Tag: mindful eating

Nourishing Your Gut: Compassionate Support for GI Disturbances

Written by Kendra Gaffney on July 22, 2025. Posted in Articles.

At Nutritious Thoughts, we understand that living with gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances can profoundly impact your daily life. Making eating a source of anxiety rather than nourishment. From chronic bloating and discomfort to unpredictable bowel habits, GI issues can feel isolating and overwhelming. We believe that true well-being stems from a harmonious relationship between your gut, your mind, and the food you eat.

We offer a compassionate, holistic approach to help you cultivate change around your digestion. We work on empowering you to find relief, build gut resilience, and rediscover the joy of eating.

Understanding GI Disturbances: More Than Just a “Stomach Ache”

GI disturbances are a broad category encompassing a range of symptoms and conditions that affect the digestive system. These are not merely physical discomforts; they often have significant impacts on mental health, energy levels, and quality of life. Common conditions and symptoms include:

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS): Characterized by abdominal pain, cramping, bloating, gas, and changes in bowel habits (diarrhea, constipation, or both).
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): Chronic inflammatory conditions like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO): An excess of bacteria in the small intestine, leading to bloating, gas, diarrhea, and malabsorption.
Food Sensitivities/Intolerances: Adverse reactions to certain foods (e.g., lactose intolerance, gluten sensitivity, FODMAPs) that cause digestive upset.
Chronic Constipation or Diarrhea: Persistent issues that interfere with daily functioning.
Heartburn/GERD: Persistent acid reflux.

The interplay between the gut and the brain (the “gut-brain axis”) is increasingly understood, highlighting why stress, anxiety, and even past experiences can significantly influence digestive health.

Our Approach: Healing Your Gut, Mind, and Relationship with Food

At Nutritious Thoughts, our philosophy for supporting individuals with GI disturbances is rooted in deep empathy and a holistic perspective. We move beyond a symptom-focused approach to address the underlying factors contributing to your discomfort.

We emphasize:

Compassionate Exploration: We create a safe space to discuss sensitive symptoms without judgment, validating your experiences and working collaboratively towards solutions.
The Gut-Brain Connection: Recognizing that stress, emotions, and thoughts profoundly impact digestion, we integrate strategies to support both gut health and mental well-being.
Personalized Nourishment: There’s no one-size-fits-all diet for GI issues. We work with you to identify triggers, explore suitable foods, and build sustainable eating patterns that calm your system.
Empowerment & Trust: We empower you to tune into your body’s signals, fostering trust in your digestive system and reducing fear around food.

How We Support Your Journey to Digestive Well-being

Our collaborative team at Nutritious Thoughts offers a multi-faceted approach to guide you toward relief and a more peaceful relationship with your gut:

1. Personalized Nutritional Strategies

Symptom Identification & Trigger Analysis: We help you systematically track symptoms and identify potential food and lifestyle triggers through detailed assessment and elimination/reintroduction protocols (e.g., modified FODMAP diet, targeted eliminations) if appropriate and under guidance.
Gentle Nutrition for Gut Health: Guiding you toward balanced eating patterns that reduce inflammation, support a healthy gut microbiome, and promote digestive ease. This may involve incorporating fiber, probiotics, and specific nutrients.
Meal Planning for Relief: Developing flexible and enjoyable meal plans that accommodate your sensitivities while ensuring adequate nutrition and preventing nutrient deficiencies.
Rebuilding Food Enjoyment: Helping you reintroduce foods safely and expand your diet variety, reducing food-related anxiety and fostering a positive relationship with eating.

2. Addressing the Gut-Brain Axis & Emotional Well-being

Mind-Body Techniques: Teaching practical strategies like diaphragmatic breathing, guided imagery, and mindfulness to calm the nervous system, reduce gut sensitivity, and alleviate GI symptoms exacerbated by stress.
Stress Management: Exploring the impact of chronic stress on your digestion and developing personalized stress-reduction techniques.
Processing Emotional Factors: Creating a safe space to address anxiety, fear, and frustration related to GI symptoms, which can often perpetuate the cycle of discomfort.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) & Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy: Utilizing therapeutic approaches to reframe negative thought patterns around food and body, and to calm the gut-brain connection.

3. Sustainable Lifestyle & Self-Care

Movement for Digestion: Exploring gentle physical activity that supports gut motility and reduces stress, such as walking, yoga, or stretching.
Sleep Optimization: Recognizing the vital role of quality sleep in digestive and overall health.
Hydration & Fiber Balance: Practical guidance on optimal fluid intake and appropriate fiber consumption to support regularity and comfort.

