Primary Food: Life's 'Food'
November 23, 2021
Food is essential to life.
It’s what fuels our bodies, nourishes us and allows us to live out our soul’s purpose.
But food isn’t just what we choose to eat and drink…it’s everything that we consume from the content we surround ourselves with on social media to our career.
When I first came across the concept of ‘Primary food vs. Secondary food’, I was gob smacked. I felt stunned – one of those light bulb moments, where the heavens open above, light streams in and there’s that collective ‘ahhhhh’ sound… yeah, one of those moments. It was so life changing for me diving into this concept has been a non negotiable in every single one of my consults with my clients. In fact, without understanding where we are at with our primary food, there’s no moving forward.
Let me explain:
Contrary to popular opinion, the food we eat and drink isn’t as essential to our health as the other food we will our souls with – Primary food. Don’t get me wrong, of course what we eat has a HUGE role to play in how our bodies function (so this isn’t an excuse to over indulge in those Big Macs!) BUT …. and this is a big but … without nourishing all aspects of what primarily feeds us, food will always play second fiddle. We need to address the building blocks of life first and make sure that we are full in all of those areas before we begin to address what we actually eat on a daily basis. It’s building those strong foundations that will ultimately set us up for success in the long run.
Understanding the link between our food and the way we live our lives is about building that connection between nutrition, personal development and spiritual growth. An imbalance in one area of our lives will create imbalances in other areas and that eventually shows up in our food choices. Everything is so beautifully interwoven that all aspects of life dance with one another in a fluid and adaptable way. If you want to make a change, then no matter how small that change may be, it will influence a variety of different facets that make up your life.
Primary food includes:
- Physical activity
- Health
- Relationships
- Social Life
- Home environment
- Home cooking
- Joy
- Creativity
- Relaxation
- Education
- Finances
- Career
The way that these elements of primary food show up in our lives will have an impact in our food choices and therefore our overall health and wellbeing.
Let's take a look at each area of Primary Food to see how this may affect our nutrition:
- PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: Have you ever noticed how lovingly moving your body first thing in the morning sets you up for the rest of the day? That you then make healthier breakfast choices, snack choices or dinner choices because of the standard you set for yourself first thing in the morning? Or perhaps moving your body in a loving way shapes the attitude for the way you proceed in life – maybe that love you show for your body translates into the foods you choose to fuel it with?
- HEALTH: Our health dictates a lot of our life’s experiences. If we feel full of health, wealth and happiness then that attitude will show up in how we choose to nourish our bodies: We end up choosing foods that will serve us better in the long run. If we suffer with health issues, illnesses or dis-ease in the body then that too will show up in the way we feed ourselves. Perhaps we can’t stomach anything other than bland foods, or may dairy is out of the question, or we have to avoid foods that contain gluten, wheat, soy, eggs etc.
- RELATIONSHIPS & SOCIAL LIFE: If we are unhappy in our own company and lack having those loving connections in our life then what’s stopping us from grabbing that packet of biscuits at the end of the day and scoffing the whole lot? Or what keeps us from reaching for that bottle of wine and downing the whole thing on a Saturday evening while everyone else is out socialising? Relationships and social life can have a huge impact on our food choices – let’s face it…food is a social activity! If we have those loving relationships in our lives (intimate relationships, family or friendships) then we have more love to give and share and that goes for the love we put into our food as well.
- HOME ENVIRONMENT & HOME COOKING: Is your home environment conducive to living a healthy lifestyle? Is it clean, clutter free, calming and loving? Or is it messy, chaotic and stressful? Clean up your home environment so it serves you in the best way and so you can make the best choices possible. That will also help you with home cooking! If your kitchen is inviting and well equipped then you’ll feel more motivated to get in there and get stuck in! Don’t like cooking, or feel you’re not good enough? Well it’s time to let that inner mean girl go and get your creative pants on! Research fun recipes, pick up a new ingredient from the supermarket or invest in cooking classes to help you find some joy and fun in the kitchen. Only you can add that most important ingredient into your meals: Vitamin L (LOVE!)
- JOY, CREATIVITY & RELAXATION: These 3 elements have a huge impact in our food choices. When we are happy, we make better choices – it’s as simple as that. When we take inspired action and get those creative juices flowing, we are moving from love and once again, we make better choices. And when we can practice self-love on a regular basis (I mean more than 5 minutes once a week! I’m talking about staying fully connected to yourself) we honour our bodies with foods that will serve us so that we can live to our fullest potential.
- EDUCATION: You don’t know what you don’t know – but likewise, you can’t unlearn what you learn. So educate yourself! Understand your body on an intuitive level and also what it needs on a physiological level so you can make food choices that will serve you in the best way possible!
- CAREER & FINANCES: You spend hours upon hours working each week. In fact, you spend most of your waking hours working (if you’re in a full time job) so it’s important that your job lights you up. It doesn’t mean you have to love every single second. It’s more about finding ways to bring joy into your work place so that your life lights you up! Your finances also play a role in your food choices from organising budgets to understanding which produce is works better for you and how to source the ingredients and foods that you need.
I have only tapped the surface of these primary foods here, but I’m hoping that you can already see what an effect they can have on how we feed ourselves.
It’s time to take action!
If you want to up your health game then let’s dive into your primary food.
- Go through each of the 12 primary foods and scale them from 1-10.
1 = I need more love here
10 = I am abundant! - Where did you score the lowest?
- That’s where I want you to start. Write down 3 baby steps you can take to enhance that scoring so that you can fill that primary food up to the brim (or at lease work on getting there!). You never know…you may notice a ripple effect in other areas of primary food. Remember everything is connected.
This can be the game changer you’ve been looking for and I can’t wait for you to dive in deeper into what makes you tick so you can become the healthiest version of yourself possible!
Want some help with understanding your primary food? I’m always happy to help!
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