S2 Episode 12: Feeding Self-Love: Mindful Eating and Nurturing Food Choices with Mira Dessy

What if the secret to self-love and well-being was right on your plate? Allow us to take you on a delicious journey as we explore the profound connection between self-love, mindful eating, and nourishing food choices with our guest, Mira Dessy. Together, we unpack our personal journeys with food, discuss the lessons we've learned, and examine how eating can become an act of self-love. We also delve into issues like orthorexia and the pursuit of the "perfect" diet, reminding you that food is not just about nourishment for the body, but also about fostering community, connection, and joy.

In our exploration of mindful eating, we guide you to break away from automatic eating habits and become more conscious of the emotional and energetic ties we have with our food choices. Discover how to truly nourish your body and how your cravings can evolve as you become more mindful. We call you to celebrate your sensitivity, listen to your body, and find joy in every bite you take.

As we journey into the realm of self-care, we provide you with practical tips on how to make healthier food choices, manage your cravings, and plan meals that cater to your unique needs — even solutions as simple as pre-made salads. We underscore the power of self-compassion, and the importance of nurturing ourselves through our food choices. So tune in and join us on this delectable adventure. You might just be inspired to whip up a nourishing, love-filled meal for yourself today!

ABOUT Mira:
Mira Dessy is The Ingredient Guru. A holistic nutrition professional, author, and popular public speaker, she knows that it's not just what you eat, but what's in what you eat.  Mira is a Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner who helps clients find holistic solutions for chronic health issues.

Mira is a member of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals, the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, and the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. Additionally, she is on the Board of Directors for the American Holistic Health Association and is a member of the Professional Advisory Board for the Turner Syndrome Society.  She can be found online at theingredientguru.com.

FREE GIFT from Mira:
Mira is all about being prepared even in a Crisis! Get your tips here.

CONNECT with Mira:
Website  |  Instagram


Join us in the Modern Midlife Mentorship.

Learn more. 

CONNECT with Inviting Shift on Social:

Instagram  |  Facebook

Email me and tell me what you think: christina@christina-smith.com

Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts:

• Apple Podcasts/iTunes
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• YouTube Channel
• Inviting Shift Site

Transcript

Christina Smith: 1:01

Welcome back, shifters. It is another week in our October of self love, and self love shows up in so many ways, right? So one of the ways that we're going to talk about with Mira Dessy today is about how we feed ourselves and make that an act of self love. And this is a big one for me, because me and food have had some struggles over the years. So I am really excited to talk to the ingredient guru about how we care for ourselves better with food. So welcome, mira. Thank you so much for being here.

Mira Dessy: 1:40

Christina, thank you so much for having me on. I'm excited to talk with you.

Christina Smith: 1:45

I am too, but before we get started, tell us a little bit more about yourself and what it is that you do. Sure.

Mira Dessy: 1:51

So I am known as the ingredient guru, and what that means is I'm that sort of nerd elite person that walks around the grocery store and reads all the packages and doesn't buy them and subscribes to a whole bunch of industry newsletters so I can see all the things they're doing to our food in order to then be able to share with people and help them find better health and whole food. Real food solutions.

Christina Smith: 2:24

That's really beautiful. And I got to tell you, I grew up in a house where I learned how to cook by boxes and bags, right. If the food came in a box, it had its own you know its own instructions and stuff, because I was, you know, a latchkey kid, so I often made myself dinner and so I didn't really learn to cook and I ended up eating a lot of garbage in my life, Like, oh, like my breakfast I was just joking with a friend the other day my breakfast used to be Pepsi and Doritos, right, and then in my mid 30s I got the worst stomach problems and it took a really long time to solve them. I actually went to health coaching school just to figure out if there was something I could be doing different and surprise, surprise, seven Pepsi's a day Isn't the recommended diet.

Mira Dessy: 3:19

No kidding. And the other thing that I think is so challenging for so many people you know, the how we feed ourselves is one of those things our bodies are so miraculously made. It can tolerate a lot of abuse and all of a sudden, when things start not working properly, we don't know where that came from, because it has taken place like you play in your case, for example over decades, and then the symptoms mimic so many other things. You wind up going through this battery of tests and unfortunately and I have personally been down this road myself as well, unfortunately as wonderful as doctors are and as much as they care and they want to help and they want to support their nutrition, education is about that much, so small, and they don't necessarily look at food as part of the solution.

