My breakfast mistake: healing through self-awareness and intuitive nutrition
In this blog I’m going to share a part of my food story in hopes of helping you find more confidence in yours.
My relationship to breakfast has shifted many times over my life—which is the topic of this story.
Here's why I think that (the changing breakfast routine) is cool: as our awareness changes, our choices change to match it.
There is no morality attached to the choices we make for our bodies, because we're always doing the best we can with what we have and know. There is only tuning into what feels most true, and honoring it more deeply as we grow. As we learn more, we can do more for ourselves. Different moments, different situations, and different seasons will call for different medicine.
In the span of the last ten years I've shifted out of intermittent fasting and bulletproof coffee and into a consistent daily breakfast routine.
This shift began during my first year in medical school in 2015 when I was struggling with various symptoms (fatigue, bloating, acne, etc.). My then Naturopathic Doctor informed me lovingly: fasting is a stressor, and eating is adrenal support.
I had a few turning point moments during medical school. This was one of them.
The above concept blew my mind. My eyes opened to the ways I'd been jumping onto trendy "health" behaviors without *also* tuning into my body's knowing around whether they would be healthy for me.
My breakfast- and meal-skipping habits took some time to fully shift out of (especially with the sticky and distorted belief that eating less = better/healthier). But this learning marked another renewed layer in relationship with my body.
It took a long time for me to recognize the importance, and honestly the transformational quality, of a habit as simple as taking time to nourish myself first thing in the morning.
And while I've remained a committed breakfast-eater for some time now, in the past year I'd started to "cut corners" to hurriedly check the breakfast box.
Instead of making sure I had time for a full, seated, uninterrupted breakfast, I'd find myself sautéing one or two chicken sausages, packing it into a to-go thermos, and eating it while driving…These were not my favorite kinds of mornings. They felt cramped, rushed, and disembodied. Like I'm treating my own body, my nourishment, as a box to be checked when the reality is, it's sacred.
(The habits we express often reflect the beliefs we hold about ourselves. Part of me KNOWS this self-care ritual called breakfast is truly sacred. Another part believes I’m only worthy of such sacredness after I’ve earned it through effort. This is the edge I'm currently exploring).
As my breakfast routine became more and more bleak, I'd had the niggling feeling like it wasn't quite serving my body fully. Like those sausage-only mornings may not be so healthy without a robust serving of carbohydrates.
Then I met with an acupuncturist, and her assessment was very clear: the deficiencies she observed through my pulse and tongue likely had something to do with my eating patterns. Not eating early enough, not eating enough cabohydrates/grains, and eating cold foods, to name examples. As she explained, my body said yes, I know this.
It seems small. But sometimes you can sense, from the inside, when something is true for you. This was one of those moments.
I have, by accident, de-prioritized my nourishment in the last few years after leaving medical school and beginning practice.
It’s surprising how the old, seemingly outdated beliefs or routines like “low carb is best” can live dormant in your system until a moment you're vulnerable enough to let them once again flourish (kind of like a chronic epstein-barr virus infection, aka mono, that replicates when your system is compromised... #naturopathicmedicinemetaphor).
These recent moments have brought to my awareness the ways I've not been hearing and honoring my body - without realizing it! I say this without judgment toward myself; only presence. Every expansion of awareness is opportunity for celebration.
I now eat breakfast and lunch earlier. Something I've known I needed to do but for whatever reason hadn't made it happen. And it feels so right, for myself in the season I’m in. I have zero doubts that my breakfast routine will evolve as I do. But I also feel I’ve reached a new level of stability in this ritual that will likely stick around for a while.
It took me wobbling “off” course to re-discover the new, more revitalizing path of the moment. I put “off” in quotations because I’m not even sure it’s off at all. :)
Here’s to discovering your favorite ways to honor your own nourishment, and loving it.
Dr. Savannah
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