E-99 You are what you eat - creative nourishment
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Hello, my creative friend. Welcome back to another episode of Create Today with Beth Buffington. Now, if you join me for our last episode, you'll remember how we explored the beautiful connection between creativity and movement,
how combining your creativity with even gentle movement can make you happier and even make you healthier. I hope that you have been dancing in your kitchen or collecting pine cones on your nature walks. Today, we are going to have a similar conversation, but we're going to shift our focus to a new facet of creativity.
Instead of concentrating on moving your body to increase creativity, we are going to talk about how you feed your body to increase your creativity. You [00:01:00] see, creativity doesn't just come from our imagination. It lives in every part of us, and when we care for and nourish our bodies with good food, we are healthier and better health.
Makes us more creative.
and here's the best part. When you combine creativity to good nutrition by adding a little creativity to your good nutrition efforts, you will find that you will become healthier and happier. And this can happen by adding color and texture and mindful care to the food you choose to eat. How you decide to prepare your food, and this is an amazing way to nourish your creativity.
So it's another win-win for you in heart, mind, body, and [00:02:00] soul. So let's talk about feeding your creative body. Let's first look at your brain, that imaginative idea making powerhouse. Did you know that nearly 25% of your body's total energy is used out by your brain? That means that the foods you eat directly affect your focus, your mood, and your ability to create.
This means that what you munch on directly affects your creativity. And here's the interesting news. Science shows that colorful nutrient rich foods reduce inflammation, stabilize energy and support clearer thinking, all of which will help you stay in that creative flow much longer.
Have you heard the slogan Eat the rainbow? It is true, my [00:03:00] friend, and it can be a lot of fun. So let's take a step back. Let me tell you why creativity and food is something that I feel so passionate to talk to you about today. You see this idea of nourishing your creativity. It started way back in my childhood kitchen.
I've been fascinated with nutrition since I was little, and it's all because of my mom. My mom was way ahead of her time when it comes to healthy living and how to have fun with good food. We had a very big garden. My mom and dad loved their garden. It is something they spent hours and hours planning and preparing and planting, and then tending and reaping all of the goodness from the garden.
We had rows and rows of all different kinds of vegetables. We had raspberry bushes. We [00:04:00] had grapevines.
And from that came homemade pickles and jellies and salads. So much good food.
My mom was also curious about swapping foods to make foods more nutritious. Yet still delicious. Way back in the seventies, she was using plain yogurt instead of sour cream to make like, you know, French onion dip or to put onto baked potatoes. And she was using ground Turkey instead of hamburgers in her lasagna and her sloppy joe's.
And my job for meal prep when I was little. Every night in the kitchen, I was making a salad for dinner for my family. Those early lessons about food weren't just about health. They were about connection. My family grew it. We experimented with it, we made it, and we shared it.
So I grew up knowing that [00:05:00] food could be nutritional creativity. That passion about being curious with nutrition was passed on to my daughter. My daughter Corie, is now a registered dietician, which means we talk about food a lot, but not just calories or nutrients.
We talk about how to make food taste beautiful, look beautiful, and then fuel us to be beautiful people.
Corie is constantly sharing photos of the recipes she's creating and the food she's growing in her own garden. She's always working to find healthy food that her children will like and will look forward to eating. and so much of that involves more than just tasting good.
It also involves the color, the arrangement of the food, and the actual dishes used to make the food creatively fun and [00:06:00] appetizing. watching her make delicious and beautiful food to feed her family daily.
It reminds me how we need to decide. How to feed ourselves with color, with curiosity, and with care. When we do that, my friend, it is such a great creative thing that we do for ourselves
and that brings us to what I'd like to call today, the creative fuel palette. Because having fun with colorful food, well that's one thing, but understanding how the right foods will fuel your creativity is even more important.
When we say Eat the rainbow, I am not talking about the strange orange color in Cheetos. I'm not talking about the blue that we see in a lot of strange energy drinks.
So let's talk about a few foods that science says can truly feed your creativity and your health. [00:07:00] And my friend. All of these foods are beautiful and will help you eat the rainbow. So here are some of my favorites. First here is a tiny little super food and it is beautifully brown, and that is walnuts,
They look like a little brain and for good reason, they are rich in omega threes and antioxidants that support memory and cognitive performance. In a recent study, people who ate walnuts for breakfast. Had better focus and reaction time later in the day. So think of walnuts as a superpower, food for your brain.
It is a crunchy boost of goodness for your next creative session. Here's another beautiful food and that is blueberries.This is a food that is actually a beautiful color and is beautifully [00:08:00] healthy for you. Consider these little gems to be your creative spark.
Berries, blueberries are loaded with flavonoids
that help improve communication between your brain cells. It supports memory. We all wanna have a better memory, right? So have a blueberry. Studies have shown that adding blueberries to your diet can enhance focus and improve your mood. So the next time your energy dips, treat yourself to a little bowl of beautiful blueberries instead of a sugary snack food.
