Our diet, much like many things in life is personal. Our eating behaviours, associations, and patterns come from a wide range of extrinsic and intrinsic factors, including education, faith, health awareness, job type, and exercise habits. Therefore, our opinion and resulting habits are linked with events that centre around food, like many religious celebrations across the globe.
For some, like many children, Easter is an exciting time where they might see friends or family. But for others, Easter, and the weeks leading up to it, can be an unwelcome time filled with anxiety and negative self-talk related to ‘bad’ foods, notably chocolate.
Therefore, a holistic approach is adopted here at Dietitian Fit & Co – our philosophy is all about sustainability and introducing nutrition changes that enable you to live your life to the fullest – and hopefully find food freedom. We would therefore like to discuss Intuitive eating. (Please note if you are struggling with your relationship with food this may be inappropriate, and we advise that you seek our help.)
Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating is based on several topics, so we will examine the ones closely linked with Easter and, therefore, ‘naughty’ foods like chocolate.
- Reject the diet mindset – talk kinder to yourself and remember that your diet refers to what you eat in the long term – overall balance is key.
- Honour your hunger signals – from time to time we may indulge, on occasions such as Easter. But after a certain point this can lead to physical discomfort – so just take a little more time to listen to your body.
- Challenge the food police – here we refer to the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods which have been labelled by society. Chocolate may be referred to as ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’ food, but this is not necessary. The balance mindset it advised.
- Take nutrition ‘gently’ – Perhaps let it take a back seat over Easter – you may prioritise thinking about your family, or perhaps a walk.
- Enjoy exercise – Move your body in a way that you enjoy – maybe by heading out for a walk, a bike ride or by starting off the bank holiday with some yoga.
Joy & Quality time
Easter egg hunt
Easter can be a great excuse for a family get together – a classic activity is an Easter egg hunt with your community, friends or family. Hunts are great because it gets everybody moving!
Arts & Crafts
- Paint eggs, decorate straw hats, draw the Easter bunny
- Find inspiration on Pinterest
Walk
Why not try a new, longer walk near you over the bank holiday! Not only is it precious quality time together (and off screens) it gets those steps in, releasing feel-good endorphins. Apps such as ‘MapMyWalk’ and ‘AllTrails’ are useful, as are the trusty OS maps.
Visit Lambs
If you are an animal lover, why not visit a farm and feed the lambs – a fabulous opportunity to capture some photos and enjoy the perks of being here in the UK with the glorious countryside.
Get Cooking & Baking
see recipe below
Mini Egg Cookies
See our reel / photo of these on our IG @dietitianfit
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies
Ingredients
- 150g butter, softened
- 150g soft brown sugar, golden caster sugar, or ideally half of each
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 180-200g plain flour (see tip below)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 200g of chocolate – we used Mini Eggs
Method
- STEP 1 – Mix the butter and sugar using an electric whisk or hand whisk until very light and fluffy, then beat in the egg and vanilla. Fold in the flour, baking powder, chocolate and ¼ tsp salt as quickly as you can. Don’t overwork the dough as this will toughen the cookies.
- STEP 2 – For the best flavour, leave the mixture overnight: either cover the bowl and chill or roll the mixture into balls and chill.
- STEP 3 – Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line two baking sheets with parchment. Divide the mixture into balls, the craggier the balls, the rougher the cookies will look. If you want to give the dough more texture, tear the balls in half and squidge them lightly back together. Space out evenly on the baking sheets, leaving enough space between each to allow for spreading.
- STEP 4 – Bake the fresh cookies for 8-10 mins and the chilled ones for 10-12 mins, or until browned and a little crisp at the edges but still very soft in the middle – they will harden a little as they cool.
If you fancy swapping the food theme to savoury foods you could always introduce scrambled eggs at breakfast, have a roast Lamb or spring vegetable pie.
Get in touch for a consultation with one of our Intuitive Eating specialist if you would like personalized advice on how to improve your relationship with food.
By Grace Arrowsmith, dietetic student. Reviewed by Reema Patel, Registered Dietitian, MSc
