Well Nourished: Mindful Practices to Heal Your Relationship with Food, Feed Your Whole Self, and End Overeating

by Andrea Lieberstein

You don’t have to turn to food in difficult times. Well Nourished shows you how to develop a mindful relationship with food as you nourish yourself emotionally. There is much more to nourishing yourself than simply eating food. After a long day of feeling run down and exhausted, what you’re likely really hungering for are other forms of nourishment. Well Nourished is here to show you how to live a life where you can feel nourished emotionally , intellectually , physically , psychologically , spiritually , socially , and creatively . This is your chance to be mindfully present as you receive, experience, and engage in the nourishing activities and moments that will sustain you on levels other than what your stomach is telling you. You will learn to maintain an inner sense of balance and nourishment even when the waters of life are pitching you around like a ship in a storm. Well Nourished gives you the tools and practices to accomplish all of this when you might otherwise turn to food in these difficult times.
With  Well Nourished , you will develop a mindful relationship with food and craft your well-nourished life .

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Self Help, Food, Psychology, Bodies, Nutrition

208 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2017

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Common eating triggers include: seeing food, smelling food, hearing food, social situations, stress, emotional distress, procrastinating, habitual activities.

Choosing nourishing activities instead of food such ass walking in nature, engaging in a craft or a hobby, stretching, taking a hot bath or shower, dancing, calling a friend and curling up with a good book.

On your plate aim for one half vegetables, one quarter protein as in beans, nuts, seeds or tofu and one quarter whole grains.

When you can not fall asleep practice mindfulness and elicit positive emotions such as joy, gratitude and kindness.

Ten ways to increase creative thinking and living:
1. Capture new ideas in the moment.
2. Challenge yourself.
3. Enhance and broaden your knowledge.
4. Enrich your environment.
5. Reduce screen time.
6. Problem solve in novel ways.
7. Practice self care.
8. Eat well.
9. Practice mindfulness moments and meditate.
10. Just do it.

[Reneé Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a thoughtful approach to the holistic nature of maintaining one's physical, mental, and emotional balance! Read this book to enhance your core strengths and maintain your health. Simply wonderful and simply nourishing.

[Liss Carmody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find it really hard to review self-help books generally, in part because they usually seem a little fluffy and padded out - like they could have been a website or a powerpoint with bullet points and been just as effective. This is probably an unfair judgment on my part because in many cases the actual advice included in books like that isn't exactly revolutionary or earth-shaking, but people are bad at doing what we know we need to do, so finding new ways to think about and re-commit to doing those things are really the point of the book.

The basic premise of Well Nourished is that mindfulness in all aspects of your life will improve your relationship with your self and behaviors and foster more desirable actions, whereas going through life on autopilot often leads to subpar decision making, and that often enough when we want to eat, a mindful examination of that desire will lead to the conclusion that we are actually 'hungry' for some other sort of stimulation, pleasure, or nourishment aside from food, and that we could satisfy that hunger rather than eating actual food.

The overall idea is that we overbusy Americans are sort of terrible at having lives that are balanced and wholesome and feed all aspects of ourselves (think: the social, the creative, the intellectual, the emotional, the spiritual) and that if we could practice not judging ourselves so harshly against an external metric of success and instead operate in a sphere where we are attentive to and responsive to our own needs of all sorts, we would be healthier and happier in every dimension. It's a solid argument.

The remainder of the book goes into detail about each of the 'bodies' of ourselves that need regular nourishment, and invites self-assessment and provides suggestions for ways that we might start to incorporate practices into our daily lives that sustain each of these aspects of self. There are worksheets and reflection prompts that you can use, if you're so inclined - I didn't, but different tools are good for different people, so it's not bad that they're in there. This is not really a dieting or even a nutrition book as such, and even the titular claim to heal your relationship with food is less about specifically analyzing whatever messed up relationship with food and eating you may have, but more about deemphasizing food choices as the be-all end-all of healthy living. It's a very holistic perspective and I appreciate that it takes a wide view of health, but I also think it will be the most helpful to a person whose difficulties with food are primarily emotional eating and how to break out of that cycle.

Overall I found it a good (and pretty fast) read and there are ideas from here that I will be incorporating into my everyday life in order to attempt to live more gracefully.

[Kristi Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our culture is full of messages about diets and body images which can easily become idols. We can abuse food to comfort ourselves and escape from difficult emotions associated with past sins or traumas. The primary message of this book is that we can transform our thoughts surrounding food through compassion toward ourselves and others. Physical nourishment is about the quantity and quality of our food choices which impacts other areas of our lives: intellectual capacity, creativity, relationships and work. These things in turn affect our physical body and our overall health. All true and helpful to consider. However, the author leans heavily on eastern/Buddhist philosophy. As a committed Biblical Christian, I found some of her premises and practices to be limited. I believe that Christians can and are transformed by the water of His Word and the power of the Holy Spirit and He gives us our “daily bread”. All good gifts, including nourishing foods, are from His hands. For this, we can be most grateful. Psalm 103.

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I began reading this book, I was super excited! Then it felt like it repeated itself for about 4 chapters. Finally chapter five seemed to break out of the repetitive nature of the first four chapters. Also in chapter five I learned that different topics had been covered in the previous four chapters, which is news to me since it seemed solely focused on mindful eating. Which would be fine if it didn’t just repeat and repeat and repeat. Ugh! But actually once you get to about chapter five it seems like the author stepped away from the one topic and really dove into the others. I do like what I learned about mindful eating and nourishing “all the bodies” it definitely made me think more about my like holistically.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the philosophy, but skimmed through the second half of this book. I wouldn’t say this does a stellar job of helping the reader mend his/her relationship with food since it is focusing on so many different parts of a person’s life. While these are all important (and no doubt play a role in emotional eating) I still think disordered eater would walk away with the same unhealthy relationship with food after reading this book.