Christina Smith: 4:24

Yeah, it definitely is part of the solution, Because after I fixed my diet, I wouldn't say everything went away. I had some stress issues too that I really had to manage through. But it's really the way that I was looking at food, where it was like even today, when I get into my hot flashes or my PMS, I can get to the point where I just like I'm like I've been eating for 46 years I got to do this for the rest of my life and it becomes frustrating to me, because of all the issues that I've had, that now I stay away from a lot of foods because I know that they're not going to make me feel good, and so I can get really frustrated with this part. And the thing that has helped me is a lot of self compassion and being able to say okay, Christina, this is like just like the topic of our show. Right is like eating is a form of self love.

Christina Smith: 5:22

And I'm not sure you know, I'm sure that there's all kinds of therapeutic issues in my head around food, and I think that there are for a lot of women, because at least when I was growing up, it was like no fats, all the fats are bad, don't eat fats, right. And then what did the food companies do? But they threw in a lot of sugar, because they were like, well, we need to get flavor somehow, let's throw in sugar. And then our culture got even more obese and we were like, oh, maybe sugar is bad.

Mira Dessy: 5:51

Well, you know, one of the things that I want to, I want to address something you said right at the very beginning of that statement is, you know, talking about trying to overcome decades of mindless eating. We just ate food. Was food we're. We're taught growing up oh, food doesn't really matter. Calories, calories, calorie and we can dive deeper into that if you want, but they are certainly not all equal.

Mira Dessy: 6:16

And then the other thing that happens is everybody gives us this oh well, if you want to insert health condition here, you know that you're looking to lose weight. Eat less, exercise more. That's not always the answer. The answer is we need to eat the right foods and maybe we're exercising too much. Like it's it's all about bio individuality. However, one of the things that tends to happen is a lot of people then go oh, I need to really like double down, I need to get firm with myself, I need to really pay attention to everything, and we become so hyper focused that there is a potential to develop a condition called orthorexia.

Christina Smith: 6:57

Yes, I had that when I went to health coaching school because of that.

Mira Dessy: 7:02

Right, where everything has to be perfect, and what that essentially does is take away any enjoyment you possibly ever had with food, because you are so hyper focused on. Everything has to be exactly right. You can't eat out, you can't eat with friends, you can't enjoy treats, you can't do all these things, and food is definitely there to nourish us and to support our body so that we can grow and be healthy, but it's also part of our community. It's it's part of gatherings and all of these things that get blown out the window when we all of a sudden decide that we have to be perfect, and it is really actually kind of icky. The goal is instead to be mindful and to pay attention so that we can really listen to what's going on with our body.

Christina Smith: 7:57

Yeah, I love that so much because that's what I've learned to do and I feel like, for all those people out there that ever been called too sensitive, I want you to celebrate that, because it's my sensitivity that can say that tomato is not gonna feel good in my stomach, and I already know that, right, because of my past experience. But the only reason I know that is because I had to become really mindful about how food felt in my body, and it's a thing that I never paid attention to before. Like you said, you know we just put the calories in because we have to eat three times a day or whatever. You know, bio-individualism works for us. But that mindfulness has had me going.

Christina Smith: 8:47

Oh, now I actually know that a Pepsi isn't gonna feel good, or even if it doesn't hurt me in the moment, like I know I'm gonna crash in an hour, I'm not gonna feel good and I don't really have time to be that fuzzy headed today, right, so I can start getting used to. Like, how does my body react to that? Is that what you mean by mindfulness?

Mira Dessy: 9:08

That's part of it. There's a couple of different aspects. So one is certainly recognizing when your body doesn't feel well when you eat certain things, because part of the reason we eat certain things is thanks to the food producers who make them hyper palatable and we essentially become addicted to oh I'm hungry, I'll have Doritos. Oh I'm thirsty, I'll have a Pepsi, whatever those become our default settings for food and thirst. You know quenching and really it's neither.

