When the media articles about Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine came out in 2012, they suggested that anyone involved with Universal Medicine was being told to eat a certain ‘extreme’ diet. I knew from personal experience that nothing could have been further from the truth. The kinds of diets I’d been following in my life and subjected my body to – which many would accept as ‘normal’ – were in fact the truly extreme ones and were far from what my body really needed.
MY VEGETARIAN DIET
When I first met Serge Benhayon, my body had been begging me to eat meat for the last 18 months. I had been refusing to give into this clear message as I had made the choice to be a vegetarian. As a result I was exhausted, malnourished, and overweight.
I had been eating a vegetarian diet for several years prior to this. I had never considered asking my body how it felt about this decision. On reflection, this would have been the natural thing to do.
All other animals know what and how much to eat. Yet somehow we seem to have lost this natural ability from the human psyche and have made our minds king. My decision to be a vegetarian came from what my mind wanted and my reaction to how animals were farmed for meat.
I felt quite healthy on the vegetarian diet until I became pregnant: then the objections from my body grew louder and louder. Instead of listening to my body I clung with white knuckles to my principles. My ‘clever’ mind tried to find ways around what my body was clearly telling me. I ate excessive amounts of dairy and eggs in the hope that these would substitute for meat. My wellbeing continued to deteriorate, especially as I was breast-feeding. This continued until my son was a year old.
WHAT MY BODY KNEW
That was when I had my first healing session with Serge Benhayon. He never once mentioned diet or what I should eat. Yet at the end of the session I drove straight to the take-away to get a chicken satay stick. Surprisingly, I did not feel guilty.
I simply knew that this was what my body needed and I could not keep abusing it. What good was my peaceful protest against animal cruelty if it ended up destroying the protestor?
My body was right. It did need meat at that stage of my life and my energy and wellbeing improved markedly. This was a turning point in my life. I realised how much my body knew and how harmful and inflexible life run by ideals and beliefs could be.
THE QUESTION OF GLUTEN
My next big lesson about listening to my body came in the form of gluten. Over several years I had heard Serge Benhayon present about the energy of gluten and its effects on the body.
He never once said we should stop eating gluten. He simply presented listening to and respecting the wisdom of your own body.
So, with the free will to make my own choices (and feel the effects), I continued to eat gluten. However there did come a time when I knew that gluten was not sitting so well in my body. I really didn’t want this to be true. I couldn’t imagine life without bakery treats. So I played the game of adjusting my eating just enough to reduce symptoms and made excuses to myself for why my stomach wasn’t feeling so good. This continued for sometime until D (donut)-day.
DONUT DAY
I was grocery shopping one night and just inside the entrance to the supermarket was a table full of half-priced six-packs of iced donuts. Who could say “No” to that? I certainly couldn’t! So I took them home and ate not one or two but four donuts! I will never forget how I felt. For the next three days it felt like I had had cement poured into my stomach. Now, knowing the word gluten comes from the Latin meaning ‘glue’ makes a lot of sense! I could barely eat and my stomach was very, very uncomfortable.
I have not eaten gluten since that day and have never regretted it. I instantly started to drop the weight I had struggled to lose and returned to my natural size. I am free from the lure of bakery treats. I had had a big lesson to listen to and respect my body. It can only take so much before it says “No” quite loudly.
Today, I do not eat a prescribed diet (certainly nothing like an ‘extreme’ diet!) and what I eat is always changing. To others my diet may look extreme and as though I am ‘missing out’. From my experience, what I used to accept as normal was extreme and harmful to my wellbeing. Considering that over two-thirds of Australia’s population are overweight or obese, it may be time to start questioning the ‘norm’.
I now feel what my body needs to nourish and support it. I already knew first-hand how loudly my body could speak and the harm caused by ignoring it before I met Serge Benhayon.
What he has continually shared is to keep feeling what is right for ME.
No prescription, no rules, no letting myself be led by any ideas, needs, experts or diets, because…
There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.
Inspired by the work of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.
