A real passion of mine is food – no surprises there then! I also have a passion for using food medicinally to help relieve chronic and other health conditions, in cancer care as well as for health and vitality.  I know that just small changes can make a huge difference to your health and energy levels.

A recurring theme for clients coming to see me is the issue of food, diets and healthy eating. What comes across clearly to me is that people are confused - they want to eat food that's healthy, nourishing and nurturing for their bodies but they read and hear so much about what's 'good' or 'bad' to eat don't know where to start. Just think about the huge variety of 'diets' that claim to offer amazing health benefits, or the warnings that certain foods are bad for us, advice from well meaning friends who've found the 'perfect' diet, as well as the slimming diets that promise amazing weight loss – not to mention what the glossy photos promise in the way of happiness, glamour, wealth, love… Is it any wonder that we lose motivation to change our eating habits, or worse still, become so confused about the whole issue of food that fears and phobias develop. The situation can become even more complicated if you are the main person in your family doing the cooking and feeding your family - "what do I feed my children?" "is it bad for them, am I damaging my children?"

Time to take a deep breath and get back to basics and remind ourselves what ‘normal’ eating is.......

What is Normal Eating?

I like this explanation from the Ellyn Satter Institute:
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“Normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it – not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is three meals a day or it can be choosing to munch along the way. It is leaving some biscuits or cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful when they are fresh. Normal eating is overeating at times: feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. It is also under-eating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life. In short, normal eating is flexible and varied, in response to your emotions, your schedule, your hunger and your proximity to food.” .

Ok, let’s be clear that I’m not condoning eating everything in sight giving no thought to your health!  I am however, wholeheartedly and passionately encouraging you to make a conscious choice to ENJOY your food - food can be a powerful sensual experience that engages all of your senses, allow yourself to be seduced by the sight, smell, taste, and touch of it - savour the flavour, texture and the appearance, make time to prepare your food with care and love, give yourself permission to enjoy your food.  If you do decide to make changes to your diet – either to eliminate certain foods or just eat less then don’t be too hard on yourself.  Slip-ups happen and are okay!  Think of trying to push a cart up a hill. If it slips a bit, and you catch it and keep pushing, you haven’t lost much. If it slips and you let it slide, you’ll have to go back down the hill and start all over again.  It’s the same in weight loss. If you eat the chocolate cake at lunch and keep pushing, you haven’t lost much. If you let the chocolate cake kill the day for you, you’re back at the bottom of the hill…  Accept the tiny slip and keep pushing.

A good place to start....

Practice mindful eating.   Mindful eating is allowing yourself to become aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities that are available through food preparation and consumption by respecting your own inner wisdom.  Choosing to eat food that is both pleasing to you and nourishing to your body by using all your senses to explore, savour and taste.  Acknowledge your responses to food (likes, neutral or dislikes) without judgement.  Learn to be aware of physical hunger and satiety cues to guide your decision to begin eating and to stop eating.

Here are a few easy things you can do that will make a huge difference and you’ll notice the positive benefits very quickly:

1. The most important first step – get your bowels moving!  Ideally, at least once a day!  The other tips will help you do this....
2. Every morning have a cup of hot water with a slice of lemon, this is great for purifying the blood and a good tonic for your liver. It’s also great for relieving constipation and bloating.
3. Eat more whole foods (food in its natural state), fresh fruit and vegetables, grains & pulses, nuts and seeds (these are great as snacks).
4. Decrease your caffeine intake.  Switch to good quality herbal teas (don’t confuse with fruit teas) such as camomile, peppermint, ginger and green tea.  The medicinal and therapeutic benefits of herbs are well known.  
5. Avoid artificial sweeteners, refined sugary foods, highly processed and manufactured foods.
6. Decrease the amount of carbohydrate (bread, pasta, cakes) in your diet - favour more good proteins (salmon/tuna, eggs, chicken) natural fats and oils (olive, sesame, coconut).
7. Take good quality multivitamin and vitamin C supplements.
8. Drink more water. Water helps transports nutrients and oxygen around your body, helps detoxify and protect your body.  Your brain consists of 90% water.  If your brain doesn’t get enough water you can experience headaches, lack of concentration and fatigue. 

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Everything I’ve learned over the years as a therapist and Life Coach I’ve tried to include in my life; slowly but surely changing the way I think about things, the way I deal with stress, the way I care for myself and those around me, but the biggest change I’ve made is in what I eat.  Like most people I work hard and have a family as well as juggling all of the other demands life - it hasn’t always been easy to make those changes. I’m in the business of helping others change so you’d think it would be easy for me... nope!  Still a blissfully happy chocolate addict – I’m just a more mindful one ;)  I can honestly say that changing my diet is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Just have a wee look at some of the delicious goodies below - if they can't entice you to make a few changes....  If I can change then anyone can!

A recurring theme for clients who come to see me for help and advice is that they want to know how to manage their cravings – especially for unhealthy, processed and sweet food and drink.   In the dark days of winter and as we begin a new year, many of us are thinking about areas in our lives we’d like to change or improve.   There’s no doubt about the many benefits to our health when we choose to eat a healthier diet. 

Lots of people describe sweet cravings as one of the hardest aspects of balancing weight and I use a variety of therapies and techniques to help people – hypnotherapy, EFT and Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).  I’d like to give you a little information about managing cravings from the TCM perspective.  According to TCM all foods have a distinct energy and characteristic properties that either help to balance our bodies and make us healthy, or create imbalances which ultimately result in sickness. Bear in mind that TCM views our body systems and organ functions quite differently from Western medicine so when I talk about your Spleen I’m describing it from a TCM perspective.

The first thing perhaps to say is that according to TCM a craving for something sweet is usually driven by a need to feel nurtured and to nourish our ‘Spleen’. Think about how you feel when you crave something sweet… sad, perhaps fearful, unloved, feeling the need to nurture and comfort yourself. The Spleen’s function in TCM is to transform water and food into ‘qi’ or energy.  The Spleen meridian is associated with the sweet flavour hence the reason that so many of us crave sweet things if we are feeling weak or tired.  In TCM the Spleen also reflects how grounded and safe we feel.  When the Spleen is functioning well we have a good appetite, strong digestion, and vibrant energy.  When this function is weak you will see issues such as bloating, reflux, fatigue, diarrhoea, poor appetite and/or malnutrition.  When the Spleen is out of balance it often manifests as someone being overweight or underweight.  We can also feel:

• drained, depleted, 
• lacking a sense of comfort and well-being,
• difficulty setting boundaries within ourselves and with others,
• fuzzy headed, unable to think clearly,  
• worry, ruminating thoughts and a tendency to obsess. 

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So, our craving of sweet foods is our body’s way of trying to help bring us back into balance - it's asking (craving) 'sweet' food to help restore energy levels . The aim of TCM is to work with our cravings – welcoming them and satisfying them in a healthy way to restore balance.  In TCM therefore, fundamentally it is not what we need to avoid but in fact what we need to include that balances us.  Instead of ‘nurturing’ our Spleens with refined sugar and processed foods (these may taste sweet but confuse and actively deplete our Spleens), there are some healthy ‘sweet’ alternatives you can add to your diet that will help nurture your Spleen and manage those cravings:

warm and cooked - thick hearty stews and soups, squash, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, ginger, cauliflower, sprouts, cabbage, peppers, onions, oats, rice, quinoa, pearl barley, beans and pulses, olive oil, chicken, turkey, white fish, salmon, eggs, mangoes, apples and berries.

Experiment with different ingredients.... you can be as imaginative as you like. Here are some dishes I make regularly during the winter months to feed my Spleen :) 
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