Mira Dessy: 9:43

And the other part of it is also learning to tap in mindfully to some of the habits that we built, because, again, we tend to eat on autopilot. You know, humans like the same. You know, not everybody likes the same 20 foods, but as humans we tend to like about 20 foods. We have our favorites and those are the ones that we want to eat all the time. And unfortunately, if we grow up without good options or good healthy habits modeled for us, we then grow up thinking that, you know, some of these things that pass for food at the grocery store are what we should be eating. And then the other part of that, the most important part, is we also don't learn to tie how we're feeling emotionally or energetically with the food choices that we're making. And it's really challenging because we I remember when I first went to school and there was this form that said what do you eat when you're happy? What do you eat when you're sad? What do you eat when you're angry? What do you eat? Who thinks about that?

Christina Smith: 10:55

Right, just do it automatically.

Mira Dessy: 10:57

Right, and the answer for most of them, by the way, was chocolate.

Christina Smith: 11:02

What I'm feeling in emotion. Chocolate is the answer.

Mira Dessy: 11:06

But by the end of my training I had really developed so much more awareness and I could tell there were certain times where, like if I was stressed or angry, I wanted something crunchy, I needed something noisy, and salt was like a really big thing. And I never really thought about that before Mm-hmm. And I think that for many of us, because we don't, we're not taught to look at ourselves as this holistic whole body, mm-hmm. Aspect of being we forget that it is truly mind, body, spirit, and so as we nourish the body, we're also nourishing or responding to other aspects of ourselves that may need support as well, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes we're just eating because, yes, I'm hungry.

Mira Dessy: 11:59

The weird thing is, I remember being so startled it was probably about three quarters of the way through school when I got to a point where I realized that when you nourish your body instead of just feeding it, a lot of your cravings go away, no longer craving sweets the same way I used to. I was no longer as drawn to certain foods because I was really developing this awareness of how to connect with my body. And then the moment that really kind of blew me away. And I find this works with clients to because as we start changing our diet, we go through learning how to, how to balance, create foundational habits, had more veggies, eat less sugar, all those wonderful things. All of a sudden they go. I'm craving broccoli. Is that weird? I'm like no, that's a creepy I can support.

Christina Smith: 13:00

Yes, yes, that happens to me too. Like once I started paying attention to my body, all that garbage that I was buying at the gas stations for, you know, a snack or lunch or whatever Like I started realizing that it wasn't making me feel good. And even today, like I used to love sweets and today, like one or two bites is plenty for me, like I do not need that. Now my husband has the opposite problem. He wants to eat everything. So he like we're jealous of each other because I want to be able to be like I can eat anything and just throw it in my stomach. And he wants to be to the point where he is just being a little bit more mindful because his bowl device creamer a bit large, my judgment. But, but that is true after a while. Because now I actually crave salads which is, you know who knew that that could be a thing right and I actually like crave the greens. And I crave fiber, fiber foods because I know that they're going to help me feel better and they're going to last me longer.

Christina Smith: 14:06

Like I can't even imagine Eating the way I did 15 years ago today, because I feel like I would be so exhausted and cranky when I think back to that period of my life. I was going through a divorce and stuff and I know I was eating all of the garbage, right, lots of pizza, lots of stuff, and not that pizza is bad for you, but I'm sure that you you talk about like a balance of foods, right and, and having just that one food. Now, when I eat pizza has to be like a Friday or Saturday night when I have nothing else to do, because chances are, I know in my body I'm going to go right to sleep and or I'm going to feel drowsy, like I can't do pizza during the day. I'm going to need a nap, and so that's one of my sensitivities and how I've learned how to be mindful of being like okay. Well, there's certain foods that I are not going to help me During the day because I'm not going to last. Sure, and some of it, too, is also learning to find.

Mira Dessy: 15:09

Alternatives to the foods that we love. So, for example, I know that I struggle with gluten does doesn't agree with me, and so for me, if I'm going to have a pizza, generally it needs to be something that's on a. You know, I can't do a traditional Thick crust, you know, stuffed crust, like I used to do. All of that when I was in college and even when I was a young adult, like that was my thing. I loved pizza. And now, generally, either it's going to be made from a gluten free dough or a cauliflower base and or it's going to be Something like a pizza for you know, perhaps a siate wrap with the sauce and all the toppings and everything, and I'm just making little mini ones and having those instead.

