PODCAST

Food and Mood: The Exhale

Kat Nicholls
By Kat Nicholls,
updated on Apr 3, 2024

Man making pancakes

Let’s digest last week’s podcast episode on food and how it can impact your mood

In last week’s podcast, we spoke with nutritional therapist Laura Bryan and freelance PR consultant Bryony Partridge to learn more about the fascinating link between what we eat and how we feel. 

This week, in our exhale episode, we reflect on what we’ve learnt and share some prompts to help you consider your own relationship with food and mood. Make sure you have a pen and some paper to hand to note your thoughts, and watch the episode below or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript:

Kat: Hello everyone and welcome to another exhale episode here on Finding What Works. Today we're going to be going through some reflection exercises based on the conversation we had last week, all about food and mood. In that episode, nutritional therapist Laura Bryan mentioned that an important step when it comes to eating for mood is reflecting on your current habits. So with that in mind, we've got five prompts here to go through to help you do just that. Make sure you have a pen and paper handy. 

The first prompt we have here is: how do you currently start your day and how does it make you feel? Something we talked about in our conversation last week was just how easy it can be to get caught up in the day-to-day and not take time, first thing in the morning to nourish ourselves. Making breakfast can be a really lovely mindful moment. So take this prompt as a chance to reflect on what your current morning routine looks like, where food and nourishing yourself fit into that, and how it's feeling for you right now. And also if there's anything here you'd like to change. 

The second prompt we have is: where do you notice moments of joy when it comes to food? Becoming more aware of joyful moments when it comes to eating and food can really do wonders for our mood. You might notice it when gathered with friends at a restaurant, when trying some new cuisine, or even when you've mastered that smoothie recipe that gives you the perfect balanced energy boost you're looking for. Make a note of any of these moments that come to mind just to bring some awareness to them. 

Our third prompt is what foods make you feel good after eating them? This question can help us drill down a little bit deeper into how what we eat impacts our mood. So ask yourself, which foods make you feel satiated? Which foods bring up your energy in a stable way? And of course, which foods bring you joy? 

On the flip side of this, our next prompt is: what foods or drinks don't make you feel good? In our conversation last week, we mentioned things like caffeine, alcohol, and also foods that can bring up our blood sugar levels and drop them really quickly. You may also find it helpful to keep a food and mood diary where you note down what you're eating day to day and how your mood is on those days - when you're feeling good, when you're feeling less good, and seeing if you can spot any patterns according to your mood and what you're eating. 

And our final prompt here is, would you like more variety in your diet? And if so, how can you do this? Something we learned last week is that a key part of eating for mood is supporting our gut microbiome. And something that can help with this is having a really varied diet. So looking at what you eat day to day, are you happy with the variety there or do you feel a little bit stuck in a rut? And if you do want more variety, what small steps can you take to start doing this? If you are looking for a little bit of inspiration here, make sure you listen back to last week's conversation where we go through some foods that can be especially helpful for this. 

I really hope these reflections were helpful. Please do let us know how you get on over on social media. We are @Happful_Magazine on Instagram and TikTok, and we'll be back next week with a conversation about coping with trauma. Until then, please take care.

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