Lily Nichols – Connecting the Body and Mind through Real Food Nutrition and Mindful Eating

 

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In this episode, I speak with Lily Nichols of The Pilates Nutritionist.

As well as being the founder of The Pilates Nutritionist – Lily’s business in making healthy uncomplicated and eating interesting again – Lily is a beautiful human being. One of Lily’s gifts is empowering others to discover healthy eating from a place of trust and enjoyment.

I came to Lily in February 2015 with ailments galore (at least that’s what it felt like) and a question of whether food sensitivities were driving my myriad of icky symptoms. Things were not so peachy, but I was fortunate to work with Lily to solve some puzzles. I am grateful to Lily for her calm approach and ability to work me through the process of healing my body by firstly listening to its messages and I continue to reap the rewards.

What is Real Food and Mindful Eating?

What makes food REAL? Although all food may be “real” in some senses – it exists in the world after all – I’d like to get real with how I see it.

Real food is not “food-like” substances or an imitation of foods. It’s the honest-to-goodness, bona fide of food: relatively unadulterated* and unrefined, simple yet delicious and highly nutritious whole foods that not only nourish our bodies, but also nourish our producers, consumers, and the earth, with great respect for the food system. It can be traced back generations and it’s closer to nature than what you’ll find on most supermarket shelves.

Lily and I speak about real food as it relates to approaching and preparing food, and connecting deeper with what feels good for our bodies, which is basically where mindfulness and mindful eating come in. It’s about paying more attention to our bodies and being fully aware without judgement.

If you’ve ever had a case of your food disappearing, followed by a sense of guilt, you’ll want to hear what Lily says about mindful eating.

I get excited over the huge role that real food and mindful eating play in our lives, largely because the production and quality of the food that we put into our mouths (or into our bins!) has enormous impacts on our quality of life, our health, the health of our planet, and future food security.

Snapshot of this episode

A pivotal book for Lily: Nourishing Traditions

Lily’s book: Real Food for Gestational Diabetes

• How Lily developed her philosophy in nutrition
• The strong foundation of a health-conscious family
• Importance of eating good quality food and maintaining health
• Combining wellness and nutrition focus to create The Pilates Nutritionist
• A tailored approach to mindfulness, movement and nutrition
• The infusion of mindfulness within Lily’s work
• Paying attention to the body’s signals
• What “real food” is and how it plays into mindfulness
• How to eat mindfully and fall back in love with food
• Whether it’s possible to eat mindfully with a processed food diet
• The bias around healthy eating and breaking through the noise
• If it’s possible for healthy food to taste good (hint: it tastes REAL good)
• The demonisation of fats and salt – and how to approach it
• Permission instead of restriction when it comes to the body’s needs
• Removing the guilt and the lessons to learn from “mess ups”
• How to tune into your body and learn to navigate health challenges
• The importance of mindfulness in making connections with your mind and body
• Courage in standing up and being willing to speak your truth
• Compassion around the difficulty individuals face in navigating this space

Connect with Lily Nichols

• Follow Lily via her Website, Facebook and Twitter

Episode Resources

• Lily’s Real Food for Gestational Diabetes e-course and best-selling book
• Feel Like Your Body is Failing You? (sound familiar?)
• How to Know if You’re Truly Hungry
• The “Healthy” Breakfast Mistake
• Mindful Eating: Does it Work Even When You Eat Junk Food?
• Nourishing Traditions

Podcast Support

To get the most out of this episode, I encourage you to write down the things that really resonated with you that you would like to action in your own life, starting now.

If you like this, please leave a comment, like or share it. Feel free to let me know who you would like me to interview next and don’t be afraid to spread the love with a review once they become available.

You can contact me via my website or tweet me @freemansfit.

Thank you for listening!

Enjoy the show.

*I write ‘relatively unadulterated’ because humans have played their part in agriculture and the evolution of food for many years. Like dog breeds, there have been many changes to food largely due to our hand in it. Did you know carrots used to be purple?