Mira Dessy: 16:05

And what I find and often when I'm working with people around, the concept of mindfulness, trying to improve, help them, you know, build that deeper connection. It's not so much about the food. In the end, it's about the company, or it's about the set, or it's about what's going on. That makes it even more enjoyable for us, because if it was just about the food, I Think we're missing a whole piece of how we're nourishing ourselves.

Christina Smith: 16:33

Mmm, I really like that, yeah, and because it really depends on, for me, the attitude I have when I get in the kitchen, because the biggest thing for me is I grew up as like the second mother to my four siblings and so I was always in charge of the cooking and the dinner and the blah, blah, blah, and I Grew up where the kitchen wasn't a fun place to be. It was just like a lot of work. And my husband grew up the complete opposite, where being in the kitchen meant your family was around, great food was being made, conversation was happening and they had like this really good. You know, feeling around being in the kitchen where it was like the complete opposite for me. So for me, I have to like, I mean even over above, because I think, like so many people, know what they should and should not eat.

Christina Smith: 17:26

It's this mindfulness piece, right? I mean we already know that the chocolate 12 chocolate cupcakes for breakfast isn't good, but we want to do it anyway. And and that's really why I wrote the inviting shift book, because when I became a health coach, it was like these women who want to lose weight, most of the time they know what they need to do, right, it's actually getting through what I call the f-stage fear, fortitude or whatever f4. Do you want?

Christina Smith: 17:52

to use, because that's where we start making the changes, right, and that's where we start making these different choices. And that's really the hard part. It's not the whole. Okay, I get it, I shouldn't do gluten or sugar or whatever is the thing that's catalyst in me? Right, that's making the bad choices.

Christina Smith: 18:10

But when we actually go to make those choices, like you said, we can often go back to those defaults, right, like I'm really hungry, I don't have a lot of time, great, I can grab a Pepsi and Doritos.

Christina Smith: 18:21

Yeah, I knew that that wasn't nourishing me, but I didn't give myself enough, like I didn't put enough emphasis on this part of ourselves that, like, how am I nourishing my body? And it wasn't just food, it was often like drinking enough water or getting enough sleep, right, like all these things that we know we should be doing. Eating fresh foods, whole foods are always the best foods, right, like and, and for me, it was really about how do I get myself to Stop in the moment, take a breath, have some compassion and say yes, christina, I know that you're really busy and we're gonna take 30 minutes to go make ourselves something that's worth eating. You know, that's actually gonna nourish us and help us get through the rest of the day Instead of going back to those defaults, and I guess I'm bringing this up because I want people to know that this Sounds like such a simple thing. Like Maya Angelou, doesn't you say like when you know better you?

Mira Dessy: 19:22

do better, not all the time, and you know there's. There's two points that I'd like to bring up. One is you know I I mentioned a moment ago that For a lot of people, food is about gathering and family or friends and whatever. That doesn't mean that that's the only thing that it's about. Sometimes food is about taking that time for yourself and something really special Because it is a form of self-care and self-love.

Mira Dessy: 19:53

So, for example, for me, my husband does not like lamb. I love it, and so we usually have one or two pork chop not pork chops, lamb chops in the freezer and If he happens to be away, he's, you know, over at a friend's playing pool or he's out on a trip or whatever. I'm having lamb chop for dinner and I make myself like this really lovely meal and I sit down and, yes, sometimes I put it on the good China and sometimes I'll even light a candle. It's about taking care of yourself and nourishing yourself. The other thing that comes up is because so much of what we've learned is on Autopilot. It's a default setting. It's not like you're expected to listen to this podcast, for example, and then tomorrow you're gonna wake up and bam, everything's gonna be person right, it's about baby steps, it's about okay, what are some things that I can do that would make this Better, easier, more supportive for me?

Mira Dessy: 21:02

Maybe I Can make myself a few salad in a jar things where you layer them in a particular order and you've got you know Two or three of them in the fridge ready to go. So then, when you want something, eat there, it is because one of the things that happens when we're feeling hungry, overwhelmed, sad, insert whatever. Here we reach for the junk because it's a quick fix and our bodies have learned that it's a quick fix and our brain sort of disassociates if we go oh wait, I could do that. Or I've got this really yummy salad that I actually made myself with my favorite blue cheese dressing.

