As women, we all have our own relationship to food. Chances are, you may have some kind of food hang up, right? Or perhaps you’ve moved through a period in your life where you had a challenging relationship with food.
The media and social media only add to the drama when it comes to diet, body image, self confidence and what to eat in general. Food intolerances are now such a common reality for many women, added to the nutritional confusion and contradictory information the media plagues us with on the daily.
Food can feel like the energy, or a battlefield.
Yet, it doesn’t have to.
Food essentially is our fuel. It is designed to nurture and nourish us. It is designed to help our body run, function and heal.
While eating well should be a fairly simple construct, the modern world of food and diet culture makes us always second guess ourselves and guilt rises to the table all too frequently.
If you are someone who has attempted to navigate the baffling world of diets, yo-yo between what you can and cant eat, and watching your weight fluctuate seemingly out of your control, it can be hard to have a positive attitude towards food at all.
Sitting down to a meal shouldnt be something that fills you with fear, dread or uncertainty. Instead, it should be an experience that fills you with joy, delight and gratitude.
If you’re looking for ways to develop a healthier relationship with food, we’re sharing the tips that we know WORK right from our Bali wellness retreat.
Food is a huge focus for us at Escape Haven and we love witnessing the delight of our guests every week as they savour each meal and delight in every dining experience.
Best of all, these are things you can easily implement into your own life too.
7 Ways to Healing your Relationship with Food
Sit Down to Eat
Seems simple, right? In our modern culture it is common to eat on the go, to eat at your desk or to eat staring at a screen. Well guess what? HOW you eat can be AS important as WHAT you eat! Eating on the go and not focusing on the task at hand means that its hard for your body to register what’s happening. Furthermore, eating on the go often means you are eating in a stressful state and when you are stressed, the body simply cannot digest and assimilate properly. If you can only make ONE change from this blog, start sitting down and eating mindfully!
On retreat, guests often have a pretty jam-packed schedule on some days! Yet we always make time for seated meals. Even before taking off for surf at 6.30am, guests enjoy a beautiful seated breakfast served by our morning butlers. There is always time to enjoy each and every meal on retreat! Plus, with all the surfing, yoga, workouts and adventure, you need your fuel!
Slow Down!
As the pace of modern life continues to hasten, so too have our eating habits. Just look at the plethora of fast food places and convenience meals now on the market! Unfortunately, fast food and finishing a meal in record time means our digestion suffers. When you slow down and focus on eating, you’re more likely to chew slowly and to savour and appreciate each mouthful. Believe it or not, these things go a long way in how your meal can support your body to thrive. If you often get stomach aches after a meal, don’t be quick to blame the gluten! It may just be your body trying to tell you to go slow.
On retreat, we allocate a full hour to meal times to enable guests to slow down, unwind and really savour the experience. It allows you to have long conversations with new friends, to take in your surroundings and experience the meal with all your senses. Guests always share how they feel content but not over-full with meals. Eating slowly and consciously allows the signals from your brain to travel to your stomach to let you know when you are full. This means no food coma on your retreat!
Eat Real Food
Society has moved very far away from real food. The shift towards fast food, packaged food, processed food, frozen food and convenience food means that there is a whole lot more (and less) in food today that you may not know about. Additives, artificial colours and flavours, sugar, transfats, food colouring, pesticides, herbicides… its a scary world out there! Eating real food means eating things just as nature intended them to be eaten. It means eating whole foods in their natural state and only eating foods that you can pronounce! Ideally, it means cooking from scratch, not eating out of a box and knowing where your food is coming from.
On retreat, there is ZERO compromise when it comes to quality of ingredients. We utilise the freshest produce and the best quality ingredients to ensure that every meal is fresh and full of flavour and vitality. Our talented chefs make everything from scratch and the suppliers that we work with are people we know and trust. On retreat women repeatedly share not only how amazing the meals are, but how good they feel in their body. This is where quality and wholefoods counts.
Stress Less
As mentioned above, stress levels play havoc with our ability to digest and assimilate our food. In a culture that is characterised by stress, finding ways to de-stress before you eat are becoming more and more important. One easy tip is to take one big long slow belly breath before you eat. This can naturally help to shift your body into a parasympathetic state, which is where the body needs to be in order to digest.
