You Do Not Need to Eat Perfectly! (To be Healthy) 3:100

This blog post is going to be followed by one that may seem to contradict this one, but really does not. It will be called "You Are What You Eat." In that post I will explain that what you eat matters. However, I am leading with this one, because I want to dispel the myth that you need to be a PERFECT eater, because there is no such thing!

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Nadine Primeau photo, unsplash

, ,;Before I began my health journey, I paid not a wit to what I ate. I was one of those people, who had been active, and never gained weight. I did have a weird spike in my weight before I found the way of natural healing, and than a dramatic drop in my weight; both things got my attention. The spike was from a bloated, grain and gluten packed diet, and the drop was from a graduated intolerance for those foods, causing my body to develop some sort or Irritable Bowel/Chron's. I'm not sure, because I never got diagnosed. I do know this- I was not well, had no energy, weighed below 100 lbs., and had a slew of other issues. 

This got my attention for sure! Before that, I ate kind of what I was craving, (and I am speaking of my college years). I went to a Chiropractor after a number of regular practitioners were unable to give me any help, besides drugs and prescriptions. I think I was a lucky one. I have heard stories where people in similar situations encountering years of tests and intrusive treatments, surgeries, and more until they gave up allopathic and went a more nature based route. I only gave a few months of my time, and I remember one of my doctors saying to me, in regards to recurring yeast infections. "Some women just have to live with them." 

I remember thinking. THIS is your answer. This is your solution. I have to live with them. I couldn't live with them; they were HORRIBLE. If you have ever had one, you know! Incredibly debilitating. God must have already been leading me to my path in life, because I was working at an herb shop, and met a Chiropractor who gave Nutritional counseling. One session with her, changed my entire life. 

1. She sat and talked to me like a human being. 2. She gave me two herbs which I will be forever grateful and worked immediately to fix my problem (Goldenseal and Echinacea), and 3. She told me to watch my sugar. 

At that point, I was a sugar addict, and didn't know it. I began to cut out sugar everywhere I could, and I was diligent because I did not want another infection. These efforts paid off, as far as the yeast infections were concerned, but I had A LOT to learn about nutrition and health before I really balanced myself. 

Beautiful photo thanks to Brooke Lark on unsplash

What I am going to say next is very serious and if you have a serious health issue, I must express you do not try to fix your problem alone. I think anyone who has something "big deal" going on, will have many facets that need to be addressed. I had help from a lot of spiritual guides, and natural health persons along my journey the past 20 years. I went to a Nutritionist for 3 years straight until I really sorted out my grain addiction/ gluten addiction. During that time, I did eat very strictly. So, if you have a serious problem and you go at it naturally, you may need to be strict with your diet and attempt perfection (FOR A TIME), but this is not sustainable long term. 

I am going to tell you why you don't need to eat PERFECTLY indefinitely and maybe I should say what Perfect might even be. When I refer to Perfect. I mean Organic. Organic food, Grass fed meats, (assuming you are eating meats), Local, Best soils, Best Farm Practices). EVERY SINGLE THING in your house says Organic. You only shop in the expensive aisle at the grocery store, or buy the most expensive everything! 
I know people who have attempted this, and tried this. They also got very sick and they were eating "Perfectly." The reason, in my opinion is that this is ridiculously hard, and stresses you out so much, that it negates all the benefits from eating well. 

During my time of eating "Perfect," For me that meant, not eating any Gluten, or Dairy. I could not tolerate either food when I really started working on my diet. (Or I found out that I could not). Removing these foods from my diet helped soooo much. I was darn near perfect too. I did not cheat at all. If I ate something, it was by accident, or if I had failed to ask the specific details in a dish someone else prepared. Today I eat dairy. Raw products, mainly goat, and some skim based yogurts. I do not over do it! Before I think I only ate dairy and wheat. Now I may have a cup of yogurt a week, or a cup of goat milk during a week with cereal. I may sprinkle a little bit of cheese in a salad, and this really works well for me. 