By Fiona Lotherington, Technical Officer, Registered Nurse, Lismore, Australia
I feel that Serge Benhayon offers a ‘what if’ scenario and then leaves it up to everyone to discover for themselves what foods they can eat and what they cannot. I have never heard any rules on the subject of food. I have lost count of the times when I have told people that I do not drink alcohol they wish they didn’t drink either but admit they needed alcohol to feel better about themselves. I used to drink alcohol like a fish so there is no judgement on my part I just know that my body can no longer tolerate it and I feel more vital within myself for not drinking.
I can so relate to your ‘diet’ journey Fiona, as mine was very similar. I had removed wheat, sugar, dairy and alcohol from my diet five years before I met Serge Benhayon, for health reasons, but was still a vegetarian. But it wasn’t until I removed the gluten and began eating fish six months after my body began to whisper ‘fish’ over and over again, that my health really began to improve. Never thought I’d eat lamb or chicken, but there I was, a year later, eating both and feeling way more vital and alive than I had ever felt in my life. So, there is definitely no doubt in my mind, that every single thing I put into my body impacts on every aspect of my life.
And are not our digestive system all set to a different tune so for each of us we have to find our own brand of healthy living that serves our bodies as we cannot fit everyone under the one blanket rule. As you have so simply shared Fiona feel for yourself what works for your body and don’t be guided by any hard and fast rules.
This is my experience of what Serge Benhayon shared too, ‘listening to and respecting the wisdom of your own body’, and honouring what your own body is asking for, this will be different for each of us.
As a teenager I also reacted to animal welfare issues and became a vegetarian and then a vegan. Although the food was considered healthy I feel it had a very negative effect on my digestive system to the point that even years after eating meat again my digestive system was still not normal. I agree with your line “I realised how much my body knew and how harmful and inflexible life run by ideals and beliefs could be.” This is exactly what I experienced because I also was prompted by my body to change how I was eating and also include meat yet my ideals and beliefs were placed first to the detriment of my body.
When you eat exactly what your body needs there is no guilt or other negative consequences, the trouble is we choose most of the time from our heads, or for the last rather than what we actually need on that day and at that moment.
‘From my experience, what I used to accept as normal was extreme and harmful to my wellbeing. ‘ Checking the norms is a healthy choice we can do and this can only be done by testing how they feel in our body.
No matter what angle I look at it it seems the norm is to abuse yourself and even boast about it. You can abuse yourself being “healthy” or abuse yourself by being “unhealthy”. It’s like a linear sliding scale of abuse and we can go extreme at both ends or try and balance it by “everything in moderation”. What a load of rubbish that whole mindset is – it is all abuse and we as a society championing it to the enth degree- it really is quite ridiculous.
Thanks for your comment Suzanne, I hadn’t considered the boasting part but it’s true, we drink huge amounts of alcohol and boast, and gorge ourselves on food to the point of not being able to move for hours because of the discomfort and we boast about that too. We actually see achieving extremes as good, much like a 10km marathon. We are very unaware of self abuse in society, it’s easy to point out obvious extremes like violence as abuse, or self harm like cutting, but we do not have a general awareness in terms of self abuse. Many of the things we do to ourselves that harm the body we would not do to a child because we know it’s abuse and hold children, but not ourselves, preciously.
And it’s not just food that our body can be given a say on but all areas of life. Recently my back went out and as I lay in bed (thats about all I could do!) I connected with my body and then and there made the choice to quit my job and go full time over to the other job I am working. My back went out as a result of not caring for myself and running ragged, I could only do this for so long before my body said STOP! in the form of back pain. The moment I resigned the back pain started to go whereby the next day I was asking “Where’s my back pain?”
Leigh I agree, the body has a say in everything that throws us out of balance. I recently had a cold and needed bed rest, what was obvious over those few days of enforced rest was how much I had been pushing myself and as a result placing my body under unnecessary pressure. Whatever our illness or message from the body is it’s an opportunity to change and come back to harmony with the body.
It is ludicrous really, that we are so unwilling to let go of our accepted ‘norm‘ in terms of our relationship with food and diet, or to even consider that something is amiss, even though this ‘norm’ is slowly but surely making us sick and essentially killing us. It certainly calls to question what it is we call ‘intelligence’, or is it that we are simply willing to be ignorant of how our bodies are reflecting the quality of life we are choosing to live? Is our ‘norm’ really supporting us to live with the utmost vitality and realise our true potential?
