The Christmas holiday period is coming up and even though as a full time blogger I don’t really take “holidays”, I’m still finding myself getting into the holiday spirit. The girls and I have decorated the house with home made decorations, and we’ve made a little Frangipani tree that I found in the back yard in a pot our Christmas tree.
As it turns out, this Christmas period is also a good time for learning and reflection for me. I had a huge white sugar binge a few days ago which made me feel quite physically and emotionally yuck. I’m also finding myself subconsciously allowing myself to “relax” a little more with the amount of white sugar junky foods that I’m eating because “Hey, it’s holiday season”.
Which has brought up a lot of mind stuff for me. I’ve realized that I’ve been battling with an unhealthy mindset towards food for years now. I can get so much guilt with the food that I consume. White sugar is especially a big one for me, but the guilt extends to dairy and wheat. Interestingly these are three of my biggest food allergens.
I’m beginning to feel that this mindset is a big issue for a lot of us that have troubled skin. We often associate the “bad” foods with acne breakouts, which makes us extremely guilty when we consume those foods. Unfortunately the stress and negative emotions that we feel from the guilt are often more toxic to our bodies and our spirit than the food itself. So while our organs are doing their thing and helping us to process the physical toxins (and if you have a clean body then they do a GREAT job at that!), unfortunately we’re topping up our emotional toxins which can be a little trickier to get rid of.
I’m still learning how to overcome this issue, so apart from the handful of articles that I’ve written in the past about food and mindset, I’m not sure what else to say. I guess I just wanted to make you aware of my own personal struggle with eating for the skin, and maybe so that you know I’m human too.
If this article resonates with you and you know that you have this experience too, then what you can do is work towards changing your mindset to a positive one. KNOW that it’s okay to eat 10%-20% for the soul, and that it’s absolutely okay to treat yourself every now and again. I strongly feel that if we’re out with friends or family and having fun then we can relax a little and enjoy the experience – guilt free.
Sure it’s different for me with meat products which I won’t eat, but that’s more for spiritual and ethical reasons. When it comes to white sugar, dairy and wheat, it’s solely for my health and therefore something that I feel should be okay to indulge in every now and again. I KNOW the theory, I just need to change the mental side of it, I need to work on actually believing what my brain is telling me.
I have read articles from time to time about people who develop sicknesses and eating disorders from being ridiculous about their diets and trying to be TOO healthy, which I guess is why I will consistently maintain that eating luscious junky foods every now and again is in someway healthy for us. Unless of course you’re on a detox or have a strong allergic reaction or intolerance to a particular food.
I guess as well one of my biggest fears with writing articles like this is because of my weight. I get a lot of people in YouTube and occasionally in my blog teasing me because of my thin frame. I have a very Vata dosha according to Ayurvedic medicine and have a lot of trouble putting on weight. Over the years I’ve learned to accept and love what I’ve been given, and ignore the occasional rude comments I get from people. And I will always maintain that I can continue to talk about eating healthy foods because I strongly feel that eating large quantities of processed sugars, processed grains and animal products is not a healthy way to gain weight.
In a way I’m grateful for this journey, because it has made me more aware of what a lot of my High on Health readers are battling with. I want to continue talking about the “controversial stuff” in this blog because it’s not published enough on the web or anywhere offline. I’m honestly prepared to receive plenty of negative feedback to touch the hearts of a small few.
So if this is you, if you’re freaking out a little about the Christmas holidays season coming up, please don’t! Instead please allow yourself to relax into it and enjoy a bit of indulging for the soul every now and again. That’s what I’m going to try to do …
10 responses ↓
Fran, I just have to say I’m so grateful for your blog. There’s nothing else like it on the Web. I can totally relate to everything you write and seem to have so many of the same diet-related problems with my skin. Thanks for staring this important dialogue and for providing so much good, heartening, useful information. You’re really helping me!