Now let's also talk about having a colorful palette of various veggies, spinach, hail, carrots, beets, peppers that come in, greens and reds and oranges and yellows. These are beautiful foods That are all full of antioxidants and nutrients [00:09:00] that support your brain health and reduce stress in the body.
And the best part, the more colorful your plate, the more your creativity feels inspired by what it sees. Make that salad beautiful with purple cabbage or red cabbage. Add some blueberries, add some pineapple. See how many colors you can add to your salad. It will make things delicious.
And let's spotlight for a moment, the lovely color of orange in carrots. Carrots are rich in beta carotene, Which supports both brain and eye health, helping you see and think more clearly in every sense of the word. This is just. A peek into the gorgeous world of colorful food, my friend.
But I hope it gives you a glimpse of the goodness you and [00:10:00] your creativity and your overall health will gather when you indulge in this rainbow of deliciousness. So you see, eating the rainbow isn't just good advice. It's good science because color feeds your creativity. Inside and out. And now I want us to think about nourishing your creativity as super fun.
Let's make nourishing your body a good time, right? So remember, I love a good list. So here are 10 artistic ways to feed your creative body. These are small sensory experiments. You can try this week.
Number one, paint your plate. This is as fun as it sounds. I want you to choose meals based on color, harmony, [00:11:00] reds and greens, blues and oranges. Let your artist eye guide you with your nourishment.
Get out all that color theory and put it into play. How can you make an interesting meal? Or how can you put a colorful bunch of food on another plate that's very colorful?
Let your artist eye guide your nourishment and your creative masterpiece. Number two, mindful bite moments. So a lot of us. Eat maybe one or two meals by ourselves every day. So if you find yourself eating alone and you are often eating and scrolling on your phone or working on your computer instead, I dare you to find a quiet place where you can enjoy your meal in peace.
And before you begin eating, we want you to take one [00:12:00] deep breath in and then exhale. Then take another deep breath and inhale through the nose. And this time I want you to concentrate just on the aroma of your food. How does your food smell? Do you smell many different aromas? Is it spicy?
Is it salty? What are you smelling? next, I want you to take a long look at the food you've prepared. Notice color, the shape, the texture, and the placement of the food on your plate. It's like studying a still life. Be grateful for the food you have to enjoy. Take a moment to understand the, you are lucky to have food to eat today, and I want you then to.
Savor each bite and continue to think on the color, the texture, and the taste, [00:13:00] and continue to find gratitude towards the farmer who planted and gathered and harvested the food you're eating for the person who delivered the food from the farmer to the store. And then be thankful for the store that securely kept your food and kept it fresh and safe for you until you were ready to purchase it.
Be mindful of all the people that were part of your meal today and be mindful of this blessing that you, my friend, have food to enjoy. Number three, this is a snack palette, so. This, you'll need to prepare in advance. I want you to purposely gather and then arrange fruits and veggies or nuts in a color.
Radiant, how many different colors can you find and arrange Celebrate the variety that you have to enjoy and be grateful [00:14:00] for this luxury. Allow yourself energy to refuel In all the colors you are enjoying, and I want you to continue to feel inspiration through your visual senses as you enjoy this colorful snack.
Number four, I want you to cook to music, so when you are in your kitchen ready to prepare your next meal. Put on a favorite playlist and let the rhythm of the music guide you in your chopping and your stirring. Allow yourself to let the day stressors melt away. As you lean into the emotion of the music and the rhythm of your chopping, and your saute, and your mixing.
All the movements that you create during food preparation. Turn cooking into a performance art. Number five, I want you to think about what you can grow and what you can garnish. So [00:15:00] this is keeping pots of herbs growing nearby your kitchen. And uh, these can be any herbs that you can think of that you would enjoy.
Um, that could be oregano, it could be thyme, rosemary, it could be chives. Um, you decide cilantro. That's one of my favorites. And then I want you to, in these pots, grow them, tend to them by watering, and then snip and smell as you are preparing your food. Oh my goodness. Fresh herbs smell amazing. And then sprinkle this beautiful goodness onto the food that you are preparing.
Garnishing your food with additional herbs is creativity in its simplest form. Number six, a memory jar snack. So here you're going to take small jars and layer them with walnuts or dried berries, citrus zest, different [00:16:00] flavors in each of these layers. They're going to be beautiful to look at and delicious to enjoy as you eat them.
keep one at your desk or in your car and enjoy the color, the crunch, and the spark of energy that it will provide. This is a, just a burst of flavor that is healthy and will revive and ignite energy when it flags. Especially in those afternoons when it is so tempting to get out that leftover Halloween candy.
