Quit Eating Like Crap: Practice.

Welcome to week four of Quit Eating Like Crap. In week one we talked about getting inspired, in week two we talked about making one small change by eating your greens, and in week three we talked about checking under the hood. I hope you play along at home!

So here’s the totally inconvenient thing–when you try to change the way you eat, it brings up lots of your stuff. Yep…stuff, stuff, and more stuff.

Actually, I tend to use the term shit more often than stuff (as in, own your shit people!) But let’s keep it clean here. So. Stuff.

What is stuff?

Stuff (at least mine) comes in layers. It can range anywhere from deep stuff like identifying lifelong patterns of hurt, to more practical stuff like realizing you like a sweet treat in the afternoons because you hate your job.

We all have stuff, we wouldn’t be humans living life on this planet and interacting with one another if we didn’t have it. Your stuff makes up the beautiful and completely unique terrain that is you. So there’s no point in pretending it’s not there–you might as well pretend to be a robot. (i.e. hellooo you are not fooling anyone.)

Stuff only becomes a problem when we deny it or avoid it. When we bring it into the light and interact with it compassionately, it can only help us learn about ourselves and make better choices in the future.

But it can be painful. Hell, it can be downright excruciating. Running into stuff is the number one reason people fail at making lifelong changes to the way they eat.

So.

What I want you to know is this: there is nothing wrong with you.

No matter how far you are from feeding your body in the way it deserves, no matter if you have a degenerative disease or condition, no matter if you are very overweight according to societal norms, no matter how much work you want to do to gain health, no matter how much stuff you have– you are perfect, as you are.

Once you know that, once you truly believe that (and I know it can take a while, it’s not like flipping a switch, I just want to plant the seed here)–then the rest is just details. Capturing information. Doing some soul sleuthing.

And in order to do this detective work, in order to meet-and-greet any stuff that comes up as you’re changing the way you eat, you need to have a practice.

What’s a practice?

A practice can be anything that you do that allows you to reflect and interact with your core Self.

I know, that sounds overwhelming. But it can be anything…taking long walks, meditating, journalling, going to therapy, or prayer. It can be painting, it can be talking to yourself. It can be writing or coloring or baking or whatever. Really, the possibilities are endless.

Only you know what shape it needs to take. But you have to have something as you go along.

Your practice allows you to capture the scary bits and say hi to them, to bring them into the light. It gives a space for this interaction to take place.

Personally, I like writing because it helps me to capture things and refer back to them (I’m a data-junkie like that). When I have the opportunity (read: notsomuch lately with a toddler in the house), I meditate. In the past, I had a lot of stuff to work through and I needed the big guns, so my practice was several years of deep psychotherapy.

Find what works best for you at this time in your life. It doesn’t have to always be the same thing. If you already have a practice, then great. You can bring attention in your practice to what’s going on your relationship with food and healthy eating.

So, do you have a practice? What is it? Or are you going to start one?

Related posts:

• Quit Eating Like Crap: Check Under the Hood.
• Quit Eating Like Crap
• Quit Eating Like Crap: Eat Your Greens.