Mira Dessy: 21:37

So I'm gonna have that you know that easy, or also Making sure that we look at where do you struggle the most. Some people breakfast is a really hard thing. I don't know what to do breakfast. I'm like I'd rather sleep. I'm up, I got to get out the door. It's easy to run through Dunkin Donuts and just grab a donut and a coffee.

Mira Dessy: 21:56

So what do you do to support yourself? How can you make that easier for you? Other people it's three o'clock in the afternoon. I feel like man. I really need a Snickers right now. You know what. Figuring out what those trouble spots are start there. And then you, instead of doing that, what can I do to nourish myself? How do I have an more optimal choice available? And Then, as you start to do that, the goal is, you know, hopefully you're working with a coach or even if you're doing it on your own, you learn how much better you feel and you think back and you're like man. Three months ago I was like shaking down the candy machine and now I bring a healthy snack with me and I love it. And, matter of fact, you know, the people who work around me are jealous and they want me to start making it for them too. If you never know, you know, but those are. It's about baby steps, it's about progress, not perfection.

Christina Smith: 22:54

I really love that because I mean, even though I went to health coaching school, it took me years to get to like a 95% whole foods diet because, again, I had never learned how to cook. So to expect that tomorrow I'm going to wake up and suddenly know how to whip myself up All the great tasting and good, healthy foods that I wanted would be crazy. But it's really about comparing ourselves. Am I doing better this week than I was all those other weeks? Okay, great. Well then I'm in the right direction and taking these like little steps, because I always think like about New Year's resolutions. Where do I wish that tomorrow I'm going to wake up and I'm going to do the exercise and I'm going to eat right, I'm going to get the water and the blah and the blah and the meditating and the journaling. Yes, I would like to believe that tomorrow I'm going to wake up like a different person, but chances are that's way too many changes at one time for us to keep up with. That's why we see people go into the gym for the first week and then weeks two, three, four. You see less and less people again. It's because they're trying to white knuckle their way through it instead of like they do it with discipline instead of love, and I think that that's where we're trying to get to is like we're doing this because it's really.

Christina Smith: 24:11

I do this because it's really good for myself, and I love that you were talking about how we prepare, right. Like I know that during the day, I get so busy that I don't want to stop for an hour to go cook myself a meal and do all of that stuff. So I do prepare. On Sundays, I usually have some kind of bean salad that I can add to just lettuce, so that all the ingredients for my salad are already in this salad, and then I just add lettuce and boom, I have a great salad and it tastes delicious because I made it on a Sunday when I had plenty of time and I could actually enjoy being in the kitchen, which is a huge thing.

Christina Smith: 24:50

And I love the idea of like you almost create a dinner date for yourself, like I'm going to make myself a good meal, right, instead of expecting somebody else to do it or me doing it just for my husband or whomever. I'm going to make this really great meal because I also do that. I find that I really enjoy cooking when my husband's not in the house and I can make whatever I want without him going. What you doing? Why you doing it that way?

Mira Dessy: 25:18

I also think one really important thing for people to keep in mind is that we are so unused to taking care of ourselves. We're used to taking care of everybody else first, especially if you're the one who does most of the nurturing in your family. When it comes to, you know, child responsibilities, if you have kids, or food responsibilities, or all the different things that have to happen to make a household and a life run. If you're the one who's in charge of most of it for other people, you learn to take care of everybody else first and yourself last. So mindfulness is recognizing when you need a little love and a little attention as well. And then the other thing that we need to keep in mind about how we accomplish all of this.

Mira Dessy: 26:14

Unfortunately, our society is very much this sort of drill sergeant, get her done, pull yourself up by your moose drops like rah, rah, rah. It's really harsh. And instead we need to go oh man, like this is a little tougher than I thought, or I need a little more care and attention here, and if we have a blip which is going to happen, it does instead of beating ourselves up going, oh I'm such a failure, I have no willpower, I'm so weak Like please don't use those words to yourself, because your mind and your body and your spirit, they hear what you say and what you think, and so instead we go. Oh, maybe that wasn't the best choice. So now, how am I going to make sure that I am taking care of myself so that that doesn't happen again? What can I do to be mindful of the potential for this situation to happen again?

