Nourish With Intent

Hello. Hello. Happy Saturday. It's Saturday. Welcome to Nourish with intent. This is much worse of a background than last week, so I might, might have to go back to my last, my last background visual next week. Hi, Jules. Good morning. I saw you were in JC's talk, which makes me really excited because we are, our lives align a little bit today, so I'm excited to get into it a little bit more. How are you doing, Jules? Good morning, Serena. Happy to have you here. If you don't know me, my name is Kristen.

I am a dietitian. I'm based in the Denver area, originally from Minnesota. My dietetics background is in eating disorders and disordered eating. So this whole series, the nourishing with intent, is really built to kind of help you build a healthy relationship with food and nourish your body with whatever intent makes sense for you. So something that is kind of a theme in Cadre is there are many ways to wellness. Right? So I am not here to tell you what the quote right or wrong way to eat is. That's not up to me to decide.

And this whole series is really helping you figure out what that looks like for you without judgment. Um, good morning, Jaden. Mommy. 259339. I love the usernames. Makes me think I'm back in. Like, I'm a little too young for a. I am, but, um. Or aim. I know. That's Jules. Good. Getting ready to go work out. Love that. Love that. Hopefully it's something fun today. I think today will be rest day for me. Okay. I want to pop in and get started because I'm a little bit fired up after JC's talk because I love, first of all, we all love JC, right?

He's. That knowledge and insight that he has is incredible. And if you were in his talk, he mentioned something about cake, right? It's okay to eat cake. And we'll get to that. So if you want to hear about that, stick around. But just to kind of recap, like I said, nourishing with intent. The goal of this is really to help you figure out how to make if it's something you're struggling with, meaningful choices around food that come from you and your own intuition, rather than all of the noise that we have around us at any given time in order to nourish your whole self.

So physical body, yes, but also mental, emotional, social, health, all of those things that play a role in how we show up day to day. And I posted last week, my live, we talked a little bit about the importance of starting to notice the things that influence our decisions around food. And I posted in the community tab and had a couple responses and the ones that I saw were the seasons changing, impacting what food looks like. Kind of this theme of, like, toxic productivity and hustle culture. And then a couple of responses of eating out of emotion, which I think is something that most people can relate to.

And all of those things are so valid. And even I, earlier this week, like I said, I'm in Denver. This has been our first hot week, and it feels like summer is officially here. And I am not for any reason like a big dairy queen girl, but something about, like, the changing of the seasons to summer really made me feel like this is like a summer thing. Like, we should go to Dairy Queen, get a blizzard and just enjoy the beautiful night. So I can relate to that changing seasons one a lot and oftentimes, and I have experienced this as a dietitian because people tend to think, you know, we only really have one narrative of, okay, what does healthy look like?

What foods should we eat? It's probably not Dairy Queen. Why would you eat dairy queen? I've gotten that before. It's good for my mental health and I enjoy it, and there is nutrition in it. So sometimes nourishing yourself means eating foods you crave. Eating foods because they taste good, eating foods you don't love what your body needs. It's really, I feel like a common thing for a lot of people to experience. If you go on vacation, you know, you're eating out a lot and maybe you're somewhere where there's not a vegetable in sight for days.

Like, our bodies tend to tell us that eating for fuel, eating for fun, eating out of emotion, that is such a normal thing. And I think is looked down upon, and I don't think that it should be. Eating out of connection is another one. Right? Because we know that food holds space for relationship and connection and time together. So all of those things are very valid things that we might notice influencing the way that we eat or the things specifically that we eat. And like I said, a lot of times that's really kind of looked down upon or judged or shamed for whatever reason, if it's eating outside of, you know, for your physical health, whatever people making that comment want that phrase to mean.

And it really turns into this kind of inaccurate reflection of your morality. Jules, I do them all at one point or another. Same, same. Like I said, those are all very normal. And at the same time, they're not normalized, especially, like, emotional eating people are quick to say, that's bad, you shouldn't do it. Right? Which then implies this morality of, like, okay, if I'm eating out of emotion, that's bad, so I'm bad. And that is the last thing that I want for anyone. Because. Because your food does not define you as a person.

No matter which way you eat, no matter the foods you eat, the driving factors and influences behind what you eat. And it's really easy to get caught up in the good and the bad and those rules. As Jacy said earlier, that binary, we don't live in the binary world, so why would we then put those expectations and those limits on ourself? You know, that kind of hard line of good, bad, healthy, unhealthy, that really gives food a lot of power. It gives a lot of external pressure a lot of power. It gives those shoulds and should nots a lot of power.

