ARE YOU PUTTING JOY IN YOUR FOOD?

To have joy in your life, you must first put joy in your food.
                              -Jillian 

I read something in a recent nutrition book called "Eat the Yolks" by Liz Wolfe, that perfectly describes my relationship with food.  Amazing book by the way-totally recommend!

"Dedicate yourself to real food, and stop peddling the low-fat dogma, protein bars, or calorie restriction. Your philosophy should be simple.  If you want to feel better, you have to eat better."

I know many of us are aware of this fact, that if we eat better we will feel better. But the whole eating better part is way easier to say, than do.  There is this food villain in our world known as processed food (cue villain music: dun dun dun), or as I like to call JUNK, and it's freaking everywhere we go. It's just calling out your name. "Pssh. Jillian! Eat me! Eat me! I'm cheap, super convenient and delicious." 

What that food villain or JUNK isn't telling you, is the whole truth. Yes, it is cheap, convenient and very tasty.  But, it's JUNK, trash, garbage, poison, crap, trash food, of no use to your body! Okay, I think you get the point :). Seriously though--did you know the definition of junk food according to Wikipedia is...
  "cheap food containing high levels of calories from sugar or fat with little fiber, protein, vitamins or minerals." It literally tells you in the dictionary how useless junk food is to us humans.   It is no secret, junk food is horrible and adds very little value to our bodies.  How will we ever get joy from eating that crap? We won't--sorry to say.  But, we can make a small change to bring joy back into our food, and most importantly into our lives.

Do you find joy in eating pizza, tacos, waffles and burgers?

"Heck yes! " 

Then, let’s keep eating these delicious foods, but just make a few tiny adjustments to make sure these foods are bringing our bodies joy, inside and out.  

Let's change how we’re eating, not what we’re eating.
 
Here's an example to show you the difference between the WHAT and the HOW.  

What you’re eating:  Pizza

How you’re eating:

1. Are you cooking this yourself?*

2. Are you using as close to real, whole and fresh ingredients to make it?*

3. Are you using foods that come from a package or box with a long list of unpronounceable ingredients?***

4. Are you using foods that come from a package or box with only a few ingredients ?**

5.Are you eating it from a local restaurant?**

6. Are you eating it from a farm-to-table type restaurant?**

7. Are you ordering take-out?***

8. Are you dining out at a chain restaurant?***

9. Are you eating it from a fast food place?***

10. Are you sitting down at a table while eating?*

11. Are you driving while eating?***

12. Are you eating in a rush?***

13. Are you relaxed while you’re eating?*

14.Are you enjoying the flavors of your food?*

15. Are you mindlessly shoveling food in your mouth?***

16. Are you eating because you’re hungry?*

17.  Are you eating because you’re bored?***

18. Are you eating because you feel pressured by others?***
 
Key 
*= YOUR BODY LOVES YOU
**= BALANCING
***= YOUR BODY DESERVES BETTER

You can keep eating all of the foods that make you happy- just change how you’re eating those foods.  

How do I know?  

My husband and I have been living this lifestyle for 3 years now. We choose foods that bring us joy and try to answer "yes" to more YOUR BODY LOVES YOU questions. A few times a week we say "yes" to those BALANCING questions. We rarely answer "yes" to YOUR BODY DESERVES BETTER questions, but hey, life is unpredictable. It happens, then we move on with our lives, no big deal.  
 
The HOW is the most important part to changing your life to a much healthier and happier one.
​
The next time you are about to eat breakfast, a snack, or any meal for that matter, I want you to stop for a moment to think about how will you be eating it? Choose to answer "yes" to more of the YOUR BODY LOVES YOU questions. 
Doing this shows gratitude to your body, and means you are choosing to use as close to real, fresh and whole foods as possible. Remember, these are the types of foods that bring our bodies joy and health!

Do you see this amazing connection between joy and food?  It’s pretty rad, right!?

The more you know about the “how” of your food -how it’s made and how whole and real the ingredients are, then the more joy you will bring your body and your life. 

In conclusion. try to answer "yes" to these questions when your planning to eat your next meal. 

1.  Are you cooking this yourself?
   YES

2.  Are you using as close to real, whole + fresh ingredients?  
​   YES

3.  Are you sitting down at a table while eating?  
   YES

4.  Are you relaxed while you’re eating?   YES

5. Are you enjoying the flavors of your food?  
   YES

6. Are you eating because you’re hungry?      YES

This is probably one of the longest blog posts I have ever done.  I apologize for not being more concise and brief, but I strongly felt this particular topic should  be described in detail. Joy and food are absolutely connected, and it's my mission to spread the health love. xoxo
  

         Always craving good food,
                          Jillian