Soul Care Eating is when we learn to listen to what our body and soul wants, needs or desires. It is learning how to listen to that body wisdom in order to care for the soul. It is not at all about special or militant diets that keep us locked in our Ego. Our body is a vessel of our soul and its time we start acting like it. It is the only body we will get, at least in this lifetime. The more we care for ourselves and our bodies, the longer and healthier the life we will have. It is just sad, the diets have so much damage to our emotions most of the time. They can definitely make us on a high when we achieve what we want from our goal, but when we don’t, we punish and beat ourselves up to the point of detriment. We are always our own worst critic.
All these crazy diets out there are so emphatic that their diet is the only way to eat. I was caught up in all that crap too for awhile and it drove me nuts trying to watch every little thing. I didn’t know better, as many of us don’t. My health conditions and severe food allergies at the time made it super hard for me to have these special diets and be truly happy. I didn’t know that you could even be happy about it.
A light bulb in my head went on one day. I started to change my outlook on these diets from being the victim who can’t eat anything to HEY, let’s makes these foods easy to make, and more tasty for the people like me who have a problem with allergies or just want to eat healthier. It started to bring some joy back into my life. The more joy I had with it, the better my health got! The more alkaline your body is the more it heals…The sweet emotions of love and joy actually help to alkaline the body! Wow, what a concept J
When we are on a diet that is so restrictive, it can be overwhelming and down right scary trying to figure everything out. When you go to “weigh in” so to speak, it can either be invigorating if you have lost a bit of weight or it can be utterly crushing if you haven’t lost any weight. Many times these diets will work in the first couple of weeks, but will plateau or weight comes back on shortly after, even if they are still on the diet. When practicing Soul Care Eating, you can cast those stupid diets and rules aside, unless you REALLY need to omit stuff to heal a health condition. If you do need to heal a health condition, you can still very much practice the omission diet but from a new perspective on how it is going to heal you rather than the victim stage that something is wrong with your body.
What happens to us when we feel restricted on these diets? It can put us in a depressive or flight or fight response every single time we put something into our mouth. Even if you are not on a diet, and you feel any amount of guilt for eating something you feel you shouldn’t, it sends a signal through your enteric nervous system saying I am not OK. When we feel craptastic is when our brains can’t stop the program of over-eating/binge eating. That is why a lot of these diets do not work for long periods of time.
How do we combat these unhealthy concepts? Learning how to Soul Care eat is the way to go. If you want that piece or two of chocolate, then EAT it. Do so, with indulgence and no guilty feelings. Love and savor that food you so desire, and as you do it, your body will feel satisfied, loved, and fulfilled, creating that beautiful alkaline state that can actually heal your body. Often times, when we really just take the time to truly indulge and slow down with it, we will feel fuller faster. You find yourself eating much less than you would before. Now, that’s a win-win for everyone!