You could be eating all the kale and broccoli in the world, but if you’re not nourishing yourself on a holistic level, you’ll be hard pressed to reach your highest form of wellness.
Primary food includes areas of your life that nourish you beyond your plate, and can help bridge the gap between food and personal growth and development to help you realize true integrative health.
Health is defined as a state of overall wellness that includes physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, we study the concept of Primary Food. Primary food includes areas of your life that nourish you beyond your plate, and on a deeper level than the physical foods we eat. Food nutrition, while critical for maintaining your healthiest physical form, is secondary to these areas of primary food when it comes to feeling your best self inside and out.
Relationships
Relationships include everything from your marriage to your relationship with your mother to the friends you surround yourself with. Do the people in your life make you feel supported, or do you feel dragged down by some of those relationships?
It is certainly not as simple as ditching your old friends for new, but something to keep in mind as you evaluate where you are in your life, where you want to go and constantly aligning yourself with people who will help you to get there.
1. Physical Activity
This may sound like an obvious one for many of you, but I think it’s important to distinguish ‘physical activity’ from ‘exercise.’ I view physical activity as the incorporation of more movement into your everyday life, versus a set amount of time in your day devoted to exercise or going to the gym. Try things like taking the stairs instead of an elevator or escalator, park a little farther away from the door when you get to the supermarket or even just take the dog on a longer walk than usual. Many people view exercise as a chore, but incorporating more activity into your everyday tasks can improve both your physical health and mental clarity without having to change your routine!
2. Work
Finding fulfillment in your work can have a major trickle down effect on your overall health. If you are miserable in your job, it can lead to negative feelings towards other areas of your life, overeating out of frustration or boredom and more. While I understand it is not always realistic for people to be in a job they are completely passionate about, if you can’t find work that you love, can you find a way to love what you do? Something as simple as changing your attitude towards your coworkers can make your day that much more enjoyable and lead to greater happiness in your life outside of work.
3. Spirituality
The first thing many people think of when they hear the word spirituality is religion - whether it be the religion you were raised with or something you’ve learned and adopted later in life. While religion can certainly be a safe haven for many people on their journeys, I think spirituality has a much bigger and broader meaning here.
The idea of spirituality makes you look deep inside yourself to identify your WHY - Why are you here, today on this journey? What does your life mean? What is your purpose? When you can tap into this part of your mind it becomes a lot harder to ‘fall off the wagon’ because you are in tune with your reason for making changes in your life and for your health - your why.
Considering these aspects of Primary Food can help bridge the gap between food and personal growth and development to help you realize true integrative health. If you are feeling stuck or unhappy, struggling with emotional eating or looking for something more, start to explore these areas of your life and see what changes you start to notice!
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