Am I right? I know we have a giant jar of it in my kitchen that I almost have to walk by with my eyes covered. Number seven color slice smoothie. Uh, now let me explain what I mean by that. Here you're going to pick out three different colors of fruits and vegetables.
Slice them up, and [00:17:00] then put them in your, uh, smoothie blender or whatever smoothie maker you've got, and watch how the colors mix. You might be surprised at the color that your smoothie ends up being. This is like mixing paint for watercolors or for oil painting. It is like painting with taste. Curious for some fun recipes, send me an email and I'll share some of mine.
And if you've got some great ones, please share me your recipes. I love sharing new recipes with new friends.
number eight, the five color challenge. This is a dare for you. I dare you to eat at least five different colors of Whole Foods today. Not snack foods. 'cause that's real easy to do and it is not healthy for you.
So five [00:18:00] colors of whole foods, of fruits or vegetables. Make it a creative scavenger hunt. Keep your list going for about a week. At the end of the week, can you count up 30 different fruits and vegetables before the week is over? I dare you to try number nine. Still life's supper. So here I want you to prepare your meal and then plate it, organize it with great care.
Make it as beautiful as you can. Maybe add a candle next to your plate or some beautiful flowers or whatever additional, um, beautiful visual ornament that will increase the creativity of your meal. Slate your meal with care. Before you eat, I want you to take a photograph of it and then take a look throughout the week and compare your beautiful still [00:19:00] life photos and maybe just maybe it's going to inspire you to do a little extra sketching or get out the watercolors or the oil paints
And do a still life creation, my friend. Beauty enhances gratitude and gratitude enhances beauty Number 10. This is creative hydration. We all need to drink more water, not fruit juices, and not sugary soda drinks.
So take water and make it more interesting. Make it more creative by infusing your water with berries and herbs or edible flowers. Make sure they're edible. This simple act of hydration becomes a work of art, and all day long as you continue to sip from your creative water palettes, you'll enjoy the fruits of your labors because they will be [00:20:00] floating in nutritious goodness in the water that you are sipping.
This is an really easy way to see creativity and drink creatively. Cheers my friend. So you see these are 10 small ways that you can engage your creative senses
not just to eat well, but to live more creatively. And when you play with these creative ideas, two things are gonna happen.
Number one, you'll find that you will become happier and healthier. And number two, when you start to do this, your mind will automatically start thinking of other ways that you can eat creatively and inspire yourself to be more creative and then become healthier and happier in heart, mind, body, and soul.
So what is there not to love [00:21:00] about being creatively nourished? Now I want to share a bit of exciting news with you. This past October, I lovingly co-led the Silva Solace Creative Retreat with Lisa Murphy, the certified Health Coach, and we sold out our retreat.
That was so exciting for us.
This was four days nestled in the mountains of North Carolina, soaking in deep rest movement, creative play, and nourishment. It was a space where creativity and whole person health met. Connected through core care, creative care, and community care. And my friend, if you missed it,
Now is the time to get on the wait list for Silva Solace 2026. Now, please be aware that space will be limited again for this [00:22:00] intimate retreat and it will fill fast. So check out the show notes to take you to the wait list so you can be one of the first to register when registration opens.
But here is some good news. You don't have to wait until the next retreat to reconnect to your inner creative. You can join Silva Sessions right now. now this is an inspiring extension to the Silva Salus retreat and it is led by me and Lisa Murphy.
It has been created for the Silva Solas alumni and anyone eager to explore creative renewal year round now. Now Sylvis Sessions is a place to keep nurturing your creative resilience all year long. You'll immerse yourself in guided sessions, mindful reflection, creative exploration, and it's all [00:23:00] nestled snuggly inside a community that supports your wellbeing.
whether you've attended Silva Solace, you're on the wait list for next year, or you just are simply needing a grounded space to reconnect with your creative self. Silva Sessions offers just that. it's a space to calm your mind through inspiring conversation and creative renewal
Because my friend, you do not have to wait for the next Silva Solace retreat to begin nurturing your creative spirit. Join the sessions and stay connected to the creative rhythm of Silva Solace. So my creative friend here is what we have discovered today to create well. You must first nourish Well, and it is important to realize that [00:24:00] you see every color you taste, every aroma that you notice, every mindful bite that you take, these are small acts of creativity, little reminders.
That inspiration begins with how we care for ourselves. So feed your body like it belongs to an artist because it does.
And if this episode spoke to you, please share it with a friend or a family member who might need a gentle reminder to feed their creativity from the inside out. And if you're new here, welcome. Welcome. There are 98 other episodes waiting for you to explore.
Each one is filled with stories about creativity, science that proves creativity is vital for your wellbeing and Each one provides creative assistance to help you live more creatively [00:25:00] each and every day.
so go to your kitchen, rummage through your fridge and your cupboards. Make a list of what you have. What you need to nourish your creative energy and inspiration with a colorful rainbow of food that will help you stay creative. My friend,
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