What is the intention behind what you eat?

Many people eat because it is something that you have to do, for energy and calories. And I know when I had a lot of IBS symptoms and everything made me feel ill, this is what I did. It was midday, so I ate lunch.

Others eat because things taste good. And many people are addicted to sweet or salty tasting foods.

But what if you had a different intention when you ate?

What if you ate in order to nourish your body?

What if you ate so that your body could function optimally?

Would that change what you ate?

This is an exercise that I use with clients, so that before they eat, before they even go shopping and are planning their meals, I ask them to think about their intention behind their meal.

I aim to lead an intentional life. One where I am conscious of the choices I am constantly making and understand why I make them. Eating and everything related to food is encompassed in this. Every time I put something into my mouth, I ask myself why. Now the why might be because I really want some chocolate because it is delicious and makes me feel happy. But the majority of the time I want it to be because it nourishes my body. Because my body deserves the best and I honor it with food as this is one of the deepest connections and relationships we have with our bodies.

With IBS, you can take this one step further as well and eat to heal; eat to aide proper digestion,eat to avoid symptoms. Now this does require knowledge of nutrition in terms of what are healing foods for you, what foods aid digestion and knowledge of your food triggers. But that is half the journey with IBS. Being conscious of what your body is telling you and understanding what works for you and what doesn’t.

So I invite you to stop before you eat, take a minute and look at what is on your plate and think about what your intention is behind eating that food. Take some deep breaths and see if what you would like your food to do for you – heal, nourish etc, is being reflected on your plate. And if it isn’t, think about what you could change at your next meal to do this for you.