Going back to PERFECTION and eating. It can really become a disorder of the mind, and an obsession. You can become so worried about every bite you eat, that you are NOT helping yourself at all. I do think there is a term for this. It is called "orthorexia." It was coined in 1998 and is characterized as an obsession to eat healthy. I think I probably had this at one time. You do not want to get that way, and I am trying to warn you right now. You can be healthy and NOT be perfect. 

I have come to a place where I buy Organic produce when I can. We have a few great discount produce stores near where I live. When they have organic, healthy produce- I am thrilled and see it as Providence. I try to buy local as much as possible, and most of my local farms are not classified "Organic" but do not spray. I faithfully stay away from Corn Syrup, Food Dyes, and weird preservatives, but I do not buy 100% Organic by any means. I definitely do not when I go to a regular grocery store, because my bill will be triple what I spend when I shop discount (another whole blog post in and of itself).

One time I really prayed to try to understand God's will about shopping for food. I was driving allll over the county to get all the healthiest versions of everything I needed at good prices. God spoke to me and I heard distinctly that I should stop doing that, and buy local. I picked the 2 stores that I have within about 10 min. driving distance. 1 is 5 min. away, and the other about 10. The store that is 5 minutes is my discount store, and I have bought some amazing foods, on sale, and I put my trust in that God will provide, like He provided Manna for the Israelites in the desert. 

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Photo by Caroline Attwood, unsplash

The amazing thing is that He provides every single week, and what I do not find at the local store, I go get at my chain store. Then there are still some farms, and specialty shops I love, and I refrain from going there, unless I am already in the area. Just doing this took me a while to change my habits, but it saves me a lot of energy, stress, and anxiety over shopping for the "perfect" foods. 

SO HERE IS THE REASON YOU DON"T NEED TO EAT PERFECTLY....................

What I found is that most of my health problems were not wrong food problems. Although a healthy balanced diet is important, my health problems were more THOUGHT problems. I had a lot of bad thoughts, bad programming if you will. Negative thoughts, bad experiences, stress, regret, bitterness, upset, anger, and a slew of other "non-happy" feelings reeking havoc on my health. If I would have understood this sooner, I would have saved myself a lot of time and heartache. I wound up doing a lot of my mind reprogramming by reading spiritual books. This was a slow process of teeny revelations. One revelation at a time, I let go of many fears, and limiting beliefs that kept me trapped in an unhealthy body. 

If you do not have great health, diet will be very helpful, but I urge you to get some help with rewiring the thought processes in your brain. I didn't have a lot of money, in the beginning of my journey, so I did everything I could for free, or inexpensively. I listened to Podcasts, I attended some self help groups, prayer groups, counseling at church, book clubs, and even put together some of my own groups for encouragement and growth. I paid for some counseling, but in my opinion counseling can be very slow, very expensive, and often keeps someone stuck. I really tried to let the Spirit guide me to the next healer and the next healer in my life. Sometimes I had one appointment with someone and had major revelations which carried me through big hurdles. I did buy a few online course kind of programs that were more expensive, ones I could listen to over and over again and they helped enormously. They would also have course work, which became really important for me to grow. I filled art journals for a few years, visualizing a new me.

I also was a part of some private Facebook groups that shared similar problems, and I found support there. These days, I listen to a lot of self hypnosis videos that train the mind to think positively or program the mind rather, for success, health and wellness. My favorite teacher is Jake Ducey on You Tube. There have been many teachers in my life, some I never met, some I have only read their books. 

I guess to sum this up I will say- the reason why you do not need to eat perfectly is because SELF GROWTH is the key to unlock the door to Wellness. Do not get stuck at the food portion. GROW. This is a journey of life and about growing as a human being. I will leave you with this quote. 

"Half of spiritual growth is about learning what we don't know. The other half is about learning what we do know." 
-Mark Batterson