10 Ways to Enjoy What You Eat

When you are talking about diet, what does that mean to you?

Does that mean, the food you eat?  As in your diet.  Or does it mean a restrictive way of eating?  As in you are ‘on a diet’.  It all depends on your perspective.

There are the people out there that will always see the word ‘diet’ as a dirty word.  It just implies all sorts of negative feelings and it doesn’t matter how you talk about it, it is just an awful word.  If you use the word diet as a way of describing the food you eat, it won't have nearly the same effects emotionally.

I ask this question because when we talk about losing a few pounds, or even talk about losing a lot of weight, the subject comes around to the food you eat.  As it should, but in most people, it has the same feeling as ‘Monday Morning' ugh.

This is where it comes down to perspective.  If you really hate Monday mornings, is it really that day you hate or is it your job you hate?  Once you are retired, the days of the week are completely irrelevant.  So, if eventually, Mondays will no longer be so toxic, will the word diet get that same disregard?  Probably not, because we will still be eating.

If we continue to eat, should we not figure out a way to do it in a way that we enjoy it without it causing us to regret everything we consume?

So, people talk about food as if it had emotions tied to it.  The food does not have emotions tied to us, so why do we eat when dealing with emotions?

I am not an expert in eating disorders.  Let me make that really clear.  What I do know is that nearly everyone I know has a ‘go-to’ food when they are sad and whenever we celebrate we eat.  For whatever reason, we eat in a direct relation to our emotions.  So if this is true, and I really believe it is, shouldn’t we learn to enjoy our food?

We are, believe it or not, wired to receive and experience pleasure.  It is how we are made.  We do our best to make babies laugh.  Not because we are just nice people, but because a baby laugh is one of the most contagious things out there.  Ok, I have to admit, thinking about baby laughs, I just went to youtube and looked up baby laughs and it is now playing in the background.  And then went to my own phone to listen to my own grandson laugh, because after all, it is the best in my world.

I think we love this laugh because it is so real.  They don’t control it. It is not fake.  It is not restricted.  It is so real.  It is also what most of us wish we did more often.  I have talked about this before, Smile.  And it is still the same.  We are wired for pleasure, so we need to make sure we have some, even in our food.

I recently heard a doctor talking about our diet and our diets.  When we choose to restrict our diet and put ourselves on a diet, we stop enjoying the food we are eating.  We look at what we are restricting ourselves from and we no longer get any pleasure from what we are eating.  This causes our brains to want what we have decided to do without.  So by not eating carbs, that is the thing that our brains focus on and it becomes a vicious cycle.  

  • “ I want a bowl of chips.  
  • You can’t have a bowl of chips.
  • Yes , but I want one.
  • Don’t you want that summer body?
  • Right now all I want is a bowl of chips.
  • Fine just have a small bowl.
  • Yum!
  • Why did I do that?
  • I must get back on track.”
  • “I want a bowl of chips.”

Sound familiar?

All of us who have restricted ourselves have felt this.  It is only natural.  The key to overcoming that is by doing everything you can to enjoy what you actually are eating.  If you really are enjoying what you are eating, the pull toward the “forbidden” is not as strong.  And then when you do reward yourself with some ‘not on the program’ food, you don’t need as much to feel fulfilled. And won’t feel the new way of eating as a punishment but rather as a way of fueling your body and comprising on the way to eat vs the cravings of junk.

So, do what you can to enjoy the food you are eating:

  1. Drink from a crystal glass
  2. Use your china
  3. Light a candle
  4. Sit in the dining room
  5. Remember to ‘plate’ your food
  6. Slow down and taste each bite
  7. Use spice to stop boredom
  8. Change it up, try new things
  9. Try not to eat alone, the company is a good thing.
  10. Use colorful food, beige is boring.

It’s your body, your choice.  Choose to enjoy your food.

Looking good and feeling good go hand in hand. If you have a healthy lifestyle, your diet and nutrition are set, and you're working out, you're going to feel good. – Jason Statham

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