Find Your Food Flow
Find your unique “diet rhythm” for sustainable weight loss, vibrant energy and balanced health.
I began playing the drums at age of 3. I began listening to music 3 years and 9 months before that. My parents are musicians and went to 2 dozen concerts when I was in utero. Seriously.
As far back as I can remember I always had a beat in my head; a rhythm that I would walk to, or eat to, or play to. Rhythm became such a strong part of my every day that now, as an adult I see everything as having its own beat.
I remember starting to recognize this rhythm knowledge from an early age. I didn’t know what it meant, but I could feel it in certain things I did. As a student, I discovered that my school presentations would be better heard if I said it at a pace that was pleasing to the ear. Simple tasks such as walking, cooking and even brushing my teeth all had a rhythm that I connected with as something that was a normal part of me.
And now, as a mother of two sweet boys, one of the most beautiful rhythmic events in my life was giving birth to my children and feeling the rhythmic contractions that brought them into my arms. TERRIBLY painful, but what a natural life-transforming perfected rhythm. As a new mother or father, you also see the body’s natural state of rhythm in an infants schedule:
Eat, poo, burp, sleep
eat, poo, burp, sleep
eat, poo, burp, sleep
Seriously, like a flippin’ perfect rhythm of nature once a baby eats, a poo is inevitable 3 mins after. If you have kids of your own you know this is for real! Otherwise, sorry for the TMI.
This early rhythmic training in my life naturally spilled over to my experience with nutrition and wellness. Hunger is an internal signal. Babies are born with a natural state of rhythmic eating awareness. As a baby you knew when to eat, your body told you. You listened and cried for milk. You ate every 2-4 hours around the clock for months, even years like that. Your brand new system beat to a prestine and biologically perfected rhythm. Your baby brain didn’t need to think about food in advance, it just knew when it was time to eat. It also knew when you were satisfied so you stopped eating. Eating was instinctual. You were born with this gift of awareness of when your body needed fuel to function.
This instinctual knowingness is an element of being human and like all characteristics of being human, when we place attention and bring light to an area this awareness grows and will continue to thrive. Without this focus, you can fall out of sync with your internal cues and the signs of hunger and thirst. These cues become a whisper rather than a megaphone announcement. The internal dialogue of “FEED MEEEEEEEE NOOOOOOWWWWW” as an infant turns into “feed me..I guess…or maybe I’ll have a coffee because I’m on a diet and I should just skip a meal so I can fit into my dress for that wedding on the weekend,”as an adult.
When you discover this gift that you were born with, your body will provide you with the subtle, but recognizable cues of what you need to eat and when. And what is best left unconsumed and why. There’s even a rhythm to this awareness. Making the conscious intention to focus-in daily, sometimes hourly at the beginning to tune into the rhythm of your body’s needs leads to true health freedom. Eating when hungry, hydrating when thirsty, listening to how food translates in your body and responding when something else is needed. Finding your food flow is listening to the rhythm of your body. At which point the body then triggers a succinct and loud announcement that continues to be heard for as long as you listen.
Rhythmic eating is a patterning of consistent action and responsibility to feed your body what it requires. How can one go to work and not eat for six hours and expect to get back on the beat with ease? Then spend the next six hours eating and feeling unwell. Instead, if one would eat every three hours, the body beats and moves and trusts that there will be fuel three hours later.
Yes, you are busy. You are commuting, working long hours, dropping kids off and picking them up, have parents or grandparents that need your help, stress of everyday life etc, etc. But, you need food. You need it for your survival and to thrive in what you so passionately do with your life. This will never change as long as you live.
So find your rhythm and LOVE the way you feel, the way you look and how much amazing energy you can give to your day.
Here are my top tips to find your Food Rhythm:
- Choose a two-day period where you can totally zone into you and your relationship with food: Keep a journal and track down when you eat and drink, what you eat and drink and how it makes you feel. Pay close attention to what your body is telling you.
- Write this affirmation on a sticky-note and plaster it around your home: “I eat food that makes my body feel good. I eat to fuel and do not rely on food for emotional gratification”
- Schedule your day around eating: Yep, this sounds extreme, but right now you are probably haven’t scheduled food into your life much at all. Make sure you know where you are going to eat, and what. If you’re eating out, research the restaurant menu and find a healthy option. If you’re out for over 4 hours, take a healthy snack. Don’t let your hunger take you off guard.
- Try following this eating schedule for 7 days:
- Wake up: Eat within 30 mins. Reach for a breakfast with at least 15 grams of protein. A smoothie is an easy go-to. My personal fave is http://mirandamalisani.com/mvp/supplements/vega-protein-greens/
- 3-3.5 hours later: have a healthy snack. Try my Banana Pumpkin Seed Butter Muffins
- 3-3.5 hours later: Consume dinner for lunch. Skip the bagel and cream cheese, slice of pizza or french fries. They are high-calories, low nutrient and you’ll experience a blood sugar crash around 3 p.m which will lead you right into carb craving territory.
- 3-3.5 hours later: Have a piece of organic fruit and a handful of nuts
- 3 hours later: Dinner! Make it a 5 oz portion of protein with a heaping amount of green leafy and other nutrient-rich vegetables. Skip the starch.
- 2 hours later: If needed, have a small water-dense or low-calorie snack to lead you into sleep: a handful of roasted chickpeas, unsweetened apple sauce with ground flax seed or kale chips make a great pre-zzzz’s snack.
Once you get your body in a rhythmic pattern of eating and drinking it will begin to remind you of what you need. You will have much more awareness of how your body is feeling when you set this intention throughout the day.
Don’t forget to hydrate. Drink water 30 mins before or 45 minutes after your meal for most efficient digestion.
5. Begin to re-train the emotional connection you have with certain desired food: Sometimes our memories of food can hold us back from changing our health. For example, if you have fond memories of your grandmother making bread you may crave bread when you immediately “need” bread when you are dealing with a stressful situation. Or, you may have been forced to eat spinach when you were a child and the thought of it triggers feelings of rage. You can re-train these emotional responses. It just takes the awareness and the subtle effort to re-introduce the food slowly into your diet, acknowledge the emotion and work to dissolve it.
Miranda <3
