This week we covered a number of things that can have a radical impact on how you see food, cooking and even yourself.

External forces quash our intuition and make us second-guess our gut-feelings all the time, in every aspect of life, including food and cooking:
- 'Should' mentalities
- Comparison, judging ourselves or others
- Perfectionism

Instead start to think about your experience using internal rather than external validation
- Did I enjoy making it?
- Did I enjoy eating it?
- Did it nourish/satisfy me mind, body and/or soul?

We are conditioned to avoid uncertainty (due to the perception of risk), but all the good stuff lies out of our comfort zone!
- We need to approach the unknown with excitement rather than fear, so that we can embrace it an access the good stuff (in this case mindful, intuitive cooking)
  - That means being willing to get out of your comfort zone
- Becoming more intuitive takes time and requires making mistakes (and learning from them!) so you have to be OK with uncertainty and approach setbacks differently (and with gratitude for the opportunity to learn)

Your relationship with food is just that—a relationship
- It’s also fundamental to your relationship with yourself, and can and should form a core part of your self care
- Being present, engaged and mindful helps makes food part of self care because you get something more out of it, something spiritual even
- Be kind to yourself and allow room to make mistakes and learn (just like you would in any other relationship)

It’s the combination of self-love/awareness, intuition and mindfulness that mean you can have a joyful relationship with cooking that suits you mind, body and soul
- It’s a journey and being present and engaged in that journey is more important than fixating on a specific outcome

Journalling, Gratitude & Appreciation

If you journal: start to incorporate aspects of your relationship with food into your affirmations or into your gratitude practice
- You’ll feel more connected to yourself and what you’re eating
- You’ll start to do some reprogramming!
If not, consider starting with a gratitude practice! Just spend a few minutes each day connecting to things that you are grateful for or appreciative of (food/cooking related a bonus!) and jot them down in a notebook or journal
Remember feeling grateful/appreciative is more important than writing it down!

Start to cultivate your own connection to food, or reignite your existing one

Family or cultural traditions or favourites
- Visualise and remember your favourite meals, dishes, ingredients, food experiences
- Write them down to help you remember and connect
- Make something from the list, maybe a nostalgic or family favourite
When you eat something you really enjoy, during the week, bank the experience, the ingredients, the things that you enjoyed
- Can you identify the ingredients or textures or flavours you like or find out what they are
- The simple act of consciously/mindfully noticing is massive - even just knowing what they are and forming an association between your experience and the ingredients themselves offers a more intuitive connection than ingredients and instructions on a page
Engage with your food more mindfully both with ingredients and eating: smell, taste, savour, notice your physical and emotional response
- Before, during and after you cook/eat
- What’s nice about it: thoughts, smells, tastes, sensations
- How you feel physically, mentally, emotionally
Look at recipes differently - are there concepts or techniques you have used before? Are there similarities in ingredients or method with other things you have eaten or cooked?

Food as self care and self-love

the intuitive cook

Mindset