What is your relationship with food like? Here we hold some space for self-exploration

On the podcast last week we spoke to the brilliant Kaysha Thomas about eating; why it can be so complicated and how we can start to transform our relationship with food. For this week’s exhale episode, we’ll help you shine some awareness on your own relationship with food to see things clearly and open up the possibility of change. 

We’ll also share some ideas to help you reconnect to the joy of eating because eating should be exactly that – joyful. Please take care listening if you have a history of disordered eating or have an active eating disorder and if anything feels overwhelming, park the episode for another time. 

Listen to the episode on Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) or watch it on YouTube.

Transcript:

Hello everyone and welcome to our exhale episode on eating. In last week's conversation, I spoke to nutritional therapist Kaysha Thomas about why eating can be so complicated and how we can start to build a better relationship with food. If you haven't listened to that episode already, I really recommend going back and giving it a listen because there are some real nuggets of wisdom there. 

For this exhale episode, we wanted to create some space for you to better explore your relationship with food and also share some ideas of how we can rediscover the joy of eating. With a lot of the topics we discuss on this podcast, awareness really is the first step. So here we hope to shine that light of awareness to help us see things a little bit clearer. 

So to start with, we're gonna share some journaling prompts. Again, you can either pause and write these down, just have a little think about them in your head, whatever works best for you, and I will leave a little bit of space after each prompt to give you time to think about it or write it down. But as always, don't hesitate to put me on pause. 

The first question I'd like to ask you is, when was the first time you remember being aware that you had a body?

And a follow-up question to this is, did that awareness come from something internal or something external? So did somebody make a comment about your body or your weight, or was it something that came from within you? 

Next, I would love for you to think about the way you view food now and the way that you nourish yourself. Would you tell your friends to see food in this way or eat in this way? And if not, why not?

Next, let's have a think about any food rules you might be following. So an example of a food rule might be, I can't have a large dinner. So my question for you is what food rules are you following and do they make you feel good? 

The next prompt is helping us move more towards joyful eating, and it's this, what do you enjoy about the way you eat? 

And finally, how do you want to eat moving forward? 

Okay, those were the prompts. I really hope that was insightful for you. Next, we're gonna be moving on to sharing some ideas to help you reconnect with the joy of eating. And I'm gonna share three ideas with you. 

And the first one is to think back to a favourite dish or a snack that you really enjoyed as a child and recreate it. This could mean cooking it if it's something you're able to cook. It could mean searching for it in a supermarket and just buying it for yourself and enjoying it. Whatever it means, just see if you can find a way to recreate that nostalgic snack or dish for yourself. 

The second idea is to do some research on some food related to a culture, either your culture or a culture that you're really interested in. Think about any foods or dishes from that cuisine that you'd like to try and see if you can try them. Again, maybe this will mean getting the ingredients and cooking it up, or it could mean going to a restaurant to try a certain dish. 

The third idea is to plan a dinner party with friends where you all bring your own dish. This is a really lovely way to come together, chat about food, and enjoy the way that food really brings us together.

I really hope these prompts and these ideas were useful. And of course, if you did find the prompts difficult and you think you might benefit from some professional support, you can find mental health support at counseling-directory.org.uk or nutritional support at nutritionist-resource.org.uk. 

I'll be back next week with the final episode of season one, which is going to be a round-table chat with Happiful employees. So you won't wanna miss that. Until then, though, please take care.