The Cycle of Eating

Do our lives revolve around food?

I think for the most part yes.

Our days are generally structured around eating. Above all else, our survival depends on sustaining ourselves and keeping our mind and body fuelled so it can flourish. Often if we miss a meal or do not eat enough, we can feel drained, sometimes angry and emotional, and potentially unable to operate or think properly.

Contrary to this, if we then eat too much, we feel lethargic, slow, and in a state of inertia (aka food coma).

We can’t always get it right though and I can openly admit that I had my fair share of these experiences, but with such have realized how important it is to time and plan our meals for optimization.

With this in mind, I believe it would be fair to say that finding a good balance between when we eat and how much we eat would be important to keep us alert and focused throughout the day. 

It would ensure that we avoid becoming hangry (hunger anger), and also stop us from over-consuming with the thought that we need to catch up on missed meals from the day.

From this, we can understand how the cycle of eating becomes an important facet of our daily lives and just as the cycle of eating is imperative to our daily function, the food we eat is just as important.

When we diverge from our natural cycle, we often look for quick fixes to fill our need to refuel. We are often impatient and cannot wait for food to be prepared, leading to poor food choices to reduce the time from the thought of eating to actually eating. These quick fixes are driven by the natural craving for clean food but are generally fulfilled with junk processed foods disguised with clever packaging. The guise of these products leading us to believe they are healthier than they actually are, and that they will provide our body with good fuel when in fact these foods have the opposite effect.

For context, I’m talking about fast food, protein bars, muesli bars, snack balls, muffins, chips, crackers, cake, chocolate, pies… You get the picture. Don’t get me wrong though, there are definitely healthier versions of these products available but they are still processed in some way shape or form and should be seen as one-off treats rather than foods to fuel our daily needs or to replace whole foods. (In another post I will share some suggestions for good on-the-go fuel to keep the body and mind functioning at a high level)

Instead of quick fixes, we need to have an idea of what fuels us properly and how we go about this to work it into our daily lives.

As we can start to understand this a bit more, we can see that our unstructured food cycles lead to unwanted effects. When we start to recognize what our body really needs, we then realize the importance of planning our intake ahead of time, rather than just grabbing whatever is the most convenient along the way.

When we start to align our eating cycles, we then regain and sustain good levels of energy. This newfound energy then feeds back into preparing and making better foods which fuel a healthier life.

When we become more conscious of what we eat and how we eat we begin to recognize patterns and start to grow awareness of what our body requires. This process is a skill we learn by listening to our body and connecting to the main source of our existence.

Food is sacred and so are our bodies. This sacred relationship between our body and the food we eat is just as important as any other relationship in our lives. When the two become aligned we start to lay the foundations for a long healthy life.

There is always space to treat ourselves; however, when we are busy we can over treat ourselves which leads to long term issues. Simply start by questioning some of your food choices. Are these foods helping me or harming me? Is there a healthier option available? Is this amount of food excessive?…

Deep down we all know what is right for our bodies to thrive. So treat yourself by fostering a deep relationship with food and aligning the body and mind to a coherent state. 

Clean foods create a clean body which in turn cleans up the mind and soul. 

It all starts from within.