brendenpettingill
DIET AND INTENTIONS
Category: /Poetry/
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When I first got sick over six years ago I remember the Doctor telling me that diet had nothing to with my Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Even at age seventeen I couldn’t believe a words that he was saying. How could a disease that affects the colon and the absorption of food within the digestive tract not be affected by diet? They told me I would be on prescription medications for the rest of my life. They told me the red ones would be eight pills, three times a day, and the white ones would be three pills, three times a day. They had no idea how I had gotten sick, they didn’t care to figure it out, but somehow they knew I would have it forever.
I couldn’t believe it!
I poured over every book and article I could get my hands on. I read about the SCD diet, bloggers and vloggers who talked about their success with UC and it all seemed so restrictive. I heard horror stories of people drinking alcohol and immediately flaring up. I read about someone eating pizza and getting sick the next day. I didn’t want to believe that the rest of my life would be spent staying away from all the foods I loved, but I chose to try an Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) anyway.
What I realized though in my recovery was not how the food allowed me to heal but how my own thoughts and emotions prevented the food from allowing me to heal. That may sound confusing, so I’ll explain.
In those days no matter what I ate, it seemed, went straight through me and out the other end. I sat on the toilet five, or ten or even more times a day no matter what I was eating. And I just kept thinking to myself, well I can’t eat that. I can’t eat that either; continuing to limit myself until all I was eating was hamburger patties and pureed carrot. I had lost almost twenty pounds from my already skinny 145 pound frame and I was not getting better.
Ultimately, it has taken me being sick three times, battling through five years of ups and downs and over a year cumulatively of being in a flared up state to realize that diet was not it.
This can be confusing as well, let me elaborate. Diet plays a part, in fact, diet is very crucial, but what often makes us sick and keeps us sick, is an imbalance in the body. Often created by the one of the few things we put into it, food.
The reality, however, is that there are even more important inputs we must address to stay healthy.
For one, we must be breathing properly. Poor posture and shallow chest and mouth breathing keep us from getting enough oxygen on a daily basis.
Second is our psychological and emotional wellbeing. Being in environments that are unhealthy for our bodies and minds and not being in control of our own emotions keeps our body in a state of constant stress.
In my case, this is where I found myself stuck. I was eating healthy, but I was stressed out about what might happen if I ate this or that. I thought to myself before every meal, “well, I hope I don’t get sick from this food.” Instead of thinking, this is my medicine, this food will help me heal. And this is the most crucial part of diet.
Research what you eat, of course.
Listen to your body when you eat, naturally.
Eat local and organic, when you can.
But most of all, make an intention when you eat.
It isn’t about saying grace or praying if that doesn’t resonate with you. However, the premise is the same.
Take the time, sit down when you eat, prepare your own food, support local farms and remember, what you are doing while you breath, eat and think everyday, affects your health. Once you get to a certain point, it no longer becomes about what specifically we are doing and eating, but how we are doing it. Intentions are everything. Make your intentions to heal, and most of all, to
Be Happy!
More at : http://brendenpettingill.com/index.php/2017/11/14/diet-and-intentions/
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