Yes, Fiona, it is a natural thing to do, to ask our body how it feels when we eat or have eaten something or in your case follow a strict vegetarian diet. The body is much wiser than our mind ever will be and I agree there is no one who knows better what and how to eat (and prepare our food) than we do for ourselves.
“There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” When it comes to food only we know what is actually right for us to eat and not eat according to what is going on for us and how we are feeling generally in ourselves. If we can be honest about the fact that food has a much greater effect than it’s taste, our approach to food almost needs to be scientific in meeting what our body specifically requires that day.
We are our expert when it comes to our bodies – if we care to listen to it that is. The messages are there continually communicating to us tirelessly on our behalf. For some reason, we have this belief that the body is doing things against us and yet, that could not be any further from the truth.
Yes our bodies are like a wise best friend, continually there for us, communicating to us, but leaving it up to us if we honour or ignore that wisdom.
It is rather crazy that we often treat our body as the enemy when it doesn’t function the way we expect it to, instead of treating it as the best and wisest friend we have. Just imagine how our life and our health would be if we were raised to know this super important fact from day one.
I feel so much more vital since listening to my body and not imposing my beliefs on it e.g. that I should avoid meat or continuing to eat gluten for 20+ years because I could not get my head around how I was going to manage without e.g. taking sandwiches to work etc. I do not feel deprived without the items I no longer choose to consume because my body feels so much better for not having to deal with the consequences of trying to digest things that do not agree with it.
I still find myself in trouble with eating the wrong foods on occasions when I listen to my head over my body as sometimes when I let my mind run the show it can convince me of just about anything at the total expense of my body.
‘Considering that over two-thirds of Australia’s population are overweight or obese, it may be time to start questioning the ‘norm’.’ I live in the UK and although I don’t know the statistics I see an awful lot of overweight and obese people and I know for sure that the diabetes rates are soaring. This could all change if we took more responsibility for what we eat and how we eat. People say they can’t afford fresh vegetables and real meat and haven’t got the time to cook but if you do the maths it is actually cheaper to cook from scratch, it is a chance to be creative and allows us to transition from work to winding down before bed time. We can also get up a little earlier and do some cooking first thing, making enough for several meals and putting it in the freezer for later, when we really are pushed for time..
It would be so supportive for the education system to provide cooking lessons from an early age right through to high school so all the kids are equipped to cook a range of healthy and nutritious meals. What’s the point of having qualifications when we don’t have the education to look after our body with nutritious home cooked meals? I studied home economics in high school and it gave me great confidence in cooking, and I also had a very practical mother that was an excellent cook and showed me everything she knew. It’s very empowering having the ability to cook for oneself.
I can see how some people may view not eating gluten for example as missing out -but I can totally relate to wanting to miss out on feeling 3 days of cement being at the bottom of your stomach!!
It’s no stretch of understanding to consider people complaining about other people’s dietary choices that are in line with the body’s communications, are just furious with themselves they are not honouring their body in the same way – many may feel a lack of vitality eating whatever they desire, I know I do. Why else do people make it their business what other people choose to eat when that person is supporting their body and lifestyle to be healthier?
What has only ever been presented by Universal Medicine is to eat what’s right for you.. listen to your body, what it needs, not what you think it needs. This at first takes some discernment – we can be so used to following what we think we need, what we’ve always done. Listening and really honouring that is a total letting go of pictures, and allowing ourselves the space to feel everything about what, how and why we eat: are we eating because our body needs it, or because we’re not wanting to feel something, or just out of habit?
Yes the commitment to discerning why we choose to eat certain foods is the crucial point if we are to change patterns of eating that have not served us and finding other ways to address the issues we are trying to bury with food.
The only reason we have problems with our diet is because we are eating from our head and not our body. If we were truly listening to our body and honouring its messages we would not have any dietary issues whatsoever.
And to be able to listen to or body we may have to start experimenting by eating less of the foods that stop us from feeling what is actually going on…that is the extreme things like coffee and alcohol and give our bodies time to rid themselves of the toxins and/or stimulants that these substances have been feeding us with. This time period could be several months if we have been in the habit of taking these things regularly.