Christina Smith: 27:15

I like that, like almost like learning a lesson from it. Like, where was it that I broke down and decided that 12 cupcakes for breakfast was a good idea, right? And so tracing that back so that we can learn from it, right? I mean, that's really what it is. And when I ate those 12 cupcakes, how did I feel? Oh, I felt like I wanted to crash all day. And so when we keep that mindfulness in our head at least for me, when I have a bad experience with food because I've eaten too much or I've eaten the wrong things, I always go something to remember next time, christina, when we're making that same choice.

Mira Dessy: 27:56

I call that three cookie syndrome. It's something that, when I'm working with clients, we talk about. Let's say, for example, the serving size on a package of cookies is two cookies and you eat three cookies. And immediately you feel so bad that you ate three cookies. You just finished the rest of the sleeve of thin mints.

Mira Dessy: 28:15

I might as well Get this defeatist attitude. And then we go okay, so I had three cookies, wasn't the choice I wanted to make? So I'm going to accept that I did that and I'm going to think about was I hungry for something else? Did I not have enough that I needed that little extra? Like, what is it that caused me to do that? And I'm also not saying that we have to go strictly by serving sizes, because, like, I could chop for a whole hour on that topic alone, but just be aware of the fact that we have this sort of weird default that happens when we overconsume. Something like we have a cupcake and then we go, oh, that was really good, I'm gonna have another cupcake. And then all of a sudden, next thing you know, you're sitting there with crumbs all around you and you've eaten 12 cupcakes and you're like oh, like now I don't feel good. How do we stop ourselves from devolving into that sort of mindless downward spiral?

Mira Dessy: 29:22

And the way you do that is by paying attention and by being kind to ourselves.

Christina Smith: 29:28

I've been watching this Netflix documentary on centurions, on people who are hundred. Right yeah, the blue line yeah, yeah, and part of that is about food. But it's like the one culture and I forget you have to watch the documentary if you want to know but there was one culture that they were studying where they only eat to their 80% full.

Mira Dessy: 29:53

That's their cultural. They're right there. What's happening is they're 80% full.

Christina Smith: 29:59

Yeah, which I think is so different than how we I mean the serving sizes that we have here in the US are kind of insane. The foods that they give us and the really, really dense foods, like if you go out to eat and they're just like that's got to feed three people, how is that my serving size?

Christina Smith: 30:19

But I know that in this culture we are used to eating until we are like stuffed, and that's never really felt good to me. My husband doesn't ever hit that point. I don't know. I don't know if what's going on with his stomach, but he's got like an extra stomach somewhere because he never and he eats a huge amount of food.

Christina Smith: 30:40

But his mindfulness is that he fasts so that he can eat in a short period of time and he can eat almost as much as he wants to eat, because he's eating all his calories within a few hours. And that is the way that, mindfully, he's come to the conclusion that that actually makes him feel really good. It gives him energy during the day. He gets a feeling of satiation or of being satiated, so that he doesn't do all the craving all the time. And he really I mean during the day, when he's not, when he's working he doesn't even think about food, which is pretty amazing for him. So I guess what I'm getting to the point of like this is all individualized and that's why coming back to the mindfulness is so important, like what actually feels good in my body.

Christina Smith: 31:27

I've tried his fasting because I would be a big fan of being able to eat just once a day and like getting all my calories in, but my body is built more like a small rodent, where it really wants me to eat like 10 times a day, just like three bites, and that's painful for me sometimes, but and I, because of that, I've been able to like okay.

Christina Smith: 31:53

Well, here's little snacks, and in my life I never really had snacks. I had snacks for meals maybe, but like I didn't have snacks in addition to my meals and that actually helps me stay energetically good all day and nice and clear, because my, I guess my metabolism is just constantly working and that that feels good to me, whereas it's not going to feel good for my husband, because if he starts eating, he'll have the 12 cupcakes and the cookies and the you know all the things he eats good food too, but he, you know, whatever is available, he'll shove it in his mouth, and so I really think and that's why I brought you on here was that eating well and being mindful about our food is a way that we really nourish and nurture ourselves, right? So this is like our. I talk about archetypes a lot, so this is a bit like our mother archetype and, like you said, we rarely mother ourselves.