Your Collaborative GI Health Team

Effective management of GI disturbances often thrives with a multidisciplinary, supportive team. At Nutritious Thoughts, we can help you coordinate care with:

Registered Dietitian (RD/RDN): Specializing in gut health, to provide medical nutrition therapy, guide elimination protocols, and develop personalized eating plans.
Gastroenterologist: For diagnosis, medical management, and to rule out underlying medical conditions.
Therapist (LCSW, Psychologist, LMFT): To address anxiety, stress, depression, or trauma impacting the gut-brain connection, and to process the emotional burden of chronic GI issues.
Integrated Practitioners: Such as Pelvic Floor Physical Therapists or Acupuncturists, if complementary therapies are deemed beneficial.

Embracing a Future of Digestive Peace & Freedom

Living with GI disturbances doesn’t mean a lifetime of discomfort and restriction. It means cultivating a deeper understanding of your unique body, nurturing your gut-brain connection, and building sustainable habits that foster digestive peace.

At Nutritious Thoughts, we are dedicated to guiding you toward a future where eating is enjoyable again, your gut feels calm, and you can live with greater comfort and confidence.

Explore Your Relationship with Food with a Registered Dietitian in Raleigh, NC

Thinking about food all the time isn’t a sign that you’re failing, it’s a signal that something deeper wants to be heard. Nutritional counseling in Raleigh, NC can offer you the space to explore that signal with compassion and care. At Nutritious Thoughts, we help clients unravel the “why” behind their food thoughts, reconnect with their bodies, and create relationships with food that feel sustainable, grounded, and peaceful.

Contact us at (828) 333-0096 or email info@nutritious-thoughts.com
Tell us more about yourself.
Food thoughts aren’t a flaw—they’re a signal. Let’s listen with compassion.

Mindful Eating Practices with the support of a Registered Dietitian

Written by Kendra Gaffney on July 2, 2025. Posted in Articles.

How-To: Not a Carefulness Practice, but Instead One that Fosters Curiosity, Presence, and Appreciation

By Molly List, posted by Kendra Gaffney

Spaghetti and meatsauce served on a paper plate. Outside. Eaten at a picnic table. It’s sort of breezy, a bit of a chill in the air. Sort of overcast and dreary. But look at that steam from my food, rising from my plate of spaghetti. I swear nothing smells tastier. I swear nothing looks tastier. I swear nothing is tastier. I swear nothing is more nostalgic or satisfying than eating spaghetti outside.

I remember when I first heard of “mindful eating.” It sounded a lot like “Let’s be careful with our food choices.” “Is this a balanced enough choice?” “Let’s be sure not to overeat.”

We don’t have to search for too long to find another person, program, maybe well-intentioned healthcare professional that can offer us an answer to our “problems” with food, with eating, with ourselves. If only we could find the answer or the thing that works.

What do we want from our food choices? What do we want from our eating experiences? What if within us is the only place in which we can unlock the answers to knowing what food, what way of eating, could best serve us?

My experiences with eating spaghetti and meatsauce outside for dinner while camping growing up helped me to connect with the practice of mindful eating and to my wants, needs, and desires around eating and nourishment. Below, I share with you some perspectives on what mindful eating isn’t, and offer you what it can be if you are open to it.

All you need is curiosity and something to eat!

Mindful eating is NOT

x a restrictive or rigid eating plan

There are no “shoulds” to the choices you make around what you eat. It’s not about nourishing yourself less. We often are then left unsatisfied, longing for more. An undernourished, unsatisfied you isn’t the goal.

x about eating perfectly or about eating in complete silence, with no distractions

Being in company with something or someone might support you in an eating experience, so don’t poo-poo a loved one, a video call, some music, a podcast, or a TV show to accompany you when you eat. Mindful eating can also still be accomplished while you’re in your car! I share that it can, based off experience.

x about judging what or how much you’re eating, compared to yesterday’s you or the

person eating next to you

This practice is not universally the same for all. Each person may practice it differently, and even you may participate in it differently, meal to meal, day to yester-year. The practice can ebb and flow just like life does.

x doesn’t involve complex rules or calculations

Don’t we all love black or white. Right or wrong. Pass or fail. So help us when we are encouraged to take the reins back and look inwards to be guided by our own inner wisdom.

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are.

Mindful Eating Is …

…bringing intentionality to our food choices, as we can. Not all of us have the privilege to intuitively choose to nourish our body with what might feel most supportive to us on all fronts.