I am recognising how much I eat to try to numb what I am feeling. When I do this I feel smashed not just by the food but by the emotions I have taken on and not dealt with that lead to wanting a particular food.
This is a great point MW as it is more about our awareness of the quality in which we eat than it is about the specific foods we are eating. Hence why Universal Medicine presents the importance and value of developing an honouring relationship with our body, as it is our body, not anyone else or diet regime, that will always reflect and guide us to know the truth of the quality of our choices and if they support us to live with vitality and in connection to the lightness of our being.
Years ago I would follow diets, and one of the things they promote is red and green salad peppers as being uber healthy etc. Well, I always had a nauseous feeling come over me when preparing them and would eat them because someone had said they were good for me – now I listen to my body and would not go anywhere near a salad pepper if I was paid. The upshot of this story is that what works for one does not necessarily work for another and it is far more beneficial to listen to what works for us.
” Yet somehow we seem to have lost this natural ability from the human psyche and have made our minds king.”
This is very true and this can be easily seen in the food that is produced for example ” Junk food ” . Truly no one in their right mind would eat junk food.
The body does know what it needs and is capable of letting us know if we take the time to listen. The trouble is our ideals and beliefs get in the way and we override what we know to be true.
“D” day came and as you have shared Fiona, and I also will never go back to certain foods. Being a vegetarian for over 20 years my body was also craving meat! Dairy and eggs once again as you have explained never cut the mustard and I was excessively over weight. After reading what you have shared I simply thought of bread and what ‘It’ did to my body and I felt the bloated feeling you described.
My body is now more vital and can work longer hours, sleep deeper and my days are filled with a ‘Joy’ that is now my normal.
I was always busy with food in terms of diets not in terms of looking after my body and thus not giving my body a say. There was a right way to eat and there was a wrong way to eat and what ‘right or wrong’ meant changes according to what diet I was following at the time. Now there is no diet, there is just feeling into what my body shares with me and learning to listen by experimenting what kind of food it needs to feel nourished. The ‘right and wrong’ thing can still play out but that’s when I let my mind rule over my body and that’s definitely no way to go anymore.
For about six years I did not eat meat and chose instead to stick with vegetables and the occasional fish, not so much to save the animals lives but because I had read somewhere that it was healthier to live this way. As a result, I ended up carrying extra weight which I could not shift no matter what I tried. When I gave up gluten and dairy and reintroduced some meat products my weight slowly started to come off, and I dropped three dress sizes. It was not about choosing this way to live as a diet but more feeling what my body did and did not want to eat – this is key!
I know my diet still leaves a lot to be desired at times but if I think about it, eating to Order for our own bodies requirements couldn’t be further from extreme if what we feel is true. I ate some stuff on Christmas Day that was sugar free, dairy free, gluten free and all the rest but it still didn’t make me feel too good as I probably ate too much of it and my body didn’t need it in the first place.
“There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” I experience it all the time that either I or another knows more about something where anything can be lost very quickly from ‘something you know’ to a ‘you should know this also’. The lesson is, as Serge Benhayon lives, if it works for you then let it be for you. It’s respectful and decent to confirm and be the expert of continually developing what you feel then to otherwise impose on another.
” I had been eating a vegetarian diet for several years prior to this. I had never considered asking my body how it felt about this decision. On reflection, this would have been the natural thing to do. ‘
This is the biggest learning about any diet, in that the body knows what it needs, so as to be in homeostasis.
I love the lighthearted way you express about food choices. You remind me that there is no right and wrong food, only food that supports the body and food that does not. This is different for everyone as no two bodies are the same,
What I have come to realise over the years is that my body does not need all the food I was giving it. It can feel very bloated and ill if I overeat. I will have persistent runny nose issues if I do not listen when my body wants to take something out of my diet, and among other messages, if I eat foods that do not agree I feel more tired and less energised and have a tendency to sleep in longer, with the result being less vitality. Is it worth it I ask myself?
It’s such a simple sentence isn’t it… To keep feeling what is actually right for us to do at any time… And yet within it, like a drop of water reflecting the world, there is so much depth and so much to connect to.
