Hey, Strong Temples!
Hope everyone is having an awesome and peaceful week thus far.
We are nearing the end of the year, and that can come with a lot of “impending resolution anxiety.” You may be feeling like you want to stuff as many white-sugar encrusted things as possible into your mouth before January 1st. There is so much shame that can descend on us right after Christmas! We carry it into the New Year using it as motivation to achieve our goals. Losing weight, cutting “bad” habits, and forcing ourselves into this weird punishment cycle if we mess up. We are here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way! Here at Temple Training, we are all about balance. You can have your cake and eat it too, without guilt or overstuffed pain. All of those things can be good when done out of love for our bodies, but if it becomes a depriving and stressful battle, it takes all the motivation and love out of these new goals, and they fall by the wayside. We will share more about this leading up to New Year’s!
We want to chat a little bit about mindful eating over the holidays, how important it is not only for your digestion, but for your mental health, and love towards yourself and others.
Here are a few tips from the Temple Training Coaches to help you move through the holidays with ease, peace, and joy.
EAT SLOW + SITTING DOWN: This is honestly a bit of a lost art. We look at our phones, we rush around, and we shovel food in as quickly as we can to get on to the next thing. Sometimes this is necessary, but most often it’s not. Find a place to sit down, be it with a friend or quietly by yourself and eat your food slowly. Be present. Try really focusing on gratitude with each bite rather than thinking about getting the next one into your mouth. Chew each bite ten times before swallowing; this can be hard to develop as a discipline but it really causes you to be thankful for your food! What a gift that we have regular meals!
FILL UP WITH HEALTHIER OPTIONS FIRST: Start with the veggies and proteins. First off, your digestive system will thank you (greens in particular aid in digestion so much), and you will be full of things that nourish you, not deplete you. Have dessert if you so desire, but be content with smaller portions, one slice, or even making your favorite dessert with cleaner ingredients! You most likely won’t want to eat a ton after you filled up with cleaner options.
STOP WHEN YOU’RE FULL: This is something that will benefit you SO much. Food does not control you, you are in control of what goes into your body. There is enormous empowerment in that. Food is a gift and should be treated as such. Don’t shame yourself if you end up overeating, I REPEAT, do NOT punish yourself, mentally or with deprivation or over-exercise. This is a practice. It will not happen overnight. Being kind to ourselves happens slowly and with lots of repetition. Give yourself grace.
CHOOSE GRATITUDE: What does this look like for you? How can being grateful enable you to not only make choices that make you feel better physically, but mentally? Our relationship with food can be such a fickle thing, but just by beginning to be thankful for the fact that we can open our mouths and put food into them is a great starting place.
STOP THINKING ABOUT FOOD: Tons of cooking/baking/hosting to be done and we want you to stop thinking about food so much?! YES. Try simply switching up your thought process. As redundant as this sounds, find something to be thankful for at that moment instead. Don’t ignore hunger cues, but be at peace with knowing that you are provided for, you are loved, and you are precious. God always makes a way. We love meditating on His Majesty or the fact that He had to arrange the whole timeline of the world in order for you to be in this exact spot at this exact time for your purpose in His story. WHAT!!! That is mind-blowing.
CHALLENGE:
Meditate on this scripture: “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.” Matthew 6:30-33 MSG
Pick one or two of the habits listed above to put into practice these next couple of weeks. Use the hashtag #mindfulwithTempleTraining with what you found most challenging and what you loved about it!
Comment below or email csherrodhealth@gmail.com if you like what you’re reading and want to delve deeper into your health journey! Or you just have a question or comment. 🙂