[Natasia Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book that I've read about health & well-being!

Since I was young, I was fighting with body image issue, constantly on a diet since I was 11. I was in serious fear of getting fat & to be honest, my mental was undermined by my own surrounding, especially my own mother & my relatives. A part of me was probably afraid that nobody loved me because I was fat. It was not completely my parents' fault; I have been suffering from anxiety disorder due to my high functioning autism. My parents were young, with my father working hard & my mother hadn't fully developed into a woman. They don't understand this stuff because it was not apparent. Furthermore, nobody understands (up to this point) how important a good, balanced diet is.

All in all, this is the right book for me because it has helped me to understand how to seek balance in my life. I was encouraged to keep reading, to keep enriching myself in the world of black and white. It has fed my intellectual body very well, but my creative body has been neglected for years. I used to draw, to paint, to sing, to play music. However, when I was pursuing my engineering degree, I forgot how it feels like to be myself, to enjoy things I do enjoy as I was busy trying to be somebody I am not. I also gained weight, causing me to be one point below overweight. And that was that. I changed my diet, did routine exercises (thank you, Blogilates!!!). I finally lost weight, but I was still in constant fear of gaining weight.

Now I've got a better perspective, I strive for balance rather than perfection.

[Jess Macallan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an e-copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

3.5 stars
This book is focused on the mindfulness of eating, and you can tell the author has a lot of experience with a mindfulness-based approach to creating and maintaining a healthy relationship with food. Each chapter offers a variety of reflections, affirmations, and meditation ideas to help the reader reconnect with what they really need nourishment for. The author covers physical, emotional, psychological, social, intellectual, creative, spiritual, and worldly nourishment. I especially liked the section on eating triggers, which is definitely worth exploring. Some of the chapters were repetitive and could have been summarized to help focus on the key points. I also wanted to see recipes for nourishment that didn't involve food to help break up the numerous worksheet/reflection sections. The SPRIGS acronym didn't work for me because it felt like a spin-off of SMART goals.

Healthy food is touched on briefly. Be aware that this isn't a prescriptive book, but rather an invitation for the reader to dig in and get to know what's really driving their desire to eat.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit repetitive but very helpful. If you're struggling with these things this is a good place to start you off in a good mind set. Reframe your relationship with food and in the process how everything else contributes. A good holistic way to approach beginning a new healthier relationship with food and your body. It's pretty dense and took a long time to read. Felt a bit like a textbook that would be edit from a course built around it.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from my library, but halfway though I was so taken by her gentle guidance and easy strategies, that I bought it as a reference. While the book focuses on eating habits, it’s actually a life manual for meditation habits. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to be more calm and develop their meditation practice.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so incredibly helpful--wise, warm and packed with information--information you can really use. As a therapist, I have adopted some of these exercises in my work with clients. This book is just so generous too--it's part inspiration, part workbook, and all intelligent and useful. I love how it is both so deep and so practical. Thank you Andrea Lieberstein!

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It really helped me slow down and inquire into my nourishment needs. The workbook aspect was great; it gave me important new perspectives and tools to work with. The author has a warm and gentle presence and you can tell that she really cares.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It really helped me slow down and inquire into my nourishment needs. The workbook aspect was great; it gave me important new perspectives and tools to work with. The author has a warm and gentle presence and you can tell that she really cares.

[Stephanie Opperman (stephanie_opp on StoryGraph) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The introduction has a nice outline for finding fulfillment in many areas of your life. The rest of the book provides a formula for reflecting on each area and journaling about it in detail.

[Zane Krēsliņa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of tips and good thoughts. Could be nice start to think more about your other parts of life, not just food and nutrition, but emotional us well.

[Joomi Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe this would be a good book for me to look at.

[Olivia Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good info, but definitely padded with info that isn’t necessary and has you make TONS of goals, which can be intimidating when you’re starting new habits.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good! A great read for those interested in being mindful.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more useful as a workbook, less so as educational to listen along

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a nice book, like the bazillions before this one that I read on the topic. I agree with the fundamentals: the different type of body to nourish, being mindful while eating, trying to analyse the triggers that make us turn to food and so on. My only disappointment is that this book doesn't really say something new about the topic, but if it was the first book I read about the subject, I would find it interesting and clear.

È un libro carino, come i milioni che lo hanno preceduto sullo stesso argomento. Sono anche d'accordo con i fondamentali: i vari "corpi da nutrire", essere concentrati nel qui ed ora quando si mangia, cercare di analizzare quali sono le situazioni che ci fanno ripiegare sul cibo, etc.etc. L'unica cosa che mi ha un po' deluso é che non ci sia davvero niente di nuovo sull'argomento, ció non toglie che se fosse il primo libro che leggessi riguardo all'alimentazione consapevole, lo avrei trovato interessante e molto chiaro.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

[Tanya Stricek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how easily digestible this book is, no pun intended! Andrea Lieberstein brings deep perspective to mindfulness practice and eating. Learning the ways to nourish ourselves, with and without food, is an essential part of being a holistic human being. Thank you Andrea for this actionable, absorbable book!

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

[Stacy]

A step by step guide to wake you up and walk you through your unhealthy relationship with food. Helps you realize and understand why you overeat, eat when not hungry or eat to soothe yourself. I highly recommend it-it helped me so much!