What if I told you that how and what you eat directly correlates to your spiritual wellbeing? Would the conversation between your body and food be a positive one? What does it sound like?
I provide my tips and nutritional recommendations, but it won’t bring you success if you aren’t mindful about using them. Typically, people fall off the wagon for emotional reasons. These causes are usually referred to as triggers, themes, and difficult seasons. Most commonly, these causes took hold in childhood or as an early adult. They can also be rooted in current issues and events causing emotional discomfort such as shame or feeling unloved. Often, the complete picture is unknown or unconscious, but either way, food is illustrating the issue.
The good news is that food is your red flag, doorway, and an opportunity to be mindful, connect, pray, and explore your faith. So what is at your roots? What pulls you to compulsively eat, perpetually diet, binge, starve, or obsess?
I’ll share a little bit of my personal story to give you an example. My mother wasn’t always around. She was a single mother with plenty of her own battles, and I often got lost in the dust. There were times when she was away, and I didn’t know how to make meals from what little was left in the kitchen. At a young age, it was up to me to figure out what to eat. Sometimes, that was easily solved by the generosity of a friend’s house. Other times, it meant walking to the convenience store for a Top Ramen. When I was at a friend’s house or with family, I would eat everything I could get my hands on.
As a result, a drive for food was fueled by my experiences of scarcity. It was a theme that lasted well into my adulthood. I didn’t like to share with others. Not because I didn’t value my friends or love my family but because I was wired to fearfully conserve food.
This created a very challenging issue for me as a personal trainer. A trainer's body is their visual resume and advertising. The pressure to remain slim and toned was intense and unhealthy. There were times of being overweight and obsessive. I managed it with my fitness knowledge, but I never broke the cycle because I was missing the message.
Author and public speaker, Geneen Roth educates how your wellbeing and spiritual health directly correlates to food and the way you eat. Furthermore, she explains how the way you are with food is a conversation between your body and spirit. I highly recommend listing to the Super Soul Conversation between Roth and Oprah for a quick breakdown of her teaching.
By now, hopefully, your wheels are probably turning. Maybe you know your issue, or maybe you are becoming aware of it. Either way, I am going to explain how you should be approaching food and dealing with those triggers.
Nutrition is the process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health. There are three intents for food. The first is for healing, second use is fuel, and lastly for pleasure. Food is meant to heal the body, balance hormones, repair tissue, and so on. Then, food is meant to fuel your body for life’s adventures. And last but not least, we are supposed to enjoy food and the pleasure of eating! When the first two, healing and fuel, are taken care of, pleasure will not break the balance.
Your body is a partnership, so don’t give orders or create expectations like it is a one-way street. The human body is incredible and practicing gratitude for it will go a long way. Your powerful heart and amazing lungs have pumped all day and night for however many years. Many intricate systems ever so humbly keeping you alive, taking care of you, and enabling you to take care of your loved ones. A beautifully unique vehicle for your spiritual journey and dreams.
Visit "Simple Steps for Achieving Peace with Food" to apply these concepts to your life!
