This may sound like a recipe for obesity, but I want to say that it is a recipe for health! "Only eat what you enjoy and enjoy all you eat" has become a bit of my slogan for the blog and my YouTube channel and it is my own development of my sister's principle that "what taste good is good for you" that I will write more about next week.
This principle is also a parallel to my thoughts on work ethics, that I established after meeting this happy man, in the rain, on a Sunday morning on the streets of London. I was on my way to church and had a raincoat, but the wrong shoes so they had started to leak in and I felt quite gloomy both inside and out. Then I met this man in a colorful hat and a smile like sunshine that exclaims a happy: "Good morning miss!". I have no idea about his name, but I know he has affected the rest of my life. I asked if I could share the picture of him and he said with a big smile that I could spread it to the whole world. If he could spread a little joy, he would just be happy. I felt that I wanted the same work ethic as this man and from that day on I have as a basic principle: that whatever I do, I will do it with joy. Could this man be happy to pick up rubbish, in the rain, on a Sunday morning and at the same time spread joy to his surroundings ... Then I can be joyfull too!
To get it to work for me I has added an other part also. Which is that I also take responsibility for mainly doing what I like to do. That makes it so much easier to enjoy everything I do. And when I thought about what principles I have for food, I made a parallel to that thought with: "Only eat what you enjoy and enjoy all you eat".This is entirely my own concept, which goes hand in hand with my sister's principle "what taste good is good for you".
Many are now thinking: if I just eat what I enjoy, I will eat a lot of junk food. But do you really enjoy that? Because it's not just about to enjoy the taste, you should also enjoy the feeling of what you eat, in both the short and long term. At the same time, much of the unhealthy food is quite tasteless and if you really take the time to taste the food and make sure to enjoy it, I promise you will feel better, both in body and mind. This is illustraded well in this video.
I myself love chocolate and eat daily equivalent to about 50 grams of pure chocolate (cocoa mass and cocoa butter), but I do not eat it in it´s pure form. I adapt what kind of chocolate I eat to what I do. During active days, such as when I arrange a big dinner, then it is Fazer Blue milk-chocolate that I eat, at least 150 grams. But days I sit at the computer all day, I instead eat about 70 grams of a 55-80% dark chocolate. I need to still my cravings of chocolate and if I were to do it with milk chocolate every day, that would not be good in the long run. When I instead choose more flavorfull chocolate, I get my cravings stilled without it being bad for my health. So it's mainly about getting to know your own body and your own feelings about food. My hope is that no one would feel shame or anxiety about any type of food, only joy.
That brings us to enjoy all you eat, which is true even when you do not like the food. I don't know, but have a hard time believing that the man in London wanted it to rain when he did his job. So even when it's not really what we thought or what we wanted, still set your mind to enjoy what you eat. I know it's much harder than it appears, since you have to challenge your thoughts about food. As long as you only eat what you like, it is not difficult and you could stop at that part of the expression, but then it becomes very limiting. I want you to dare to try new flavors. When you do, take the time to feel what it really tastes like. Let it be enjoyable, even if you do not like it. How? are you thinking... Enjoy the feeling of daring to try something new and focus on what it really taste, analyze the flavors and see which parts you like and not. Maybe it was just the seasoning you did not like when you first tried tofu and because of that you despise tofu forever. Dare to try again with another seasoning, maybe you like the taste, but that tofu has a different texture that you do not like. So the third time when you get to taste a tofu with a texture you like and a spice you like, you realize that you actually like tofu. But you will never come to that if you never dare to taste and learn to appreciate the parts, even whe you don't like the whole. But if you dare to challenge, you will find the taste palette that appeals to you and from there you can expand the base of food that you like.
This may sound a bit contradictory, but it's really the basis of how I think about food. Start from a base that you know you like, balance it so it makes you feel good also in the long run and dare to try new flavors to expand that base all the time. It's okay to stop at the first step, but it's easily monotonous and boring. And the biggest healthrisk with food is to eat one-sidedly, so if you have a very small base of food you like, it needs to be expanded to be healthy.
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And do remember: to only eat what you enjoy and enjoy all you eat!
/Ann