Primary Food
Everything we consider as nutrition is really just a secondary source of energy. Primary food is more than what is on your plate. Healthy relationships, regular physical activity, a fulfilling career and a spiritual practice can fill your soul and satisfy your hunger for life.
When primary food is balanced and satiating, your life feeds you, making what you eat secondary. But what is primary food?
Have you ever been passionately in love?
Everything was exciting. Colors were vivid. You were floating on air, gazing into your lover’s eyes. Your lover’s touch and your shared feelings of exhilaration were enough to sustain you. You forgot about food and were high on life.
Have you ever been deeply involved in an exciting project?
You believed in what you were doing and felt confident and stimulated. Time seemed to stop. The outside world faded away. You didn’t feel the need to eat. Someone had to come by and remind you.
Do you remember what it was like when you were a kid?
You’d be playing outside with your friends when your parent called you in to eat dinner. “But I’m not hungry yet,” you’d say. At the table, your parent would instruct you to eat your food. Eventually, you’d force down a minimally acceptable amount of food and rush out again to play. At the end of the day, you’d return, exhausted, and go to sleep without thinking about food at all.
Have you ever felt depressed? Has your self-esteem ever been low as if you were starving for primary food?
Even in good times, when we come home at night, we often look in the refrigerator for something to eat – when all we really want is a hug or someone to talk to.
When your primary food is full, you thrive – actual food stays secondary, providing support to be healthy and do the things you love.
Primary Food feeds us, but it doesn't come on a plate.
• Primary food includes elements such as a meaningful spiritual practice, an inspiring career, regular and enjoyable physical activity, and honest and open relationships that feed your soul and your hunger for living.
• Every spiritual tradition that encourages people to fast does so partly to let individuals have time to reduce secondary food, thus allowing for a greater awareness of primary food.
• The more primary food we receive, the less we depend on secondary food. The opposite is also true. The more we fill ourselves with secondary food, the less we are able to receive the primary food of life.
Please take the time to explore your primary food as you journey through this program.
WHAT DOES YOUR LIFE LOOK LIKE?
Discover which primary foods you are missing and how to infuse joy and satisfaction into your life. Let's do a very simple exercise here, Print the picture below and follow these simple steps:
1| Place a dot on the line to indicate:
Your level of satisfaction in each area. A dot toward the center indicates dissatisfaction, and a dot toward the periphery indicates satisfaction. For example, if your social life is abundant, place a dot on the line somewhere toward the outside of the circle.
2| Connect the dots to see your Circle of Life.
3| Identify imbalances. Determine where to spend more time and energy to create balance.
Here are examples of completed circle of life:
What do you think? Is your own circle round? A little wobbly? Does it look like a shape you can't put a name to?
This circle represents imbalances in primary food and provides a starting point for determining how you may wish to spend more time and energy to create balance and joy in your life. The rounder and wider the circle the healthier and happier you are!
Click the button below to schedule an appointment with me today so I can support you round out your Circle of Life.
Secondary Foods
HOW TO USE THE INTEGRATIVE NUTRITION® PLATE 1| Fill in the copy of the Your Unique Plate tool below to represent a typical meal for you. 2| Take a few minutes to consider your country’s standard eating guidelines and this Integrative Nutrition Plate. • Review your country’s standard eating guidelines and see what you notice. Think about any cultural or religious influences related to food.After looking over the guidelines, notice if anything surprises, concerns, or confuses you about your country’s dietary suggestions. • Review the Integrative Nutrition Plate. Check out the similarities and differences between it and your country’s plate. Notice the four food groups as well as the four areas of primary food surrounding the plate. 3| Take a moment to reflect on your own unique plate. How closely does your current diet and lifestyle reflect the Integrative Nutrition Plate? What similarities do you notice? What differences do you notice? Note: One person’s food is another person’s poison. Nobody will use this tool in the same way or even include every food group, and that’s okay. |
YOUR UNIQUE PLATE:
On an ordinary day, what kinds of foods and drinks can you find on your plate and in your cup? Complete the diagram below to reflect what a typical meal looks like for you. You can use words and/or images
.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- How do you see yourself benefiting from this tool?
- Are you feeling healthy and full of life or could you use more energy?
- How are your energy, stress, weight, skin, emotions, and self-care?
- What dietary approaches have you tried? What worked for you? What didn’t?
- Which primary food elements would you like to improve?
- How will you tailor the Plate to meet your dietary needs?
- How can you create more balance on your Plate?
- Are you excited to make dietary and lifestyle changes? Nervous? A little of both? Either is totally natural!
