Summer Fun

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

                   -George Orwell

This summer, July through September, I am exploring what we can do in the present to make our lives more fulfilled, happier, and filled with vitality and health. We all want to be and live full and healthy and vital lives. Without health, how can we feel good, have the energy to grow and expand, and be vital humans? This summer I am looking at the middle portion of the Body Presencing Hologram; the moving and being in the present. 

This past spring I took a look at how we get stuck on our past, even over generations, and how to move from this place of uncertainty, fear, anxiety, etc. to one where we are able to be here in the present and working on us and our full selves. Here we are, in the heat of July, often the hottest month of the year, for those of us in this middle latitude. And we are heating up!

When we feel healthy and full of energy, summer is a great time to eat well and get out and move our bodies as we soak up some summer sunshine. Here I begin to look at what we can do for ourselves as we feel capable and able to nurture us and be present to us and our families and friends and to also continue learning and growing.

Boundaries, integration, growth, distance, perspective, and truth are six precepts in our being able to be and live in our present.  We are learning how we get to this place. What do we do when we are here?

Having boundaries also includes having boundaries with our eating patterns. When we aren’t ruled by unresolved feelings and beliefs that aren’t really ours, we have a chance to look at our food, food choices, and amounts. We begin to eat when we are hungry, stop when we are full, and eat from need and fun and for health and well being. The question becomes, what will make me feel good? This replaces, what satisfies my cravings, or makes my emotions feel temporarily better?

Then we can look at what foods are best for our body type and how we metabolize food best. Some people are primarily protein metabolizers, some are carbohydrate metabolizers, and some are mixed. We can also look at what foods we might be sensitive to, and so it is best to not eat them most of the time, and what foods our bodies love. In this day and time, if we find that we are sensitive to dairy or to wheat or to gluten, there are many other choices easily available for us. All this becomes fun and possible. Then, one of the things I teach is to rid your pantry of all foods that don’t serve you. Get rid of the potato chips, the white sugar and white flour, for example. Go to the store and fill it with foods that serve your body and are easy to prepare. This becomes things like whole grains, stevia, beans, fresh spices and herbs, healthy granola bars, and such. I actually enjoy going to the store with a client and helping them to fill their pantry in ways that serve them. We also come up with many ideas together on what to prepare and how.

What also begins to happen is that we find we don’t have to obsess about food and our food choices. If we mess up, or we eat more indulgently, we then find we want our next meal to be a healthy one, filled with nutrients and vegetables and protein. This begins to happen naturally. For those of us who have more severe food sensitivities, it becomes easier to eat for ourselves because we just feel better. 

This is eating with boundaries and consciousness in the present. Do we ever have set backs, yes we do. Do we bounce back more quickly, yes we do. Are we less hard on us, yes we are!

Fun with Food:

I like having fun with food; enjoying different textures, tastes and combinations. I also like it to be relatively simple.

Do you like to bake? Or do you like to make casseroles, or do you like to follow a good recipe, or do you like to create? Ask yourself these questions. Also ask yourself, how often do you like to cook, how often do you find yourself cooking? Sometimes making a plan is very helpful. Make enough chicken for a few days, for example, and each day then prepare it a little differently. One day make a chicken salad and add a lot of vegetables, another day make a stir fry with it, another day make a chicken pot pie, and so on. That way the chicken is pre-made by you, and the rest is cutting vegetables, making a sauce, cooking rice, etc. 

Try out making a few sauces that are easy to make and have then on hand in your refrigerator. 

Make a big pot of rice that can last through the week, and add something different to it each day.

I also love having seeds and nuts on hand to easily add a little splash of crunch and flavor to these dishes. 

Have fun with food and let it talk to you.

Recommended Resources: 

A great cook book I recommend for creative tasty ideas is: True Food; it is by Andrew Weil.

Check it out and see what you think. I also am interested in recipes and books which you all find fun and good which you would like to share.