Enjoy Eating Again With These 7 Tips
Written by Isabel Vasquez RD, LDN
Are you someone who rushes through meals and barely registers what you ate? Have you internalized the idea that eating a nutritious diet means never enjoying food again? Do you struggle to enjoy eating?
Unfortunately, with all the confusing nutrition information out there, it can be hard to find peace and pleasure in your relationship with food.
I’m a dietitian here to assure you that there is nothing wrong with enjoying food. In fact, it’s perfectly normal to enjoy eating despite what diet culture may have you believe.
A 2022 paper in the journal Current Opinion in Psychology argues that the focus on “overconsumption” of food as something problematic has prevented people from finding pleasure from food in general. In reality, a healthy relationship with food can bring pleasure, contentment, and enhance overall well-being.
Yes, that means eating your favorite foods that you may think are ‘unhealthy’. It also means unlearning the idea that a ‘healthy’ diet can’t taste good.
Keep reading to learn 7 tips to enjoy eating again.
1.Let Yourself Eat Your Favorite Foods
Many people have learned to avoid their favorite foods. This may lead to issues like food noise or binge-eating. If you restrict food, your body and mind are wired to drive you towards it for survival.
Related: What is the Binge Restrict Cycle?
This can create a fraught relationship with food where you’re constantly obsessing over the foods you love but feeling guilty if you eat them.
Instead, let yourself eat your favorite foods whether that be chuletas with white rice, your grandma’s tacos, or a piece of chocolate! This helps you bring joy back into your eating experience.
And most of the time, these foods can absolutely be included in an overall health-promoting eating pattern.
In fact, a 2020 study in the journal Eating and Weight Disorders found that intuitive eating—a non-diet approach to nutrition—is linked with less binge eating, depressive symptoms, and unhealthy weight control behaviors; and better self esteem.
This demonstrates the benefits of improving your relationship with food.
2.Don’t Label Foods as Good and Bad
It’s hard to enjoy eating if you label foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’. Doing so can perpetuate guilt if you eat a food you’ve labeled as ‘bad’, and make you feel morally superior if you eat a food you label as ‘good’.
Your enjoyment of food may become conditional on whether you think you’re good or bad for eating what you’re eating.
Instead, recognize that all foods can fit in an overall healthy eating pattern. Shaming yourself for eating foods only decreases your enjoyment and satisfaction and makes it more likely you’ll end up eating beyond comfortable fullness.
In fact, a 2019 study in the journal Eating Behaviors found that shame and guilt, especially related to weight, are linked with higher rates of binge eating. Intuitive eating helped reduce the chances of weight-related shame leading to binge eating.
3.Take Time to Eat Mindfully
Mindful eating is a practice that involves paying attention to the full eating experience. It’s about noticing your environment; the physical sensations, flavors, textures, and temperature of your food; and the emotions that arise as you eat. It’s like a meditation practice.
Oftentimes, we rush around and eat on-the-go. This prevents us from being present with our food and getting the chance to enjoy it.
To enjoy eating again, practice being present with your food. Take time to slow down, carve out time to just eat, and enjoy your food. You may practice noticing the flavors of the dish, the textures, and how your body responds.
Do your taste buds light up after a specific bite? Do you feel your salivary glands doing their job? Do you hear the different sounds that come from eating different textures?
It may seem silly or uncomfortable—especially since we often don’t take the time to slow down in our day-to-day lives—but it can make a big difference in your enjoyment of eating.
4.Notice Satisfaction, Not Just Fullness
Fullness and satisfaction are not one and the same. Fullness refers to the physical feeling of your stomach being full. You’ve eaten enough food to meet your body’s needs.
Satisfaction, however, is where the joy in eating comes into play. It involves not only meeting your needs, but doing so in a way that brings you pleasure and enjoyment.
To enjoy eating, it’s important to consider if your meals are satisfying you, not just filling you up.
This might mean incorporating a piece of chocolate after dinner, cooking a meal with the spices and herbs you love for a tasty flavor, or eating your favorite cultural dish. Usually, a satisfying meal is both nutritious and delicious. It hits the spot and leaves your body feeling good!
5.Don’t Assume ‘Healthy’ Food Can’t Taste Good
I often hear clients say that if something tastes good it can’t be good for you. This is completely false! Food can absolutely taste good and be full of nutrition benefits.
Unfortunately, this myth has led many people to eat cardboard-like, flavor-free foods that bring them no joy. It’s time to stop believing this myth!
In our Latin American dishes, we include so many ingredients that not only add flavor, they also add nutrition.
Think of herbs, spices, onions, peppers, and tomatoes. These give our dishes so much flavor so it tastes incredible. They also add vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that support health!
This is just one example of how good flavor and good nutrition can coexist. You can absolutely still find joy in eating even if you’re trying to manage a health issue like high cholesterol or diabetes.
For individualized support, consider working 1:1 with one of our Latina dietitians.
6.Tend to Your Eating Environment
Are you someone who eats in your car, at your desk, or in front of the TV everyday? While this is sometimes unavoidable with our fast-paced lifestyles, it may reduce your enjoyment of eating. After all, it’s hard to enjoy food when you’re in a stressful environment.
Creating a more pleasant eating environment could help you enjoy eating more. So set the vibes to be more peaceful and pleasurable when you can.
That might mean sitting at the kitchen table for a meal instead of eating in the car. Maybe you go the extra mile and light a candle or serve your meal on a pretty plate. It might mean putting a little effort into the meal presentation. Get creative and have fun with it!
7.Allow Yourself to Experience Pleasure From Food
Last but not least, know that it is perfectly healthy to enjoy eating. There’s nothing wrong with getting pleasure from food. In fact, we’re wired to enjoy eating! If we didn’t enjoy it, we might not do it, and we need to eat to survive.
So savor your meals. Rather than shaming yourself for eating your favorite snack, enjoy it. This can help you experience satisfaction and move on with your day in peace instead of obsessing over food.
Final Thoughts
With our fast-paced lifestyles and all the diet culture messaging out there, it can be hard to enjoy eating. However, it’s perfectly healthy to let yourself enjoy your food.
To find joy in eating again, try letting yourself eat your favorite foods without guilt, setting aside time to eat mindfully, paying attention to satisfaction in addition to fullness, and giving yourself permission to find pleasure from food.
Implementing these tips may help improve your relationship with food so you can eat a well-rounded diet with the foods you enjoy and move on with your day.
For education on how to ADD nutrition to your favorite Latine cultural dishes, make peace with food, and focus on your health without dieting, join our nutrition library for just $27/month.
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