In this journey that I am on, where I have asked the Lord to AWAKEN me, I have taken to trying to learn bits and pieces here and there. I have started watching the food documentaries on Netflix, the ones I used to avoid. {They just spoke to me like an exclusive club that I wasn't allowed to be in, a reminder of what a failure I was}. Not much has changed but I was/am in a better mental state to be able to watch and listen.
There are so many that speak about such similar things, and they are very interesting.
{If you want to know a secret I am a bit of conspiracy theory lover so things being "uncovered" are always intriguing to me}
I never understood the point of eating "organic" other than what I saw as people who thought they were better than everyone else and RICH and looked down on the rest of us chemical eaters. I always thought, well we have lived this far on pesticides and the like, so I think we are doing JUST fine.
After watching these documentaries I realize that people 30 and under may have way different health problems then those before us because of the extreme way our food is being treated, thus the reason to consider organics.
More than that, it is the foods we are choosing to eat that are way more available to us then in previous generations and we eat them as much as we should be drinking water!
One of the first docs I watched was Food Matters, I believe that was the first. They talked about the effects of food on our body. I suddenly made the connection, it made so much sense, why had I never thought about this before. Perhaps it had crossed my mind, but I had never thought about it in this way.
God made our bodies, God made food for us. He made these foods so we could care for our bodies and for them to function well, have energy, even heal when we are sick. I had fallen on the ice a couple weeks ago and scraped up my knee pretty good! It was really bloody and nasty. I didn't feel the need to go to the doctor, because I have fallen many times in my life and I already know it will heal itself. This is what the body does.
With all the best intentions in the world that our countries have had to produce mass amounts of food to feed us, and the world, as cheap as possible, things have been compromised. Although I do not think that eating fast food and the like is wrong, its not!, I do think that eating it ALL the time...is. Why? Because too much of anything isn't good for us. I think we know this in some part of our logical head, but we still choose to eat out way more than is probably good for our bodies. I know I have.
This is the thing, I am going to be 31 is a couple of months. In my humble estimation this is still YOUNG! What do I have to worry about? And I am not that worried about it to be honest, because I don't like to fill my mind with worries about things I certainly can not ever control. But if I continue to eat the way I have been, not only will I be more obese, I will certainly start getting sick. I don't think God ever intended our basic diets to consist of greasy, fatty, foods, as good as they might taste.
Why is this so separated in our minds. We know that if we can not stop drinking we are an "alcoholic", we know it will destroy our livers, we know we will probably die earlier than necessary (like my grandfather). We know if we start robbing banks, even as great as that might feel and as rich as it might make us, it is not our money and when we get caught, we will go to jail. There are consequences to our actions, we know this.
Yet with food, if someone questions our habits we take it very personally. I know I do! How dare the proverbial YOU tell me there is something wrong with me?? You don't know me, you don't know my life, you aren't better than me because you are skinny..etc etc etc. But perhaps that comes from a place of hurt, disappointment, and ultimately self hatred. We know in our deep core that this is not the best way for us to be eating, or living.
Many times being over weight accompanies depression. We feel bad about our bodies, so we eat, then we get sad because we are fat and the cycle repeats. We are stuck. But something they pointed out in the movie was that when we eat junk when already struggling with depression we actually feed the depression. The cycle is deadly in my opinion. How eye opening to think about the fact that stuffing my body with some vitamin-C or cashews actually might be as beneficial as an anti-depressant.
It just made so much sense to me.We can't think we can neglect one part of ourselves and think the rest of us won't be affected, if just doesn't work like that. Just like you can't work out just your abs, or your legs and hope only that part will lose weight. You can not spot reduce, because your body works as a whole component. We have to care for ourselves in every way for us to work properly. If only ever put junk in my body, why should I expect to feel awesome..it will eventually effect my mind, spirit, and I will feel sick, sluggish, and the spiral downwards becomes a slippery slope.
This is where the verse about everything is permissible, but everything is beneficial. Just like having a drink is not bad, but being an alcoholic is, the same applies for our eating habits. Not that this will be easy, or that I have this mastered or figured out. But I feel like the Lord is helping me see.
I can get mad that the Lord has limitations that He would like me to abide by, not cheating on my husband, loving him when I don't feel like it, having patience with my son when he is being out of control, controlling my temper with idiots and not punching them in the face, not robbing banks, not eating crap all the time. Some of these things seem ridiculous, of course we wouldn't do those things. But these are the things we could get mad at that we can't do, people get mad they can't do them all the time, or they get mad that there are consequences. How is it that how we eat is any different? We are the ones who choose our diets and yet we don't associate how we feel or our health with how we eat. We just want to run to the doctor for a pill to manage our aches, pains and diseases rather than take a look at what we are putting into our bodies on a daily basis.
{granted this is not everyone's situation, but its something I need to consider greatly in my habits}
Taking care of ourselves is not being selfish, its being responsible with what we have been given. It's not being prideful when so many people depend on us and need us in their lives. I know its easier, faster, and cheaper to eat fast food and junk...but if we always treated our bodies in other ways only as easy, fast and cheap..wouldn't we be likened to hookers? Since when is easy, fast and cheap the best?
These are all thoughts from a food addict, someone who loves grease, fat, fried!
Not someone who has never struggled, because I ate 4 pieces of pizza this weekend.
No, but if I want to be free...I have to learn.
I have to understand the boundaries God has set up for me,
even in eating,
are for my good and protection, not to steal my fun or my right to choose!
Not that we NEVER get to enjoy them,
but we wouldn't let our kids eat ice cream for every meal,
why would we treat ourselves any different?
Because we are stressed, tired, etc??
Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
I can not spot treat my life.
I can't want to feel better in my life and not change anything.
