Life is meant to be a pleasure. We are designed to smile when we wake up, find joy in every day and feel pleasure from food. Sadly, we have become conditioned to put so much pressure on ourselves. Too often we look outside of ourselves for how to look, feel and behave. We create external goals, with demanding deadlines. Then we torture ourselves when we can’t deliver. On the days that we are not note perfect we judge what we have said and done. We criticise ourselves and feel lost when we fail to live up to our own unrealistic standards, or worse, those we think others set for us.
Our relationship with food is intertwined in all of this. We eat with emotional intent, rewarding the good days and commiserating the bad. It sounds fair enough, but the problem in the modern world is that the reward foods we are targeted are not nourishing us. The ‘treat’ foods are acidic, processed, laden with sugar or fat. They are hard to digest and cruel to our organs. The result is sweet spikes then lousy lows as our body works through an uphill struggle to process the crap and regain a more balanced pH.
Not only do we feel guilty for weight gain, but we get messages from our body that it is struggling. Symptoms such as bloating, IBS, low energy, insomnia, headaches and inflammation are signs that we are hurting ourselves with food and most probably the stresses we’re putting on ourselves. We go so fast; we are hard on ourselves and we’re not being kind to our digestive organs.
Being kind to yourself means just that. It means going easy on yourself for all the decisions you make, even the duff ones. If you are thinking about juicing, don’t see it as something you must do because you are bad or need to sort yourself out. Be kind and trusting and let this be part of a nourishing journey towards being your happiest, healthiest self. This doesn’t need to be part of another gruelling self-punishment exercise. Going into this with a positive and forgiving mindset helps you get the most from the cleanse, helps you observe your body and enjoy how it responds.
With a kind and open mindset juicing can be life changing. It can be the gateway to re-connecting with yourself and help you tune in again (or even for the first time) to what your body is telling you. With a fair wind and and open heart, juicing can be the spring board to a new relationship with yourself and the food you eat.
I wish you all the best if you decide to venture forward and hope to be part of your juicing journey.
Laura x
Feel Good Juicing 