Our Bodies, Ourselves

The body says what words cannot.
~ Martha Graham

So. It's been six weeks since I touched down in the Land of Raw Foods. An alien on foreign soil. And the changes? Whoosh! Amazing grace!

I used to live to eat. I'm learning to eat to live. I'm changing my relationship to food. I'm choosing to become conscious of my food choices; becoming more mindful of what I'm putting in my body and why.

Years of dieting had taught this gal not to trust her body’s messages. I had forgotten that eating had anything to do with being hungry. I tend to go unconscious when I eat. Really. After the first few bites, I'm convinced I don't even taste it. Maybe it's because I'm usually doing five other things while I'm eating. What kind of Gemini would I be if I wasn't the queen of multitasking?

But, if I stop, look, breathe, eat in full consciousness...I ingest Life. I ingest Love. I ingest Source in every bite.

And the more I've embraced the principles of eating raw living food, the more alive I feel and it's not just my body that's shapeshifting ~ 35 pounds, thankyouverymuch ~ but there's an internal shapeshift occurring as well. A change in perception. A change in attitude, for sure.

My body is a Temple. I will treat it as Sacred Space. It has served me well. The fact that it functions as well as it does, is nothing less than miraculous. I have a BMI of 46 and no hypertension, no diabetes, and a total cholesterol level of 101. As an expression of gratitude for this physical body, I pledge to nourish it with clean whole foods (organic when possible), to flood it with live enzymes, to water it regularly, and to MOVE IT often.

Some kernels of wisdom from Geneen Roth and Breaking Free From Compulsive Eating:

• Most of the time we eat in response to our minds. Most of the time we feed our bodies without consulting our bodies. Most of the time when we eat has little to do with what we are eating for – physical nourishment, satisfaction, a healthy body.


• Food was the glue that held my life together between hungers.


• What is it that you want from food beyond its nourishing your body?


• Physical hunger is of the body. Physical hunger asks for food. Nonphysical hunger is of the mind, the heart. When you see that your physical hunger is capable of being fulfilled, you can begin to allow that same possibility for your emotional hunger.


• There is nothing you can’t have tomorrow so there is no reason to eat it all today.