3 Food Priorities (that don’t involve changing what you eat)
By Sarah Petty
I invite you to think back to the last time you felt inspired (pressured? forced? shamed into?) making a change with your eating. Did you feel the need to remove a type of food from your typical day? Or perhaps (to support positive change) you added more of a type of food?
Motivations aside, it’s likely that you were told (or felt instinctively) that the food itself was what needed to change, immediately. And that’s understandable…we’ve all seen lists of “green” and “red” foods in magazines, blogs, and doctor’s office handouts. Hopefully you know by now, adhering to food lists (except in medically necessary cases) can actually make your health worse due to lower variety and potential nutrient insufficiencies, as well as the psychological toll it takes to attempt to orient your entire life around foods you’re “allowed” to eat.
But did you know that you can make a huge shift in how you think about food without changing anything at all? And when you decide you do want to make a change, the choices you make will be informed by your own body’s actual needs, instead of an arbitrary list probably created by someone who doesn’t actually know you?
Fantastic, let’s dive in.
1) Focus on how food makes you feel
You may have a vague sense that you feel bloated in the afternoons, sluggish in the mornings, or wired at night when you’re trying to go to sleep. But when was the last time you really paid attention to how your body felt during and after eating? This data is extremely important, because it can help you identify:
digestion challenges
blood sugar patterns
energy utilization and efficiency
and more!
So how do you do this?
One way is to set timers for 15, 30, 60, and 90 minutes after your meal ends. When the timer goes off, take 60 seconds to do a body scan. Start at the top of your head and do a checkin at each part of your body. Notice what sensations arise (write them down if that’s helpful). Continue to do this for a few days or weeks, until you feel that you have enough information to decide what you want to do about it.
Sensations to look for:
energy
fatigue
sluggishness
jitteriness
tension (physical or psychological)
pain (of any kind)
swelling (fluid)
bloating (air)
hunger
fullness
Over time, you can look for a pattern in data. Here are some examples:
You are always hungry less than 90 minutes after eating oatmeal for breakfast, but not when you eat yogurt with oats
You tend to feel bloated after eating a big salad, but a smaller salad with a sandwich feels ok
You notice mild abdominal pain after eating a big cheeseburger, but not when you eat homemade chili
You don’t feel as full/satisfied 15 minutes after eating a granola bar, but you do after an apple with cheese
Coffee on an empty stomach makes you jittery, but coffee with breakfast doesn’t
Your headache improves when you drink extra water
A less precise and easier to integrate option is to keep a food journal, where you write down any general observations as they come up. This option works if you already have some body awareness and don’t spend a lot of your time in a freeze/dissociated state. If you regularly find yourself looking up and realizing that a significant portion of time has passed, this option probably won’t work well for you.
2) Notice how meal timing affects you
Look at the times you eat, as well as how often you eat specific foods. Similar to the previous category, but focused on frequency rather than qualitative information. You can expand your data gathering to include psychological sensations as well:
mental energy/focus
overall mood
irritability
excitement
sadness/despair
Types of data you might gather:
You are very hungry the rest of the day after skipping breakfast
You get really irritable and have trouble focusing 3-4 hours after lunch
You really want sweet treats on some days, but don’t really think about them on others
An afternoon snack seems to make the day go smoother
You need a nap after lunch if you have dessert
You aren’t as hungry for breakfast after a night of partying, but you are exhausted, moody, and jittery later
You really look forward to dinner
Regular bowel movements aren’t happening after a week of eating out
This information can tell you a lot about how easily your body can make energy from food, how long it takes to digest your food, and what foods sustain you longer physically and mentally.
3) Pay attention to your eating speed and headspace
This one is a little easier to notice! Take a moment of self-reflection when eating. Try to pay attention to:
how long it takes you to finish the meal or snack
how many times you chew the average bite
if you rush through some parts of the meal and savor others
what thoughts run through your head while you’re eating
if you feel self-conscious about what you are eating
whether you are enjoying your food
whether you are mentally tallying up your food (calories, points, grams of protein, whatever) while you are actually eating it
This information tells you a LOT about your capacity to be present with yourself when you are eating, how eating while being perceived makes you feel, and how you may be instinctively adjusting your eating style to protect yourself from these thoughts.
What now?
Now that you’ve gathered some data about what, when, and how you eat, you can decide what you want to do with it. You may find that simply having more awareness prompts you to make different choices without much conscious thought. You might discover that the things you think you need to change about your eating aren’t the things that are actually distressing you. And you might realize that nourishing your body well is actually way more complicated than we’ve been led to believe by fitness influencers and celebrity doctors.
Ultimately you get to decide if you want to make changes. And if you’d like support with doing that in a step-by-step, low-risk way, we can help! You can learn more about our weight-neutral, trauma-informed approach to nutrition here. We use strategies like the ones outlined above to help you find what, when, and how eating feels best for you, and we offer clinical insight, emotional support, and gentle structure to help you turn that knowledge into action.