Nourishing your body is not only about the food and drink we put in ourselves but our preparation, attitude and thoughts towards food. It also extends beyond what we choose to put in our bodies to the things we choose to put on our bodies.

Now I’m no expert and I am by no means 100% (or even close to that) perfect when it comes to beauty and food but I have learnt a thing or two in my time in this wondrous world and there’s a few things that have stuck…

1. Moderation is the key, acknowledging and accepting our perfections and imperfections, being true to ourselves and the way we feel is one of the most important things we can do.

We all know it, we all think it, and there’s some lucky ones who don’t need to do anything about it but for myself and millions of other human beings out there we do need to consider if we are full / if the food we are about to consume is going to work for our bodies or if we have chosen the right products for our body, our skin, our lifestyle, our energy output for that day.

Like I said, I’m not a nutritionist and although I read a lot about it all and spent some of my yoga teacher training learning about and becoming slightly obsessed with ayurveda I am definitely on board with all of the personal trainers, bloggers, fitness, health and nutrition peeps in knowing that there is no one right way and to diet and cut your foods to a very specific amount or number of calories is not a long term solution.

I am on a mission to feel the best I can feel as many days in my life as possible.

For me that’s making choices like not missing out on a glass of wine if I feel like it and on the flipside it’s not drinking the whole bottle to drown my sorrows.

If I feel like chocolate, I’m going to eat it, in moderation, because I don’t want to end up with a crazy craving for something I’ve deprived myself of which I then try to compensate for by eating something else. With that in mind cravings or feelings associated with food is something we should be conscious about by stopping to think about what might be the root cause of that particular feeling. Am I eating because I’m sad? Stressed? Lack of energy? Because I can?

Listening to our body and paying attention to the world around us will help us to understand our connection and help to create a better environment to nourish ourselves inside and out.

2. My family in Venice are quite particular when it comes to eating for the seasons, they don’t buy fresh produce if it’s not the fresh produce of that season, and even though tomatoes are a staple all year round in Italy they are a summer fruit so my family simply choose to stock up on tomatoes at the end of summer and make it into tomato soup that can be frozen for the winter. This was an important and life changing lesson that they taught me and will forever stick with me.

The markets in Venice still stand exactly where they did in all of the years gone by... fresh fruit and veg galore!

Another thing that has stuck with me was an example given about how what we put in our body, or more broadly how we treat our body can potentially have lasting and spiraling affects if we do not accept that we created an emotion / feeling / reaction from our choice. This example spoke about having a drink of alcohol, it then goes on to say that we chose to drink enough alcohol that we then woke up with a headache and feeling tired the next day, so we take a pain killer to numb the headache and that makes our stomach feel sick, we then take a different type of medicine / food that we think will make our stomach feel better but we actually feel worse and so on. The idea is to think about making a conscious decision from the beginning, and accepting if our bodies react to what we have chosen to do that we need to take that pain and remember it so that next time we make a conscious decision to avoid that choice.

All in all, be kind to yourself, accept and be conscious and do everything or anything you choose in moderation. Find what’s right for you and the rest will fall into place.

Go and nourish those beautiful, wonderful bodies of yours!

JUL. 16 2014