Live, Love, Eat – Healthy Gut Means Happy And Healthy You

 

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I belong to a women’s group called Deborah, and I can confidently say that our common ground is food – food for our soul and food for our physical body.

We meet once a week for Bible study, and what else is there to do after feeding our soul with the word of God – we feast!  Our pigging out time is happy and full of laughter (and sometimes tears) because it is also our time to share our stories, give our praises and thanks for surviving another week – may it be a week of trials, joy, or both.

Some of us will bring fruits and vegetable salads while others will pack finger foods, rice, meat, and kinds of pasta.  We are all adventurous when it comes to food, and so whenever a new food outlet opens up – whether a small coffee shop or buffet – we make sure to pay it a visit and try what they have to offer.   For us, FOOD is LIFE!

 

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Live To Be Spiritually Healthy (Healthy Spirituality Is A Healthy Gut)

We live not just with the food we feed our body with but most importantly the food we feed our souls with.  Our whole being will reach its state of well-being if we care enough not just about the food we eat but our spirituality. In an article of Marjie L. Roddick, MA, NCC, LMHC she emphasizes that “Signs of strong spiritual health include having clear values, a sense of self-confidence, and a feeling of inner peace.”

Spirituality is not just about religion or what you believe.  For me, it is about self-awareness, being aware of what is good and bad for the mind, body, and soul – the end-result of my religiosity.

Being aware of what is good and bad for you will put balance in all aspects of your life and will yield happiness, love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Jennifer Bradley, Psy.D., HSPP, Clinical Psychologist once stated that “When we are imbalanced, we develop various types of difficulties, including psychological and/or physical symptoms, and we begin to use ineffective or damaging coping mechanisms.”

When it comes to the matters of the gut, self-control is of utmost importance.  God gives us a lot of vast choices so that our palate will enjoy and be able to feast on everything He created – plant-based or animal-based – and it is up for us to choose.

Self-control will lead us to make good choices about food and will produce good results as we enjoy our healthy body.

 

Love Your Gut

A healthy body is a healthy mind, a manifestation that we love the one who created it and ourselves as much as we love what we eat.  Enjoying our eating time, slowly chewing our food, and giving our tummy enough time to digest everything means we care about our gut, not to overwork.

In one of our study sessions, we learned about breath prayer, a practice that if you do with your heart will become a natural part of your system like breathing.  Breath prayer allows me to focus and digest the spiritual food I take in to keep me going for the day.

Just like a breath prayer, proper breathing supplies our digestive system with enough oxygen so that it can digest the food efficiently and provide all the nutrients our every cell need.

A healthy mind is a healthy soul; a healthy digestive tract is the foundation of a healthy body.  It pays to love your gut!

 

Eat-In Gentleness

Functioning in self-control, choosing the food you want to eat, which will help maintain the ecosystem in your body, making your body healthy, enabling you to do things you would like to achieve is the true freedom. “Eat a healthful diet, that is low in fat, high in fiber, and rich in vitamins and minerals. Specific dietary factors that may be beneficial in depression are the B-complex vitamins (found in whole grains) and omega-3 fatty acids (found in cold-water fish, fish oil, and flax seeds),” says ADAA member Stephanie Kriesberg, PsyD

Whether in a coffee shop or pigging out in a smorgasbord, God wants us to enjoy and be happy with all the food He prepares for us.   It is for us to choose which and how much of each we are going to take in that we think is gentle enough to our gut but will still keep us going and not hogtie us into the bed of illness.

Don’t let the feast lane be your ticket to get in the fast lane of sickness.

To be able to live, love, and eat is the freedom that changes my whole being to its well-being, a manifestation of what my God has done in my life.