Engaging in Nourishment

I've been attending a once-per-month breastfeeding support group this year, and it has been more than lovely. While nursing is obviously one of the topics we converse about, the over-arching purpose of this group is more a way to convene with other mothers and their children and support each other where we're each at. This morning we had some guided conversation, based on two questions:

1. What is your current struggle?

2. What are you currently creating?

I love the transparency that is required of both questions, particularly the first one. And I certainly was transparent today, and it was comforting to learn that others have dealt with similar struggles. It was great to discuss in a small group of like-minded women, and I'm leaving my answer to that question with them. But I would like to share my answer to the second question with a wider audience, because it is something I have started to try and become more and more purposeful about, and it is an ever-evolving and very important part of my life:

Food. Nourishing food, to be more specific. And a family culture that engages around it.

I LOVE to eat. My close friends know of this love, and many have seen me pack away more than my tiny frame looks like it can hold. Food has looked remarkably different in different stages of my life, and it's been since college that I've been on a quest to figure out what healthy eating means to me. After getting married almost four years ago, I reframed my thoughts about eating to learn how to plan for and feed two people. And now that Harrison is almost a year old and thoroughly enjoying solids, I'm reframing my thoughts once again.

While I am creating tangible meals for my family to eat, there is more to it than that.

These days my reframing has involved thinking about the purpose of the food that we are ingesting. Thinking about meals at the table where my family is being nourished not only through the food itself, but also through being in the same space, through the closeness of sharing both food and conversation together. I am trying to create a better culture of food in my family, where we eat to nourish our whole selves. Where the meals I have created are an aid in nourishing my family- nutritionally, emotionally, spiritually.

This means being more purposeful about meal planning, even when it sometimes feels like the bane of my existence (particularly when combined with budgeting). This means stealing moments throughout the day to chop vegetables to make dinner prep in the evening less time-intensive, even when I'd rather sit on the couch and zone out in the minimal time I get to myself. This means sitting down and chewing slowly, even when I can't help but think about everything that "needs" to be done before bedtime. This means putting phones away during meals, even though Instagram seems oh-so-alluring. This means engaging as a family unit around the table, making eye contact, asking meaningful questions, and enjoying conversation, even if it's 7pm and it's been a long day.

The meals I am creating these days have involved more and more "slow" food, if you will. I try to always have a ferment at the table- sauerkraut is a constant these days, fermented salsa once tomatoes are in season, pickles, carrots, what have you. These are foods packed away in mason jars that were prepared up to a year in advance, bursting with a flavor my palate has learned to enjoy. They nourish our bodies in the best way- feeding our stomachs with gut-healthy bacteria that aids in whole-body health. Slow food to me also involves cooking meals from scratch, buying less in packages, making every ingredient possible at home, and starting to take better advantage of the abundant farmers markets around Los Angeles (This rainbow burger is my current favorite creation based around many of these practices.)

I learned this morning, while discussing all of the above with the other women in the group, that there is an Ayurvedic concept called Agni- which is a term to mean "fire in your belly." From what I understand, it is said that the Agni of the person preparing a meal is put into the food being prepared, and so everyone eating the meal is also ingesting the Agni that was put in to it. So if you are preparing a meal and you have a negative Agni, you are feeding that negativity to everyone you have prepared the meal for. Conversely, if your Agni is rich and positive, that is what you are passing along while cooking. With this in mind, I want to be more purposeful and joyous while cooking meals. I do enjoy cooking, and do it out of love, but of course there are the days when I feel stressed, or rushed, or just not in the mood. I want to think about what I am doing while cooking, and come back to enjoying it more thoroughly, and in the process allow my positive Agni (if you will) to be shared in the food that I am preparing, and passed along to my loved ones at the dinner table.

Hippocrates is quoted as saying "Let food be thy medicine." I truly believe that the meals we prepare and the ingredients we use in them, along with the attitudes we have while cooking and eating and the space we hold at our dinner tables, is all supremely important for the nourishment of our bodies. I am continually working on creating a better nourishing culture of food in my household, and am looking forward to experiencing what this reframing of thought will lead to next.