Food is one of the great pleasures in life.

Adam Mansbach

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There is something wonderful about becoming middle aged. About somehow letting go of being someone you thought you were or were supposed to be. For certain, I still have my hang-ups. And I challenge myself every day with these hang-ups (both internal and external)…

I no longer want to deprive myself of eating for the sake of my body. I have instead found myself sinking into finding great pleasure in a good meal at the end of the day. Getting excited about launching into a baking frenzy on the weekend. Or immersing myself in the process of creating a comforting, slowly nurtured meal.

Eating is one of the great pleasures in life. And I have been a fan all my life. From my earliest memories, I remember obsessing over my food and always being hungry. Garnering excitement from my grandmother’s homemade bread and strawberry jam, or better yet, her chocolate pie for dessert. My mother would produce the tartest raspberry pie and blackcurrant jam from our garden on occasion, outside of her health-crazed salads. This is the same mother I grew up with hearing words like ‘a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.’

I have always appreciated my food. But of late, perhaps more so in recent years; I have come to let go of being so strict in my diet. While often following the 80/20 rule (eating ‘healthy’ 80% of the time, and ‘less healthy’ 20% of the time), I have come to relax this. I am not ashamed to say I love to eat, and to eat a lot in one go if I am so driven to. I will let loose in the privacy of my own home, and will indulge to the fullest extent I can when I am lucky enough to be out to eat. Food can be both highly social and anti-social. Good food can be equally enjoyed alone or with others.

Why is this important? Because eating is one of those things in life we should be able to somehow control. We can, I hope, choose what we eat and under what circumstances, or at least some of time. I am not talking about willpower per se. And as someone who has experienced problems with binge eating and bulimia, I recognize it can also be extremely complicated, triggering, and emotional. I have a had a long-standing, complex relationship with food. One which I have been trying to improve upon.

Among the social and emotional aspects of food, I have become mindful of a gut-brain connection. And though I do practice intermittent fasting regularly, in a moderate sense (16/8) by typically limiting my intake to an 8-hour period, this is not for the goal of being slim. This is because I find it is what works for me. It is what I find helps my insides out, and may indeed help with inflammation. I don’t believe I even eat less for this, but I do at least give my gut the rest it may need in the downtime, and I feel better for that. I keep hunger at bay easily with long morning walks or another form of exercise which I prefer. And though I certainly can’t advocate for an equal trade between energy spent exercising and food ingested (we have all heard sayings like ‘you need to exercise for at least 30 minutes to burn off a doughnut’) and focusing on calories and micro/macronutrients can sometimes be misleading, since I began focusing on walking a lot, I really don’t count calories. I hope everyone can find a healthy balance with this. Eating well is a different reference point for everyone.

Find what works for you. What makes you feel good? Eating should be a pleasurable experience rather than a guilty one. With so many aspects of our lives we may feel that we can’t always control, being able to choose the food and meals we love can bring small pleasures that add up to great enjoyment in life. Recognizing that we have some control over this can in itself bring much joy too.