HEALING OUR RELATIONSHIP
WITH FOOD
Sepel believes that the sheer amount
of nutritional and dietary information
available to us could be doing more
harm than good. “How can we not feel
confused?” she asks. “It is my industry’s
fault; we listen to everyone else, and
as a result we’ve stopped listening
to ourselves and what works for us
as individuals.
“We need to reconnect to our
unique bodies. We need to understand
that we are biochemically unique. We
need to give up diets for life, because
they don’t work long-term and they
cause us to feel disconnected from
food and our bodies. They cause
us to have a complex relationship
with food.”
So, how do we re-connect with
our bodies? The answer, says Sepel, is
incredibly simple: it’s all about tuning
in with our unique relationship with
food. Sepel encourages her clients to
take some time from their day to sit
down and be conscious of eating the
meal that’s in front of them. “Most of
us are sitting down to our meals feeling
stressed, anxious and fearful of food,”
she says. “I don’t blame you. However,
this is not healthy, this is not living a
healthy life. We have to sit down in a
calm state to eat and replace negative
thoughts with positive affirmations.”
Before we eat, Sepel advises tuning
in with our bodies, observing how we
feel and taking the time to sit, if only for
10 minutes, to eat our meals mindfully.
Becoming a mindful and intuitive eater
has been a game-changer for Sepel,
and she credits it as a major part of her
personal healing journey.
“[Mindful eating] simply means
being connected to food and how it
makes you feel,” she says. “This also
means being connected to your appetite.
It takes time to become an intuitive
eater. The goal is to eat foods that make
you feel good.
“As I mentioned, we need to give up
diets for life and embrace balance withfood. We need to sit down to our meals
and feel positive thoughts – no more
guilt! We need to be able to connect
to which foods make you feel good,
energised and satiated.”MAKING TIME
FOR INDULGENCE
Sepel says that when we stop restricting
ourselves and following a set ‘diet’ we
open up the space to truly appreciate- and even indulge – with the foods
that we love. “I choose one day of the
week to be more laidback with my
eating, which is usually Saturday and
I eat anything that I’m craving but in
moderate amounts. This makes me
want to continue eating well the rest
of the week because of how good I
feel when I do. But I never allow any
sort of restriction or deprivation in my
healthy life.
“It is quite fun to practise with this.
Choose an indulgent meal or snack
and eat it with permission and remove
the guilt. We have to let go of the all
“IT’S TIME WE
START FEELING
GRATEFUL FOR
HOW HARD
OUR BODIES
WORK FOR US.”24 | AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HEALTH naturalhealthmag.com.au