And that's not really helpful or healthful, because when we feel bad about what we're eating, that's worse for our health than the things we're actually eating. And there is research on that. We know that our attitudes about health and food impact our bodies physically. So what I would encourage everyone who joins these lives with me in the search of having a healthy relationship with food is finding a place and a way of navigating that where food is neutral. Because that's a healthy relationship with food doesn't mean you're eating one thing or another.

It doesn't mean you're avoiding one thing or another. It means you are free to make those decisions without that impacting how you see yourself. Right. It's a healthy relationship with food is where we don't value ourselves as a human based on what we did or did not eat. Where choosing to eat or not eat a certain food or in a certain way does not turn that perception of that food into your perception of yourself, because they're separate. And this is where I think aligns with JC's enoughness. So I did not intentionally try to have this time be right after him every week, but it's working out really great for me.

As JC says, you are enough. Your intuition is enough. Your knowledge is enough. You know, what you need in any given moment, even if you don't know, you know. And this world of the outside input, the, you know, creating a problem to sell you a solution, really muddles our ability to tap into that intuition, to tap into that knowledge. That is enough. So how do you actually put that into practice? Right? Because I'm talking a lot. And, like, what does that even really mean? I think that's where slowing down and noticing what's influencing our eating.

So that exercise I put in the. In the community chat last week, really paying attention to, what are those things that influence those choices that I'm making? And then beyond that, asking yourself, how does that make me feel? And recognizing, is this something that even makes me feel good in my body and in my person? I had a client, I'll use this as an example, who struggled with disordered eating kind of her whole life. Not a great relationship with mom. And mom always had those food rules, and I think a really classic one is the clean plate club, which I'm sure we'll talk about at some point.

But one of the things she noticed was she would and someone put this in the community chat, kind of eating out of, like, spite or out of a grudge. And she noticed after some work we had done, I'm doing this. I'm eating this thing just because my mom told me as a kid that I can't or I shouldn't. And in recognizing why she was eating it, she was then able to ask herself, okay, well, that's the why I'm not eating it because I wanted to eat it. Do I even like it? And the answer was actually no. So this food that she had struggled with binging on for so long because she had this tumultuous relationship with mom, being able to step back and just ask that simple question, why am I eating this, and how is it actually making me feel?

Because whatever we eat is going to make me feel differently than it makes you feel. And my reasons for eating it are going to be different than your reasons for eating it. And that's reiterating, right? There's many different ways to wellness, and what does that even mean for you? So, asking yourself those two questions, I think are a really wonderful starting place. So last week we did. What are those influences? This week I'm going to ask you guys to kind of notice, how do those things actually make me feel mentally and emotionally and physically, all of those things, because I love cake, makes me mentally happy.

It is providing my body nutrition. I'm getting carbs for my brain to work. So all of those things play a role in our overall wellness. Mental health, emotional health, physical health, social health, spiritual health. All of those things. All those facets, those tenets. So that is my kind of homework assignment for you this week is notice. Okay, now I'm starting to pick up on what are those influences now, how do those make me feel? Maybe it's energized. Maybe it's tired. Maybe it's nostalgic, like me and my dairy queen.

Maybe it's safe and loved. Maybe it's comforted or calm. All of those are valid. Every single one. No matter what anyone tries to tell you, you know yourself. You know your intuition, you know your knowledge. Even when it feels like we don't. Those things are all enough. We just have to tap into them. And those things can help you shift back into your own body, back into yourself and your own circumstances and your own experiences. And that can help to tune out all of the noise, at least a little bit.

It takes time. So that is my spiel for you today. Next week, we'll probably dive into a little bit more of the binary system that JC mentioned and that dichotomous language and how to kind of reject those rules and those lines. Jules, I needed this reminder. Thank you. You were very welcome. I know that probably a lot of what I say is not not new, but I hope this is a space where you can get what you need and take what you need when you need it. And I hope that you enjoy your workout, whether it's getting better or not.

That's not the goal, right? So I am so happy for everyone to have joined. And I know some of those. Some of the names. Marissa, I don't think you were in here last week, but happy to see some new faces. And this is only my second live, so I'm still getting used to it. I appreciate all of the. All of the grace that everyone has had. Short recovery run. Love that. Love that. Great spending time with you as well. Like I said, pop back next week. We'll talk a little bit more about challenging the ideas of good, bad, healthy, unhealthy.

What does that even really mean? Where did that come from? How do we, in rejecting those things, still figure out how to nourish ourselves in a way that is beneficial for our whole self? So same time, next place, next place, same time next week? I will not be in the same place. Actually, I am house sitting next week, so you'll get another new background from me. It was good to see you all today, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend wherever you are. And don't get bit by too many mosquitoes. Bye, guys.

Thanks for joining. Bye.