Happy Holidays Fran. Thank you for all of your help. I \t is very much apprecated. Do you think that you will be back to alive raw vegan foods in downtown Toronto agian. i would really like to meet you, my inspration. THANKS:3
G’day, Fran. Come on, you are not skinny. Pirates like women like you are
‘Guilt free’ (copyright Mike) is a good name for a chocolate brand
Folks, Happy holidays!!!
Hey Fran!
Thank you for this post.
It really hit home.
When I was 14 I developed an eating disorder because I was really uncomfortable about my growing curves. I went from a healthy 130 pounds to a not healthy 105 pounds in the course of a summer.
Back then, I really saw food as “the enemy” and tried to eat little to no fat and carbs (really just fruits and veg)
But this was a reallly terrible idea because I was missing out on A LOT of vital nutrients and was going nuts trying to follow this impossible diet I created.
After about 5 months of this I couldn’t continue this weird diet anymore and quickly gained back all the weight plus some eating whatever the hell I wanted and not really excercising at all.
Today I am a healhy, fit 120. I can be quite picky (I owuld say in a good way) about what I eat because I have actually grown to like eating healthy! I eat lots of fruit and veg but also a lot of healthy grains, nuts seeds and oils.
I no longer see food as “the enemy” like I did when i had the eating disorder. Nor will I put “whatever” into my body like I did the 5 year “binge” following the weird diet I made.
Alot of my freinds and family (probably scared for a relaspe) sometimes give me slack about my super healthy lifestyle and food choices. I understand where they are coming from because sometimes I still see remanants of my controlling, perfectionist behaviour with food today.
However, I do allow myself the oocassional splurge and (usually) don’t feel guilty about it.
I guess my main point is that seeing food as an enemy is not a good thing and thats why diets don’t work.
Food is a beautiful life sustaining and soul sustaining gift from the earth. Diets don’t allow you to see food this way. They make you obsess and fret over every morsel you put in your mouth.
I really do beleive it is more important to nurture your body and mind with healthy nourishing food most of the time but not deny it treats when you feel like indulging.
I also think this is really important to be aware of the food you are eating and not just mindlessly stuffing your face.
It helps you appreciate food more…from the delicious healthly stuff to the delicious not so heathly stuff
Cannot agree here more than lotusflower – “Food is a beautiful life sustaining and soul sustaining gift from the earth”
We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to fit a certain image or mold as society deems ‘normal’. Having been through numerous peaks and troughs of the health front, I believe that our health should always be the number one priority in out lives.
Hey Fran
I think you’re totally right about eating right most of the time. The odd bit of sugar won’t affect you in the same way when you stress about it for days as when you just accept it as a soul treat and decide that your body can handle it!
Great website by the way- I think you have a fantastic approach to diet and lifestyle as well as natural skincare. My skin and my mindset have improved a lot since I started reading your stuff.
Thank you for the great article.
I agree with you in the fact that we can be doing more harm then good by being stressed out over not indulging once in a while. On Thanksgiving I always stuff myself. I did again this year, a little too much. But, for a once in a while thing, it is no big deal.
My family christmas party is this Sunday and I will eat more food then what I normally would. This is because our family holiday parties have such wonderful food. If I am craving the food that is provided then I am going to eat it. I know that I won’t have to overeat for a few months so Christmas time will be ok.
And, I am almost clear too as I have been improving my lifestyle so a once in a while thing won’t do any harm.
-Todd
Hey Fran, Your blog is very nice and the article are really informative too. Thanks for sharing such a lovely tips. Yes, As Christmas and a Happy New year is coming by We gonna eat a lot of sweets and Cakes. But I am so sorry of you that you are allergy to white sugar. But, it’s a Christmas Time you should take a little bit. As you have said you have a thin frame, it’s the best because thin is very much better as compare to a heavy more extra weight body.
Thank you for touching my heart!
