Spinach For Breakfast? 

Do you have a case of the "shoulds and shouldnts?"  A lot of us go through out our day thinking, "I SHOULD eat but it's not lunch time yet." " I SHOULD eat this salad, but I'd rather eat this sandwich."  "I SHOULD exercise but I"m not feeling too well."

Sound familiar?  We beat ourself up because we have this notion of what we think we are supposed to do... like there is some Food Police in the sky keeping watch of our every move (or bite).

We even have notions of certain foods that go along with certain parts of the day.  I had a funny reminder of this today.  You would think as a health coach, that I shouldn't be surprised.  My 7 year old daughter can be a bit picky when it comes to breakfast.  She doesn't like the "normal" breakfast foods such as cereal.  I even made some home ade cereal bars which she didn't care for.  So today, she asked for spinach salad.   Now this was nothing new- as she had eaten it for breakfast a couple of times before.  But it made me wonder why I didn't offer it to her in the beginning.  I am so conditioned to thinking that only certain foods are eaten at certain times.

So I gave her the spinach salad (with natural ranch from Whole Foods) and she gobbled it all up!  Am I worried that she will be too hungry?  Not really.  It's certainly better than her not eating at all, and I"m sure the fiber in the spinach as well as the calories in the dressing will fill her up.  Fun fact: also, the protein content in spinach is 42%!

And, who can complain about a child who wants to eat spinach?!

The next time you feel yourself caught up in the case of the SHOULDS... ask yourself, "is this REALLY want I want to eat?"  No, it should not be an excuse to just eat whatever we want, but healthy eating should not be drudgery.

Spend time finding recipes for healthy foods that you really enjoy and even tweak them to make them your own!

Let go of the notion that everyone's diet and eating schedule should look the same, and focus on your body's intuition.


Questions for YOU:  what foods do you think you SHOULD try, but really have no desire to?  On the other hand... what foods do you REALLY desire to try but just need that extra little nudge and motivation?


Blessings,
Kellie
www.nourishedandnew.com