simple food – how to eat minimally and intuitively

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Michael Pollan

Bonjour and bienvenue to March and meditation Monday! When I think of my diet and try to motivate myself to be healthy, I always think of this quote from Michael Pollan. I think it is the perfect diet advice, the perfect food mantra. Keep it simple is the message. When you eat real food, eat it intuitively, mindfully, and you will eat just what you need. Not too much or in other words minimally – it just goes hand in hand. That’s what I’m meditating on at the moment! Simple food – how to eat minimally and intuitively.

simple food

Good food is simple food and simple food is good food. Good food shouldn’t take a lot of time, effort or ingredients. Just plan your meals around quality. Vegetables and whole grains. In this article on Goop, Dr. Will Cole gives a great explanation on how to eat, with his basic principles of a healthy plant-based ketogenic diet from his book Ketotarian.

Simple food is real food. It’s clean, organic, without additives, hormones or GMOs. It is sustainable. Eat seasonally and eat locally grown foods when possible. It is simple recipes that make you feel good.

eat minimally

A key to eating simple is learning several favorite staple meals that you can repeat easily. I think it’s also a great idea to try and limit your meals to 5 ingredients or less. I love avocado toast. 🥑 How simple is that? And nutritious. Add an egg, or chickpeas, or top with arugula or watercress. That is a favorite meal for me that I’m going to make a staple.

A minimalist diet means getting rid of all the foods that don’t serve you, help you feel your best and bring you joy. A keto style diet happens to be a minimalist diet not only because it restricts the foods you can eat but with more fat and protein you feel more satisfied with less food.

What about theme nights to keep it simple? You know I love my Martini Monday 😉 (not keto) which is also Meatless Monday and of course Pizza Friday, but how about a Taco Tuesday or Seafood Saturday? It makes meal planning simple. Speaking of martinis, how about a Mindful Drinking Monday?

eat intuitively

I recently wrote a post about what a great practice it is to eat mindfully. In meditating on how to eat more simply, I noticed how mindful eating goes along with simple eating. A minimalist diet helps you eat more intuitively or eating intuitively helps you eat more simply. Eating intuitively helps you feel satisfied with less.

To eat intuitively is more than just being mindful. It’s listening to your body’s signals, paying attention to what it wants and learning to listen to yourself, to your intuition. Be still. Just pause for a moment and notice what’s going on inside and often any unwanted cravings will go away. When you start to feel hungry, eat. Don’t wait until you are too hungry, you will overeat. And when you do eat, focus on your food, savor and enjoy it.

It will take time and patience to learn to eat intuitively and minimally. I’m thinking it will be well worth the effort. In fact, I started an intuitive fast on Sunday. No it’s not the kind of fast where you go hungry, because it includes healthy fats and protein, and all kinds of good, simple foods I already love. I’m so excited for a reset. Hopefully my (slightly rambling) meditation today inspires you think about how you are eating. Join me Wednesday for all the quoi de neuf for March. À bientôt!