Hey Fran! Thanks for this article! I have experienced the same stress that you talked about for the past year and a half since I changed my diet indefinitely. After years and years of being vegetarian, vegan and then raw foods only, I have found a particular diet that works for me but I have to do all my own cooking for everything I eat. All ingredients I use are organic, non-industrialized and needs to be prepared in certain ways to assimilate to my body, so no convenience foods me. I make my own mayonnaise! Can’t even buy most packaged food from the health food store. Sure I struggle with not grabbing a donut when people bring them to work but as of right now, I try to live with no regrets. The guilt was sooooo bad during the first year but it got better.
Here is an example of what I went through this past Halloween. I had to buy candy for a work event. I ended up pigging out on refined sugar and chemicals from the candy. I had a huge bout with guilt but then resolved that I have been “good” for so long that I wanted to let myself emotionally enjoy eating this candy. So the guilt went away but the sugar messed me up so much that I can’t imagine eating it again. So I learned my lesson. I have been eating according to my diet for so long that when I break it, its not my guilt that bothers me anymore, my body just has a bad reaction and trumps the emotional craving. Now, I do let my self eat some ice cream or my favorite lovely lavender natural sugar soda from time to time with refined sugar because other options don’t exist and I don’t have an ice cream maker yet. I will eat food not in my diet when I visit a friend or go to a work party. No sense in feeling bad, I just don’t “pig out”. That is where the bigger problem lies. I also gave my body a good foundation of about 90 days of not breaking my diet at all so I am better equipped to deal with “cheats” later on.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that guilt is never good unless you use it as a way to identify something that is not good for you before you make the choice. After the choice, let go of that guilt and see what your body has to say about it. No sense in feeling guilty for a choice already made, just observe and see if you can learn anything from it. Guilt could also be a warning sign that your current diet practice isn’t working for your body. I spent 5 years on my own and couldn’t find a diet that worked till I consulted a doctor who uses food to heal the body before turning to medicine. (Rare I know but there is one in Chicago!) What also helps me is that I have identified that my cravings for certain junk food is not because I’m hungry, it’s an emotional craving. That idea helps take away the internal struggle that I experience. Maybe what your experiencing isn’t even guilt but a personal struggle with commitment? Maybe your not confident or sure about the choices your are making regarding your diet and guilt is the feeling that shows up? What ever the reason, cut your self some slack when you need to and try to stick to your goal and it will get easier. No one should ever feel bad or experience guilt for tyring to eat better!
Oh, on the note of sugar. It’s a drug in it’s refined form. So it’s going to be hard and emotional to stop eating it. I have quit smoking, drinking and I have quit refined sugar. In my experience, sugar and refined foods, are by far much harder to quit and with worse withdraw symptoms. (Imagine me crying on the floor of my office on my lunch break in the middle of my first week, calling my doctor asking, “what is wrong with me?”) If you can utilize unrefined sugar, aka Rapadura, in your diet you will find not only does it taste so much better but it doesn’t have the same drug effect while being able to sooth your craving. Remember when I said I ate candy at Halloween? Well I walked around high as a kite all day after that, it was the weirdest sensation. Here is a great blog I found about Rapadura sugar if your interested, ,http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/rapadura-sucanat-muscavado-turbinado.html)
Lastly, I want to throw out the idea that it is not “junk food” that is the enemy, it refined industrialized food that is the enemy. Heck, I just had banana bread for breakfast with no guilt because it was prepared properly with the right ingredients. We need to eat fresh ground grain that has been soaked, not this denatured stuff sitting on the shelf. We need to consume unrefined sugar, dates, raw honey, pure maple syrup instead of industrialized sweeteners. We need to consume dairy in it’s raw state and preferably cultured. For non-vegetarians the livestock needs to be pastured, organic and respected. Now all we have to do is get used to cooking.
If you want legit info on a lot of the ideas I am promoting check out the book, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, it my favorite source.
Ok, I am done. Sorry for this long post, Fran, I couldn’t sleep. For those who read this whole thing, thank you, hopefully there was something in here that you found interesting. I would like to end with my favorite saying; Take what you can use and leave the rest! Take care and best wishes on all of your journeys with food and health!
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