If feasible, you might ask yourself, “What sounds good? What would I like out of this choice? How might I be able to have this choice be more satisfying, filling, and fueling?”

…bringing awareness to the now. Eating for necessity, for self-care, to comfort, etc. can look different for everyone. Know that we can benefit greatly from checking in with our surroundings, our body and with our food.

If you can, you might ask or share with yourself, “How do I feel? I am here. I am safe. What would make me more comfortable at this moment? Could I ask for assistance from another in any way? How is my breath? How could it feel to take 3, slow deep-embodied breaths? How does my posture feel? What would feel more comfortable? Where are my shoulders? Would they feel more comfortable being brought down?”

…involving your senses as you feel comfortable doing so. Some individuals may have difficulty with certain sensory experiences. Mindful eating is about working to honor what feels safe, nourishing, and satisfying for YOU.

You might get curious about and/or even bring in conversation around your experience with food as you’re eating – whether it be with yourself or with those you’re eating with! Are you driven to eat something on your plate first? What are all of the colors that exist on your plate? Do you enjoy the smell of your meal? Might a memory or a person be associated with your experience with the smell or food? How does the food feel in your mouth as you chew your food? How do the different textures compliment one another to make the meal even more satisfying? Is the warmth or chill, satisfying, comforting, or refreshing? Do I feel a sense of fullness? What could make this more satisfying, more nourishing?

…eating without judgment. Food is food. Food isn’t good or bad. One food choice isn’t right or wrong. My worth isn’t defined by my food choice. Notice your thoughts. Notice without judgment.

You might notice whether that food, your snack or meal was satisfying, if you are full, uncomfortably full, if you’re done eating, or if you choose to have more. I offer you an opportunity to name your experience or choice without explanation or apology.

There are a multitude of benefits when bringing in a more mindful eating practice.

Improved digestion – as you tune in, you may choose to chew food more thoroughly. When smelling and experiencing food, your body will often more supportively produce saliva and digestive enzymes to aid in the breakdown of food.
Enhanced taste perception for more satisfaction with eating – paying attention to food can increase the enjoyment of flavors and sensory experiences aiding in feelings of satiation.
Reaching a desirable fullness – as you tune into your body, food, eating experience overall, you may eat in a manner that may allow for you to discover a satisfying more comfortable fullness.
Greater ability to recognize, differentiate and interweave the 4 types of hunger – physical, taste, practice and emotional. In doing so, there may be enhanced awareness of emotions that can help differentiate physical hunger cues from emotional eating triggers.
Increased mindfulness – practicing mindful eating may allow for the extension of mindfulness into other facets of life.
Greater appreciation for how food and other facets of life are at play with one another.

Sharing with you some of my ideas on how to sustainably eat meals and snacks in a more mindful manner.

I’ll start with my most favorite, simple yet intentional practices – taking a few (3) slow, deep breaths before eating. Whether in the car, at my desk, on my couch with a snack, or at the dining room table. It’s a great way to check in with your body as a whole, increase the likelihood of your body sensing food is coming, and to enjoy what you are eating much more.

Other ideas:

Create a comfortable eating environment – consider the lighting, the clutter, the volume. Would I enjoy it more quiet? Reduced distractions? A TV show on? How about music? Fresh air? Light some fake candles!

Pay attention to and honor physical hunger cues – eat when you are hungry, and when food sounds appealing to you. When you are super hungry, it can be difficult to slow down and really enjoy.

Engage your senses – notice colors, textures, aromas of food; can you savor this bite more?

Pay some attention to the speed at which you eat. Chew your food decently. Why rush? Can you block out 30 minutes for lunch? How about 5 minutes?

Practice gratitude – choose to express gratitude in what way works for you. I invite you to take a moment to appreciate the food, where it came from and what it took to get to you. Reflect on the nourishment it provides. Reflect on appreciation for your body in how it can transform food into fuel for your body.

For me, mindful eating is a self care practice that connects me to my appreciation for my body, my family, my food access, my environment, to my nervous system, and helps me to have gratitude for all the roles that food can play.

Mindful eating has brought me the realization that fresh air means more flavorful food. A hot meal means something that warms my body AND my soul. That food and the eating experience can ground me and bring me back to a felt sense of self after a busy out-of-body-run-around day. Spaghetti and meatsauce is now a time travel back in time to family, to laughs, to bug bites, to camping and to a moment where I discovered how much more flavorful food can be when you eat outside amongst the fresh air!