Mira Dessy: 32:53

And this is.

Christina Smith: 32:54

You said it in different words, but I'm going to say that we rarely mother ourselves. We take care of everyone else. First is what you were saying, and then you know it's almost like we have to deserve taking care of ourselves. Like, have I earned taking care of myself instead of going? I don't need a special occasion to make myself a lamb chop or whatever it is that I want. I can do it anytime.

Christina Smith: 33:19

And I know that when I'm actually cooking from real ingredients, now that I've learned, there's something really beautiful about it. There's something really wonderful about smelling the foods as they're cooking and like a lot of love that goes into it and you know tasting and stuff. It's become a more beautiful experience. So even if your experience is in the kitchen haven't been great thus far, that can shift we just for me it took a lot of compassion and patience of going. Okay, christina, I know you're really hungry now because I used to wait until I was like starving and my brain was starving. So now I noticed it because I'm more mindful, I noticed it ahead of time why I'm going to be hungry in like an hour. I really should stop what I'm doing and go take care of that, because if I don't, I know that the rest of my day emotionally, mentally, gets all fuzzy. If I get to that like I'm starving right now kind of phase.

Christina Smith: 34:21

It's like that Snickers commercial, the diva and the benzine.

Mira Dessy: 34:24

They're like I think you need a snack, you're hangry, yeah right, and I also want to encourage people to remember that the more we take care of ourselves, the more energy, resilience, flexibility, foundation we have to take care of others. Yeah.

Mira Dessy: 34:49

Not about being selfish. It's about being practical, because if you burn yourself out and exhaust yourself because you're doing for everybody else and so all that's left is to go oh yeah, there's popcorn for dinner Like that's not going to be, that's not going to be a great choice, somewhere down the line it's going to catch up with you.

Christina Smith: 35:08

Yeah, it sure does. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us today. I know that you have a free gift for us. You want to tell us about that.

Mira Dessy: 35:17

I do, I'm so excited. So, as the ingredient guru, one of the things that I believe is we should be able to nurture ourselves under any circumstance, including during emergency situations. So I have a program called the Preparedness Pantry Masterclass, where I teach people how to build a preparedness pantry, how to build it with foods that their family will actually eat Please don't buy this to say that. And so what I've done is the first module of that class is called 10 Tips for Emergency Preparedness, and this is just general emergency preparedness things that you need to know to be prepared. I have opened that module up for free to everybody who's listening to this, and so I will send you the link.

Mira Dessy: 36:05

Yes, and you're welcome to come and take that class and learn more about the things you need to know.

Christina Smith: 36:12

What a great way to take care of yourself is to feel prepared for when emergencies are happening, and I love the idea of you putting a whole course together on how you can still nourish yourself. Well, because you're right, like when I look at the the prepareer stuff, it's usually like boxed, canned, high ingredient type of stuff that you can't read all the ingredients, or you know, we go back to my childhood of cooking out of boxes that have the instructions on them.

Mira Dessy: 36:45

You offer want to be in a situation where, if you're being warned that there's an emergency coming there's a blizzard, there's a flood, there's a hurricane, whatever the last thing you really want to do if you can at all help, it is get online at the grocery store with everybody else who's filled their shopping carts up with crappy food. You just don't want to be in that chaotic mind Think you want to be home going. Oh, I've got what I need. I'm good.

Christina Smith: 37:11

Beautiful, yeah, beautiful. What a great way of taking care of yourself. Well, mira, thank you so much for being here with us today. I really appreciate you. I know that this is going hopefully to hit home for some people. So if you need more information on how we nourish and nurture ourselves through food and self love, mira has some links below. I want you to go visit them. Go shout out at her social media and she's got all kinds of great tips that can come to you about how we really take care of ourselves through food, how we have this self love through food. Thank you so much. Thank you, christina. It was lovely to talk with you, you too. Thank you, listeners, for tuning in. We'll see you next week.