What is healthy eating?
Is it green juice? A regular yoga practice? Vegetarian? Keto? Is there a one size fits all model of healthy eating that so many of us seem to be looking for – nope.
When I started my “it’s time to get healthy, girl!” journey– I had certain ideas in my head of what healthy was. And yes, those tended to follow the ‘rules’ of alkalinity, green juice, yoga, exercise, dairy free, gluten, caffeine and alcohol- free living.
But as I progressed into days of cleansing and detoxing, something started to happen. I got sick of hearing and reading about food. I got sick of every nutrition book telling me something different. Articles of food combining rules would be followed by recipes breaking the very rules they just laid down. Raw food books would speak in depth that cooked food had lost all of its vitality, while other literature maintained that cooked foods were preferred over raw ones.
I felt frustrated, angry even, towards all of this talk about nutrition. I felt a bit like a rebel.
Instead of feeling more clarity after reading, detoxing, and cleansing, I felt all over the place.
Were these strict rules really for me?
I was relaxing in my yard, allowing the plants, birds, and open sky to nourish me back to a place of centeredness. While I was there, it came to me: Stop giving your power away to food. The most important component of healthy eating is love.
In that moment, it became so clear. While I was obsessing about which food would make me feel good, whether or not I should eat that piece of toast, or why it was important to stick to the green juices until 1pm – I was missing out on the whole point.
No matter what we eat, whether it follows ‘the rules’ or not (and by now, I’m a big fan of throwing the rulebook out altogether) – we can stop obsessing about whether it’s “right” and just love it anyway. Love that piece of bread, bite of kale, or bit of cheese, no matter what the textbook says. Feel good about what you eat. Bless it. Fill it with love and appreciation as it enters your body.
And then know, without a doubt, that you just ate something nourishing. You accepted nourishment from the Universe, and you accepted it with love. Then let it go, and think about more important things, like how you’re going to love yourself so much that it inspires all those around you to love you back.
Ok, so, does this mean pick up the nearest Kit-Kat and woof it down? Maybe, but probably not. Do you really love that Kit-Kat? Will you be able to truly feel like you’re eating something nourishing? Only you get to decide.
It all just comes down to love.
What really matters is that we invite love with every bite. That, no matter what is available to us in that moment, we decide it’s going to nourish us. We choose to feel good about what we eat, and if we can’t do that, we don’t eat it. We pour our love and appreciation into every bite, every morsel, and in that way, we truly adopt the best diet ever – that of love.
And, when all we consume is love, magic happens.
XOXO, Kimberley