Have you told yourself how beautiful, intelligent, and capable you are today? I can say with 100% certainty you posses these qualities, everyone does. And you make them your own with your awesome unique self. Even if they aren't at the forefront of your consciousness they are in you somewhere.
What about your body? Do you love it? Think it's magnificent? Strong? Perfect just the way it is? I'm pretty sure most of us would say 'no' to many of those things. Women, men and anyone in-between, we all are affected by this manufactured notion that your body should be certain ways. Even when people change their bodies through exercise and diet there's always something to pick out to change more or better. It's a never ending cycle. When all we really need to know and feel is that our body is healthy and because of it we are able to live this present life.
I remember a few years ago, when i was going through a very emotionally challenging time, I lost a considerable amount of weight. I lost it by not eating. I had no appetite. Obviously this is a very unhealthy and potentially dangerous way to lose weight. It was so interesting the compliments that soon followed my newly smaller body. The compliments were coming from people I know and love but they had no idea how I lost the weight. No one asked. They didn't know I wasn't eating. I realized you never know how someone lost that weight or lost whatever or gained whatever. Comments around weight can be damaging, not just to the person but to every single one of us.
From age 13 to 18 I was constantly on diets. Fad diets. Atkin's. South Beach. Weight Watchers. Etc. I'll say that I was a chubby teenager, but not unhealthy. I was active and hardly ever sick. There was no good reason for me to be on diets, but I was nonetheless. While doing these diets I did lose weight, but I never learned how to listen to my body. What I learned was how to feel bad for eating certain foods. I never did another diet after the age of 18. However, since then I've still been concerned with eating what's "right". And feeling bad about times when I eat what's "wrong". What I deemed to be "right" and "wrong" foods still never got me any closer to truly noticing how they make my body feel. We all know that certain amounts of fat, salt, and sugar are healthy to eat, but how deep can you take that knowing and make it something you feel?
Recently I've had an amazing food epiphany. If I listen to what my body wants for food at most given times it will tell me the truth of what we (my body and I) need. I'm eating in a way I have never eaten before. If my body says we want half and half, yogurt, 2 eggs, and a piece of toast for breakfast we do that. If it says we just want tea with cream in it we do that. If body says we're hungry at 1am we eat something. If body says we need pasta for dinner we do that. The most important thing with this new way of eating is never ever feeling bad or guilty for eating/drinking anything. Knowing that I am listening to my body and everything I'm giving it is making me stronger and healthier. This is amazing, I am literally drinking (sometimes just) half and half every morning and I feel great. You'd think with all of this fat consumption and various wheat consumption that my body would be quickly changing. My body is not changing externally and I feel great internally. This whole thing has taught me the power of our minds and more specifically the way we feel and perceive of the things we put in our bodies for nourishment. I guarantee you if I felt bad or guilty for drinking half and half every morning that my body would respond accordingly. The only thing I must say about this way of eating and the kind of food I'm ingesting is that it's for the most part quality food. Raw milk. Yogurt that I make. Strauss Half and Half. More or less whole foods. Barely any meat. Eggs from a farm down the road. Chips here and there. Pasta here and there. Don't forget the hot toddy :) This is specific to me. This is also probably specific to the season we're in too, in Summer the food I eat will most likely be different. Your perfect food list could be completely different. I hope this has been good information to some of y'all reading this.
Take away message: Its all about your mind and perception of the calories you ingest to have a beautiful healthy functioning body.
Happy Winter.
Sprout Out!
Oddly enough after I made this blog post I came upon this very pertinent TED Talk. I'm not one for TED talks, but this one really gets it in a scientific way.
