The food-mind connection

I know this much. When I’m not feeling great about myself - when I’m tired or sad or lonely - there are certain foods I’m going to reach for.

And the odds are, it will be a bag of cinnamon rolls.

But when I’m feeling good about myself - when I’m balanced and have gotten enough sleep - when I’ve built movement into my day, it’s a different story.

I drink more water. I make myself a salad instead of eating Danishes by the boatload.

There’s an association between when we’re feeling good about ourselves, when we’re feeling bad about ourselves, and the food we eat.

For me, nutrition is being mindful of why I’m sitting down to a particular meal.

Yes, there are times when I want to satisfy that part of my id and get fast food. I know I’ll feel good for about 10 minutes after.

I’m controlling good feelings… for a little bit.

But I know the reason I’m craving fries is because it’s a week when I don’t have my son and don’t want to go back home and cook for myself.

And knowing that makes it a little easier to go past the drive-thru and make a healthy dinner.

Nutrition on a day-to-day basis is about three things:

• Being mindful about what you actually eat
• Giving yourself the opportunity to make good choices
• Showing yourself some grace when you slip up

If you want to eat more carrots and fewer donuts… have more carrots and fewer donuts in the house.

When it comes to food, most of us are flawed creatures and if the only choices available to us are healthy ones, we’ll likely eat the carrots, because it’s better than starving.

But we’re all going to make mistakes. We’ll order the fries instead of the salad. We’ll have that second drink.

That’s ok.

But start to notice if it becomes a pattern, and the emotions you’re having that trigger bad choices.

You’re a smart person. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have gotten to where you are in your career.

In your heart, you know that eating well is going to fuel your brain, your body and your success.

Don’t let short-term satisfaction derail your long-term success.

There’s so much in life that we can’t control.

We don’t know if our partner is going to be in a foul mood when we get home. We don’t know if Bob is going to get the promotion instead of us. We don’t know if Manchester United is going to win the match on Saturday.

But we can control if we reach for an apple or a Snickers bar.

We only have one body. As has been often said, treat it like it belongs to someone you love.

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