It’s such a simple sentence isn’t it… To keep feeling what is actually right for us to do at any time… And yet within it, like a drop of water reflecting the world, there is so much depth.
… to what my body really needs AND what my body really enjoys. Overeating of even the best foods is not among those.
‘What he has continually shared is to keep feeling what is right for ME’ We might think we know what is right for us but our body soon let’s us know if this was a true choice or not. This is when we have a choice to either listen to our bodies and honour them, turning towards greater health or we stubbornly ignore what they are saying because our desire outweighs the wisdom that is being shown to us..
” There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me. ” This truth is so important in every aspect of ones life , not alone in ones diet.
Our body talks to us in simple terms a simple example is when we are thirsty , it means are we on the way to getting dehydrated and therefore require hydration to maintain balance in the body.
Yes, with some parts of me (our body) being smarter than other parts of me.
I can so relate to this too Fiona. “To others my diet may look extreme and as though I am ‘missing out” with regular urgings to just have a little, it won’t hurt you. But as far as I am concerned the only things I am ‘missing out’ on include, a sore stomach, a blocked or runny nose, endless exhaustion and a very heavy and sluggish feeling in my body. These bodily symptoms I am over the moon about missing out on, and so is my very wise and very precious body.
I can safely say that eating a clean diet has catapulted my awareness. Food has a massive impact on the way I feel and think. I can feel when I’ve eaten something that dulls me, or can even put me in a food coma which results in my not being able to think straight or make informed decisions. It invites doubt and lethargy and also emotional drama, all of which is not necessary. I’m not perfect and I will often give in to eating something I know won’t do me any favours, but I’m forever experimenting and observing the different effects.
I love this line ‘What good was my peaceful protest against animal cruelty if it ended up destroying the protestor?’ choosing to listen and honour the body is never about destroying but rather the opposite, building a body of love.
Gee we sure can be stubborn and hold onto the beliefs that our mind tells us are right all the while our body is telling us otherwise.
I was a committed vegetarian for 25 years on moral grounds and yet I ate copious amounts of cheese and eggs with no thought for the welfare of the animals producing these products. The reason I say this is not to compare the merits of one diet over another, but to point out the hypocrisy of the mind. There i was being an idealistic vegetarian due to my outrage over the way animals were farmed and yet I could turn a blind eye to the farming of egg and dairy products. This to me exposes the mind in that it is only serving itself, in that we will impose an ideal of belief onto our body without once thinking that the body might have something to say on the matter. I began to listen and start eating some meat again when after first having been 3 stone heavier than my natural weight, I then became extremely thin. Every cell in my body was calling for meat so in the end I drove myself over to my favourite cafe and had a divine lamb curry. The whole of my body relaxed and was able to let go of the tension I’d put myself under by hanging on to an ideal which was totally contra to what my body was asking for.
My body is amazing in how it shows me what it does and doesn’t want and the more I listen the more it shares not just with food but with posture, how I walk and stand, how I pick up things, doing everyday tasks, even how I think the body communicates to me how experiencing any part of life feels to it. For example I got a major reaction to pink grapefruit within 30 seconds this morning, or whenever I express a judgement about someone my head gets fuzzy and tingles, whenever I roll my shoulders in my thoughts become heavier and more negative. My body is constantly communicating.
If humans are as smart as we claim we are then why is it we cannot get our food right? It seems crazy that we can have food issues yet be able to build machines that can go to the moon!
The very fact that we can be malnourished and overweight seems contradictory, and proves to me that we need to consider firstly what food nourishes us, not ever be driven by calorie counting or ideals about the right food. The more trust we have in our own bodily responses to the food we eat, the more we can recognise that the advise that is out there is not it, and is not needed to live in health. It all comes down to our own personal relationships with eating food that feels light and fills us up.
It’s so important to empower people to listen to their own body because not only is there a lot of misinformation about foods and beverages, there is also a lot of information telling us what to eat, and what’s considered a healthy diet, etc. But what works for my body and another’s body will be completely different, and it’s also something that’s regularly changing. I’m noticing for myself that my body wants cooked vegetables and not raw salads right now in the winter cold weather. My body gives me little signs about what’s working and what’s not so it’s a constant adjustment. It’s a joy by being in partnership with the intelligence and wisdom of my body and life for me is much simpler this way.
