and then if you know that carbohydrates now fuel your body and there are certain times where you’re just feeling a lack of energy, check out how many carbs you’re having. And then maybe if you’re really limiting yourself, you need to start increasing that by a quarter of a cup, have some long-standing long, sustaining carbs, good carbs, not a bag of potato chips when we’re talking about carbs that are grown. 

Analyze where you’re at if you’re keeping your food journal, like we talked about linking the emotions and then deciding what is going to fuel your body best. Is it the carbohydrates or do you need the proteins, the fats are the vegetables and fruit and making that educated decision from there.

But thank you so much, ladies, I hope this was helpful. It gives you just a new perspective and food is a really freeing way to choose what should serve your body that day. I’m looking forward to increasing and expanding more on food because I know a lot of women are interested in the topic.