Eat Right For Your Soul

There is only one you walking around this Earthly planet we all call home. You are unique, billions of cells and multi-trillions of atoms all consisting of matter that is (some of it at least) as old as the dinosaurs. Your soul hovers around all of that.  Just as you need to feed your body, you need to feed your soul too, and it doesn't follow all the rules about eating less, moving more, and it takes more than JUST food to feed your soul.

Your soul also takes a hit every single time you sit there and get yourself into a stressed out state before or during eating. Who hasn't had that 20 min conversation with themselves about WHY muffins are bad, and will add to us being bad if we eat them? or felt the guilt after reading someone else's rant about 'meat as murder' just after chowing down to a family roast dinner? It all gets too much for so many of us that we switch off - tune out the information coming in and go on autopilot while eating. And then the guilt and self-shame after the fact starts up and the whole vicious cycle starts again ("damn that greasy burger was a bad idea. Look at my stomach and OH GOD THOSE THIGHS! Mmmmmnnn burger. Enter workmate saying 'want to get McDonalds for lunch?'")

Or we become vicious advocates for some particular 'diet' or way of eating without respecting each individual person's food journey.

Wouldn't you rather be able to make a snap decision - say yes or no and be done with it - knowing you can handle the consequences whatever they might be? I knew I would, so I taught myself how.

I'm here to say there is a way around this. A way you can change any food habit you want to, a way to eat so that you get the nutrition you need and avoid diseases but can have FUN in your life. There is a process involved. There is a bit of 'work' to be done learning to listen to your own body properly, but do it once, stay accountable for your actions and you're pretty much set for life!

You also have to do this for yourself, and by yourself - and I can't stress this enough.

No two people are exactly alike, food affects us all differently, even in the same family. So why is it that we consistently buy into this idea that the same diet will work for everyone? Or even work for one person for their entire life without  changing? It's something I have become more and more passionate about fixing.

We see what someone else is doing and say 'it must have worked for her so it's got to work for me, right?'...WRONG. That's taking someone else's solution at face value if you don't go through your own internal process and experiment for yourself. I know I am going against the grain with a lot of what I say, and I know that the 'diet' industry thrives on people looking at others and thinking 'it must have worked for them'. But it's really really really just not that easy. There's something that IS that easy though - and it's these couple of food rules I have started to live by courtesy of Michael Pollen:

1) EAT REAL FOOD ( do you KNOW what the ingredients on the label are? Does it look like food?)
2) NOT TOO MUCH (listen to the signals, eat consciously, savour each bite)
3) MOSTLY PLANT BASED (plants are YUMMY!)

All the evidence points towards a healthy person if you can follow this at least 80-90% of the time - and the rest is all just optional, and can be handled through other work not involving food. It's not exactly a life or death decision when you live by those three rules either.

A very wise person once said that there is only one type of food you should eat - the food that sings to you. I've got a secret to tell you about this too - if McDonalds or muffins 'sing' to you today, after a bit of experience and experimenting with the fruits, vegetables and grains that you like you will realise that McDonalds is to food what Justin Bieber is to music (no offence to him, he's obviously doing pretty damn well for the corporations behind his success and happily enjoying the spoils, but I'd like to see him evolve a bit before I'd spend money on one of his albums). Myself, I prefer to listen to something more along the lines of Daft Punk, Mumford and Sons, U2 or any music which touches my soul.

If you want a free piece of advice to take away from this blog post with you it must be this - EAT RIGHT FOR YOUR SOUL and don't be afraid to try something new and different. To experiment. Then watch your life improve in every single way. No stress, no freak outs, no out and out binges on rubbish. Just nourishment, pure and simple.

I can help you learn to eat right for your soul, and have maintained the same weight for the best part of 2 years after dropping 10 kilos doing so. E-mail me or contact me via Facebook or twitter (@kaliannagrace) to get started.

Happy soulful eating x