We definitely eat too much from what our taste-buds would like and not enough from feeling what nutrition our bodies need. The difference in how we feel after we eat is massive, after eating what my body needs I feel very looked after, whereas when I eat from what I fancy taste-wise I feel dull and heavy.
It is a sad but true fact that we have as a society forgotten how to truly live, guided by a sure-fire instrument that purely has our best interest at heart, in order for us to live the full potential of who we are. Our relationship with our bodies are paramount, if we are to maximize our time here on earth, as it is through our bodies that we can constantly attune ourselves to the evolution that is forever on offer.
Carola I love your comment… what if our bodies are key to maximising our potential?
Choosing to listen to my body and feel what is true for me to eat has been a gradual process – I knew 30 years ago that gluten did not agree with me but ignored this for the next 20 years as it seemed too complicated to eliminate it. Once I made the decision I felt better straightaway and this gave me the confidence to listen to what my body was communicating about other foods that I ate. I am constantly refining my diet and can still be stubborn about eating something that is not truly supportive but I can no longer fool myself that it is a healthy option and as I deepen my willingness it will naturally disappear.
I spent literally years researching the perfect diet to manage my 3pm energy disaster each day. I would eat raw carrots and celery for breakfast in the hope that I would balance my blood sugar to last to the end of the day. Now I’ve eliminated gluten and dairy, my body is very clear about what it can and can’t eat, and that is my guide.
I totally agree Fiona ‘it may be time to start questioning the ‘norm’ ‘ and I guess we can leave the ‘maybe’ out of this statement, it definitely is time to consider our norm as how we now are bombarded with all kind of foods where ever we are and go is not going to make us more healthy and statistics shows we getting sicker and sicker. Misusing food in the way it is done stops us from feeling the misery we are in but there is only one way out and that is becoming aware of what our body is actually communicating with us and start to be honest about the state we are in.
What a great blog Fiona! So well expressed and shared of how to live listening to your body. I really appreciate my own choices to listen and not continually override symptoms of fatigue, moodiness to just keep having that thing that I just loved the taste of but my body shouted clearly that I could no longer abuse myself in this way. I can also really relate to this sentence ‘ I really didn’t want this to be true. I couldn’t imagine life without bakery treats. ‘ it is a real choice of will in the end and who wins your body or your taste buds! Some take longer than others to go!
Fiona I loved reading this blog – I feel I have done many extreme diets and when I look back now they were so unloving to my body. It is so true how the body signals to us continuously but we continue to ignore it till it is so loud we have no choice but to listen. This choice and the responsibility that comes along with it is within us all.
Fiona, your story is my story in so many ways. I too was the very “exhausted, malnourished, and overweight” vegetarian who for many months ignored the call of my body to eat fish. I fought it so hard until one day I opened a big tin of salmon and stood at the bench shovelling it down until it was finished; I felt like someone who had been lost in the desert and had stumbled upon an oasis of water. I did go into a little guilt afterwards but there was a part of me that knew that this decision was the most true and self loving decision I could have made at that moment, and this was confirmed by my body thanking me in a myriad of ways.
Through the teachings of Serge Benhayon I have also learned to develop a true relationship with food, it is constantly being fine-tuned in order to support me where I am in my own evolution.
Food….we love to eat it but we do suffer for most of the choices we make. My food choices come back to two things, my connection with me and whether I am expressing me in full or not (not that they are actually separate). I can eat very good quality food, very health but be eating in a way that fills an emptiness or eating for a need – this is not good for me, which is interesting to ponder on.
“My body was right.” It is like paying attention to the wisdom of our best friend.
It’s amazing and deeply exposing of our societies in general, that the choice to not consume gluten, for example, can be seen as ‘extreme’… when choices such as regular consumption of alcohol (a poison), and high amounts of sugar and caffeine are considered ‘normal’.
Seems that there is a lot of ‘bucking’ going on around listening to the symptoms of our bodies, and what we truly need. We have normalised behaviours here that are actually to our detriment (and well documented as such).
Thank-you Fiona for setting the record straight on Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine’s presentations relating to food and diet.
