What's Healthier Than Kale?
Kale was in, and cake was out.
After nutrition school, I became obsessed with what I ate and felt pressure to exercise and “look” the part. Food, I thought, was about nutrients, and healthy eating meant following a set of rules.
But never was I more disconnected from my body’s actual needs and misguided about the “look” of health.
My relationship to food and how I saw bodies changed when I clicked on a social media video of Amy Pence-Brown, a 39-year-old mother of three, standing blindfolded in a black bikini at the Capitol City Public Market in Boise, Idaho.
She held markers in her outstretched arms inviting the crowd to support her radical declaration of self-love. The following message was written on a chalkboard at her feet: “I am standing for anyone who has struggled with a self-esteem issue like me, because all bodies are valuable,” her sign read. “To support self-acceptance, draw a heart on my body.”
By the end of her social experiment, she was covered in marker, having been drawn on by young and old, men and women. You can watch the video here.
Amy’s “Stand For Self Love” cracked open something deep inside me. I felt our shared humanness, and professionally, I began to see that the beliefs I’d held as a former exercise professional and nutritionist — that if we exercised and ate "well" we could achieve a fit and healthy "looking" body — were wrong. I began to understand why hundreds of intimate conversations I’d had with Jacksonites and clients around the country were often filled with tears and stress. We were missing a key ingredient.
I started seeing bodies and health differently, with my eyes wide open. I started seeing myself differently. I had made a career out of being healthy but had confused it with looking healthy. When I sat and noticed my own body image, the worries, fears, and shame that I’d felt about my body over the years flooded through. And now, as a 54-year old woman, I’ve added another layer: aging.
Naturally, we want to eat better to feel better. But often, the real hope is that eating the “right” foods, in the “right” amounts will help us maintain an "acceptable" size or change our bodies. This is a normal and natural reaction to living in our perfectionist body culture that says there's only one "right" way to have a body. It's based on the false belief that there's only one body size or shape that's "healthy" or "attractive."
After witnessing Amy’s radical declaration of self-love and client frustration from failed diets and body dissatisfaction, I discovered Intuitive Eating and became a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and a Licensed Be Body Positive Facilitator.
“Intuitive Eating is a personal process of honoring your health by paying attention to the messages of your body and meeting your physical and emotional needs,” writes Evelyn Tribole, co-founder, Intuitive Eating. “It is an inner journey of discovery that puts you front and center; you are the expert of your own body.” We were born Intuitive Eaters, but cultural messages about food and the “right” way to have a body have swayed us away from listening to this intuition. It was through Intuitive Eating that I learned the practice of mindful eating.
Mindful eating is the process of being aware while eating, without judgment. And let’s be honest, that’s not so easy in today’s multi-tasking, fast, and distracted culture. When we eat with even a little more intention and attention, we’re able to perceive sensations that arise from within our bodies like hunger, satiety, and satisfaction.
Bringing more presence to my plate has guided me to honor nourishment as more than the nutrients. It’s the taste and the aroma of the food, the ambiance of the room, the conversation at the table, the love and the inspiration in the cooking, and the joy of the entire eating experience.
And my mindfulness practice supports me when negative thoughts come up when I look in the mirror at my changing, post-menopausal body. When deeply ingrained cultural biases come up around weight, health, and my appearance, I can notice those thoughts as they come and go. Yes, it’s a practice!
Now I enjoy both kale and cake because a key piece of mindful, healthy eating includes a healthy relationship with food and our bodies.
♡ Tanya
TANYA MARK is a Nutrition and National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) who serves clients here in Jackson and across the country. Read more about her practice at tanyamark.com.
Please join Becoming Jackson Whole for Mindfulness Works on Tuesday, February 13, 9-10am MT, to learn more from Tanya about mindful eating as individuals and as a community. This FREE program is available in-person at Teton County Library and on Zoom. Details and link appear at: becomingjacksonwhole.org/events