Healthy Habits
Healing our Bodies with Nutrition
As a craniosacral and polarity practitioner I have had the privilege of working closely with several clients who wanted to make changes to their lifestyles because they realized how unhealthy they had become. Although my involvement was as a bodywork practitioner I could observe how they made changes to their daily eating habits. Once they were able to create healthier eating habits we could all see how they were healing their bodies with nutrition. It was often a profound change. And it makes sense, the food we eat today creates the cells for tomorrow and gives us the energy to keep our bodies healthy and strong for the work tomorrow.
So I set out to get my certification in nutrition coaching because I realized how spectacular the body is at healing itself, but also how difficult this can be for so many of us. It is a challenge to change something so habitual for us. But once we understand that we can really make a difference and improve our lives with healthy eating habits it becomes a little easier.
I always thought I was eating pretty healthy, but over the last few years I have learned so much and I feel I want to share some of that with you. It’s is a long journey and really a change for life. The way I approach it is not a quick fix or a one size fits all diets. I will not dictate what you can or cannot eat. You will be doing the work to find out what works best for you, and I can help you with whatever challenges come up along the way.
My goal is to help you understand what is beneficial for our body and soul, help you get through or over some stumbling block, (because we are going to find some), and get you out much stronger and healthier the other end. Rather than dealing with the treatment of disease I focus on wellness and prevention of illness through proper diet and nutrition to achieve optimal health.
Let’s get started
Firstly, finding your starting point is important. It helps to take a close look and evaluate where you are today. What and how have you eating so far? Simply by making a list of what you are eating on a daily basis will give you a better understanding and greater clarity of where you truly are. Often we forget some of what we ate and do not realize the impact that had on us. So be very honest and take the time when you make your list of foods consumed.
Secondly, setting a goal of your end result. Create a detailed image of what you want your end result to be. Here again, be specific, immerce yourself and feel the outcome as if you’re already there. Create a vision board for your goal.
Thirdly, the hard work starts. Now we have to create smaller short term goals. These smaller goals should be realistic and fairly easy to achieve at the beginning. It is important to recognize that it will be difficult at first to make changes to lifelong habits. But be persistent!
Nutritious Foods
Even if you only change one small thing and stick with it, that change will become a habit on which you can now build another new habit.
Making habit changes requires a lot of determination. Having the support from family and friends could have a great impact. It is important to surround yourself with people who will support you on this journey.
The changes which you are deciding to make should be to improve a balanced diet. There are several ideas out there but my plate.gov is a great resource and will get you started in the right direction.
Figuring out the ideal calorie intake for you is the next step. This depends on many factors which include but are not limited to age, sex, and activity levels. Most women need 1,600–2,400 daily calories to maintain their weight. Most men need 2,000–3,000 calories.
If you want to be very exact you can reach out to me or any nutrition coach and we can help you with the calculations. But for starters you can figure out how many calories you are eating daily right now and adjust you amount of calories.
That being said I believe it is important that you do not go hungry and this is where things can become a little tricky for some people. This is where you need to learn which foods will help you feel full and satisfied and keep you within you caloric goals.
Then there is also the task of learning to read food labels. That can be a little tricky, but it’s good to make it a habit to look at the labels and check for the ingredients. Remember the ingredients are listed in order of predominance, with the ingredients used in the greatest amount first, followed in descending order by those in smaller amounts.
Healing our bodies with nutrition is a life journey, but it is worth taking the first step.
If you want to start your journey with me come join me in my first of a series of workshop starting on Mar 28th 2023.
