Do you sail through the day at optimal performance with energy to spare? Alternatively, do you struggle with feeling tired, stressed, irritable, and burdened by extra pounds?

Just a few changes in how you eat could make a dramatic difference in your energy levels. Add these innovative strategies to your eating habits and discover a new relationship with energy and with life! Who knows? You might even drop a few pounds in the process.

1. Make Peace with Food
Do you sometimes feel like food is the enemy? Being at war with food and your body can only lead to decreased passion and a low energy life. The mood and attitudes you eat with affect the positive energy flow between food and you. Indeed, creating harmony with food is critical if you wish to live a more energetic life. Take a chance, call a truce, and begin to develop a more peaceful relationship with food. When you stop viewing food as the enemy, you regain control of your own life. You can connect with your body and discover you own subtle fullness and satiety cues. You can become involved in determining what, when, and how much your body wants to eat. Ask yourself, “Is this really what I want?” and then decide. Conclude for yourself how a certain type of meal makes your body feel. Do you like this feeling? Do you feel more alive and energetic, or perhaps overly stuffed, sluggish, lethargic, or uncomfortable?

2. Foods Bursting with Life
Food is more than a combination of vitamins, minerals, and chemicals that your body needs for metabolism. Food also conveys life energy that becomes a part of your life energy. Naturally, fresh foods have more life energy than heavily processed foods. If you want to feel more alive and energetic, become aware of the energy contained within different types of food. Walk through the grocery store and notice which foods seem to offer more life. Make sure some of the foods you choose includes a variety of fresh wholesome fruits, vegetables, and whole grains that have not been exposed to extreme processing methods. Choose foods with life, not because some diet rule tells you to do so, but because you find those types of food appealing!

3. Color and Energy
Luscious. Tempting. Mouth-watering. Delicious enough to make you reach in and take a bite. Part of what makes food so energizing is the visual appeal of colors. Foods that are monochromatic can look bland and lifeless. For example, steamed chicken breast served over mashed potatoes and white gravy, with white bread may have a good flavor. However, when presented on a white paper plate it will seem monotonous and lifeless. Contrast that meal with a colorful bowl of stir-fry made from purple onions, red and yellow bell peppers, bright green spinach, white cauliflower, red tomatoes, and pink shrimp. Which seems more energizing? Transform boring and bland food into something that has more appeal. Tempt your eyes and energize your body by including a variety of gratifying colors in your meals. A pleasing food presentation will help your other senses start to anticipate that something enjoyable is about to happen. Enjoyment = energy.

4. Use Your Stove
One sure fire way to increase your energy and passion is to get involved with cooking your own meals. You do not have to be a gourmet chef to cook great meals or absorb the energetic benefits of cooking. Just get personally involved with your food and cook a meal for yourself twice a week. It is important that your life energy and intentions become a part of the food you prepare and then ingest. Allow your cooking events to be a full, delightful, and stimulating sensory experience and watch a new energized relationship form between you, your body, and food!

5. Breathe
Breathe before you eat, breathe while you eat, and breathe after you eat. Breathing before you eat moves you away from your thoughts and worries and connects you to consciously noticing, smelling, touching, and tasting the food that is in your present moment. Breathing more fully while you are eating brings oxygen into your body that helps digest the food. Breath into the vibrant, welcoming, energy contained within your food. The energy in food wants to share itself with you and become a part of you. Breathing allows you acknowledge the potential energy in food and form a relationship between you and the energy in food. Acknowledge the energy in food, inhale, and breathe with your food. Accept the energy in food into your own body. Practice the type of breathing that says “Yes!” to food, and “Yes!” to life.

6. Food Presentation
The presentation of your food is every bit as important as its nutritional content. Enjoying a pleasing food presentation can help you recharge physically and emotionally. Carefully balance color, texture, china, silver, accessories, linens, and flowers to make your meals look and taste spectacular. Paper plates, although a fine choice on occasion, generally do not add much energy to your dining experience. Use paint colors, china, and glasses that accurately convey the type of energizing dining experience you want to have. Chose lighting that can reinforce the energy you are looking for. For an added boost of energy, occasionally eat your lunch outside in the bright sunshine.

Changing your relationship with food can dramatically increase your energy levels and sense of aliveness. During your next meal, experiment with food and how you eat. Choose one, or several, of the above steps and notice new ways that you can create your own personal recipe for a more energetic well-being.