Luckily on retreat, stress is a distant memory! With daily yoga, unlimited spa treatments, meditation and active movement, stress levels drop the moment you enter retreat! Enjoying long restful sleep, sunbathing by the pool, enjoying a scented flower bath or a specialised healing treatment, there are so many elements of the retreat experience that actively lower stress. That makes enjoying meals that much easier.
Farewell to Guilt
This can be a big hurdle for many women. The best way to remove guilt from your eating routines, is to remove the foods causing you guilt! Luckily, that doesn’t mean saying farewell to dessert or carbs! When you choose wholefoods and natural foods, there are simple healthy swaps that still allow you to eat tasty treats that are good for your body as well delight your tastebuds. Furthermore, when it comes to guilt around food, think about moderation. All things are ok in moderation. What’s most important is to savour each mouthful and enjoy the moment fully. Look at the French and Italians who love eating bread, pasta and wine!
On retreat, we love surprising our guests with delicious meals that are always guilt-free. We love witnessing guests truly enjoy their food on retreat. No dessert bowl is left unscraped and second helpings are a common trend! With qualified chefs and the best ingredients, eating well and savouring meals is easy. This can be a huge lesson for women who usually skip dessert or stick to the ‘safe’ options on a menu. Eating with joy is incredibly liberating – think of Eat, Pray, Love!
Food Made with Love
Food made with love and intention matters. Take time to prepare your meals. Savour and enjoy the preparation just as you would the meal itself. Put on some nice music, pour yourself a glass of wine or kombucha and have some fun in the kitchen! Plan ahead so you’re not coming home after a long day and having to shop or decide what to cook. You are far more likely to enjoy your meal if you create it with mindful intention. Plus it will taste better too!
Without fail ‘food made with love’ is one of the most common pieces of feedback we receive on retreat. Our talented chefs and kitchen team pour SO much love into every meal. They delight in seeing the guests faces and hearing their exclamations over the food. Love can be felt and tasted. Plus, food always seems to taste better when it’s made for you, right?!
Honour Your Needs
Food intolerances need to be taken seriously. If you often feel bloated or unwell after meals, start a food diary so you can start to determine what the culprit is. You can also try an elimination diet. This means taking common culprits – such as wheat, dairy, sugar, grains or nightshades- out of your diet and then slowly reintroducing them one at a time. If you do have a food intolerance or sensitivity, honour that. These days there are so many alternatives available for people with dietary requirements. Eating a regular pizza when you are gluten intolerant will only cause you grief! Making one at home with a gluten free crust though will be a joyous experience!
On retreat we cater to ALL dietary requirements. This is something we are truly passionate about as we know personally how challenging it can be to travel with a food intolerance or food requirement. This means we often have 5-6 menus running any week of retreat! Our holistic chefs are well trained and experienced in catering to food allergies and you can rest in safe hands knowing each meal has been made specifically for your needs. This means you dont have to miss out on anything and you can feel great all week long.
Eat Mindfully
Healing your relationship with food involves cultivating a mindful and positive approach to eating. Start by creating a designated eating space free from distractions like phones or screens, allowing you to fully engage with your meal. Practice gratitude for the nourishment your food provides and savor each bite, paying attention to textures, flavors, and aromas. Listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues, eating when hungry and stopping when satisfied. Aim to view food as a source of nourishment and pleasure rather than attaching guilt or judgment. Cultivate self-compassion and challenge negative thoughts about food, emphasizing the importance of balance and moderation. By being present in the moment and fostering a mindful connection with your meals, you can develop a healthier and more enjoyable relationship with food.
Are you ready to heal your relationship with food?
We witness positive transformations every week on retreat when it comes to women and food. Many women who thought they couldn’t tolerate something find out that it was likely stress that was causing the discomfort. Many women who find it hard to relax around meals suddenly find it easy. We love that each meal is a 5 star dining experience that you can feel comfortable to enjoy in your bikini, your yoga gear or your pj’s! Comfort matters. Quality matters. Food matters.
Come and experience the Escape Haven difference. Allow us to help you heal your relationship with food because lifes too short to skip dessert 😉
Contact us here. Find out more about our retreat cuisine here.