Never once have I ever heard Serge Benhayon tell people what to eat, and always I have heard him refer to the simple principles you’ve so beautifully outlined here, i.e. honour what our bodies truly need, and be willing to listen and respond when we recognise things aren’t working for us.
Fiona’s initial insight into the dilemma on eating meat is a great vignette on What is happening so much in the world where the mind’s dictation essentially overrides continually the very clear and strident messages that our own bodies giving us
I can so relate to many things you discuss in this blog. When we get the Ah Ha moment “I simply knew that this was what my body needed and I could not keep abusing it” we have a choice and if we choose to honour our bodies we evolve and simply if we don’t we remain stagnant and cause harm.
I am so grateful to Universal Medicine for offering me the inspiration to learn to listen to and hear my body again. It speaks very clearly about what it does and doesn’t want to eat so I just follow what it asks – unless I don’t which usually involves me ending up feeling pretty awful, after which I take out the earplugs and start listening again.
There are days that I feel that I need something and do not rest until I feel nourished by that something my body needs. I often feel this when I have eaten a lot of fish for dinner, my body is than clearly asking for meal with meat. If I not find ‘it’ I start to feel like you shared: “As a result I was exhausted, malnourished, and overweight.” It is easy to feel bloated, full and not fully nourished when we do not eat that what we truly need.
There is indeed Fiona “no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” A beautiful reminder of this very fact and also of the fact that the choice and responsibility is always ours.
When we can feel what is right for us to eat it is a true breakthrough… the thing is … getting to THAT point where we can actually feel again , because so much , as Fiona writes, is there to numb us.
The protest comes because we have been so conditioned by images, ideals and beliefs around food that when someone presents something that is so simple and so true it completely exposes the lie we have been fed and thus lived. Big ouch if we do not want to take responsibility for the way we have moved, if how we have moved has not been in and with the truth we in essence are.
True health comes from honouring what our body needs and not listening to what the mind wants. This sounds simple and in-truth it is, once we have renounced the hold of the food consciousness we have subscribed to for so long. For many of us it has been a very long time since we have let the wisdom of our body guide us. Instead we have handed the reins over to the human mind that has proved time and time again that when not impulsed by the love in our heart, has a tendency towards extremely reckless driving. No animal on Earth suffers from this affliction. It is purely a by-product of our so-called ‘human intelligence’.
Simple yes and makes so much sense.
What I find different about what Serge Benhayon offers compared to diets is that I’m not giving my power away. Instead of relying on an outer authority I have learned to listen to my body and when I make a choice it’s not because of willpower or because some told me so, it’s because of self love. When I feel my body not respond well to a food I don’t want to put myself through that discomfort again. When my body does well on certain foods it’s a really great moment of confirming my ability to nourish and support myself.
This is a timely reminder of the days of the week where I would choose my treat for working so hard and not eating junk food each day. Car pooling to work with a colleague we would have our treat day once a fortnight at the local supermarket to reward ourselves for not eating junk food for the two weeks. Interesting the amount of food that was consumed on that day was far greater than was eaten before and I would come home and fall asleep on the couch within minutes always relating this feeling to the hard work in the day!
I absolutely love this article on Unimed Living http://www.unimedliving.com/diet-and-weight-loss/how-to-lose-weight/diet-solution/the-love-diet-eating-and-living-from-self-appreciation.html
Like you have Fiona, it really shows us a true perspective on what is healthy eating.
Feeling what to eat is the most amazing diet possible – because it is based on listening to the body. When I do this, truly do this, I feel a lightness in my body and I feel it all – but I can easily overeat, eat to dull myself and then it is my responsibility to gauge when and why this is happening. Like you say – Serge Benhayon has never ever told me what to eat, but he has allowed me to be aware of my body when I do eat and simply treat food as an ever changing experiment.
To try to fit the current eating trend or listen to what the recommendations are, would be confusing indeed as they are always changing and contradicting findings. For example they are now linking refined carbohydrates like flour and sugar to causing brain damage. The only true voice we have is from our body, after all it’s running the show and it knows what’s needed and is clear in letting us know.
“I realised how much my body knew and how harmful and inflexible life run by ideals and beliefs could be.” Absolute gold of a sentence. This is the responsibility we have – to listen to our body and let it be our guide.
