The Truth About Comfort Food

Do you worry about what you eat? If you’re like most people, you do. Actually, you are likely to have a love/hate relationship with food.

You love how it makes you feel when you consume it. You hate how it makes you feel when you eat something that doesn’t agree with you.

Okay. Hate is a pretty strong word, but many people do describe their relationship with food this way.

Comfort Food is Not so Comfortable

For as far back as most people can remember, they have used food for comfort. Yet, the food they attempt to bring comfort with is not always that healthy. This is where the love/hate process begins.

In reality, food CAN bring you comfort. It can even bring you joy.

Pause for a long moment to think about what gives you joy and comfort. Do your thoughts distill down to simple things like a heart-to-heart hug, settling into a comfy chair with a good book and a warm mug of tea, or maybe a lovely meal with someone you love while you reminisce over happy times together?

Ah yes, the creature comforts of good food, friendly relationships, and comfortable accommodations – those simple joys – truly make life sweet and easy and aren’t many of your memories of joyous times intertwined with your good friend, food?

Every Body Desires Good Food

When you know what foods your body desires, that’s when it is truly comforting. To do this, you actually need to have a good relationship with food. If you will, you must be intimate with food.

In the years I’ve been working with clients and their relationship with food, I have come to recognize that rather than a great relationship with food, most people have just the opposite. This is why I wrote the book, The Food Codes.

The Food Codes is about getting to know food at a deeper and more intimate level. It’s about considering food as a whole, living, energy being. Food has been our friend from the time of our very conception, yet most of us barely know her. We have taken her and her presence for granted more than anything else we have ever been given. We have used and abused her.

She is the most misunderstood soul on this planet. We dig deeply into understanding our inner selves and our relationships with others. We turn each other inside out to find more connectedness. However, there is one relationship left wanting, and that is our relationship with food.

Many of us feel a push/pull relationship with food. We strive to control our food intake and often feel helpless about what we eat. We want to control our appetites and eating because we secretly feel out of control and helpless. Food is seen as a temptation, a comfort, a hassle, and a constant balancing act. How many times have you said, “I know this is bad for me, but I’m going to eat it, anyway”? It can almost feel like you are committing adultery or a deadly sin when you eat something you crave that you believe is bad for you.

Think about how much energy you spend worrying about what you eat. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to let go of that burden?

When you know how to develop your relationship with food, you do have a more positive outcome with what you consume. A simple process is to simply “tune in” to what you are eating. Get quiet for a moment and ask yourself, “How am I feeling about this meal right here, right now?”

When you pay attention, you will be guided to the foods on your plate that will serve you and those that will not.

Of course, in The Food Codes, I go into much more detail. To access, go to https://amzn.to/2SQotsF