I agree with what Amita shared here in the thread,and yes the more I honour and really listen to my body the more it rejoices.
“I simply knew that this was what my body needed and I could not keep abusing it. What good was my peaceful protest against animal cruelty if it ended up destroying the protestor?” This is such a good point Fiona. We need to feel individually and listen to what our body requires as to what serves us and eat accordingly.
Having spent the first 50 years of my life eating foods that I had been raised to believe were good for me, but which seemed to make my body very miserable, I was delighted to find a book which could have been written about my life, especially my digestive system. From the moment I finished the book I stopped eating dairy, wheat and sugar and after a rough few weeks I finally began to feel so much better that I could ever remember feeling, with lots of energy, no blocked nose and no nauseated feeling in my stomach, no itchy skin; the list goes on. But I kept feeling that there was still something that wasn’t sitting quite right in my body and five years later when I attended my workshop by Serge Benhayon I understood what that was, and that was that I was still having some gluten in my diet; the day that I said goodbye to gluten was the day I knew that I was finally “eating what my body really needs” and not what my mind tried to convince me I wanted, and what societal beliefs told me I needed.
When I was unhappy with how I looked I tried many exhausting ways to make myself look like an image I had fallen for, I allowed myself to be fed the illusion of better. This is illusion is extremely tricksy and manipulative and once fallen for it can take a while to get out. Wanting to look better is a recipe for disaster, the only ingredient that works is self love which with diets and fasts is often the key ingredient that is vastly missing.
We have, on one hand, a western world epidemic of obesity, and on the other people tuning in to the rhythm and true needs of their body …. Hmmm which is the true normal.
It’s really important to not live by rules when we come to eat, living from our head in the picture of what we should and should not eat, comparing ourselves to others, this is deeply harmful and disregarding to our bodies, in fact what we think is truly healthy and doing good, is actually far more harmful than we realise.
I find it interesting how we have names for different ways of eating, with their associated recipes – like vegetarianism. When really, it’s just food for our bodies, and whatever is being cooked or prepared, somewhere in that is the call from the body for what it needs, no labels required. Fascinating really and a whole science in itself, the art of listening.
On reflection, my stomach (and other parts of my body) have been saying no quite loudly my whole life when I add certain ingredients. A hangover, mild depression after drugs, bronchial problems from smoking, headaches from caffeine, exhaustion from sugar… the list goes on. My initial response is to override it.. I can get away with it. But as time goes on I’ve realised its just not worth it and so I live a life that is free of these consequences, and richer from that beyond words.
I often take a step back when I am at the supermarket and look at what we are buying… its predominantly green, uber healthy and quite often commented on by the check out lady or the next person in the queue. However, I don’t think of it as an extreme diet… its simply evolved as I’ve removed things that don’t serve me or the family and chosen to stick with the foods that nourish and support. Can’t get more simple than that.
I have recently been changing what I eat, really listening to what my body is telling me and making other food choices instead. It has taken some time to let some things go in my diet that my body was saying ‘that food just doesn’t support you anymore’, what I realised was, when I did listen and felt in my body how good it felt to self honour, it started to make the new choices easier. So when I get tempted to eat things that no longer serve me, I feel back to how I feel when I eat to what my body needs and wants, it feels very loving and supportive.
Thank you Fiona. Our body has a great deal of commonsense and is not swayed by what other people do or think to be the norm, it just tells us what is beneficial and what is not. However, it is the norm for people to ignore what the body is telling them. I too used to eat for the fleeting excitement of the taste buds and was constantly uncomfortable but when I started to listen to my body I discovered a vitality that had been dulled by my choice of what I ate.
I was recently preparing lunch for a colleague and made her some sandwiches, I could feel I still have an appeal towards these foods. She commented that while they were tasty she would feel like crap for the next few days after having eaten them as she can’t tolerate gluten. It appears that many people feel this way.
I love the concept of us being the expert… and truly listening to the profound wisdom our bodies can guide and support us with, rather than being swayed by ideals and beliefs outside. Our bodies know what is true for us more than another ever could.
We really are bombbarded with so much information about this diet or that diet, what is going to work, what is not. But what I loved about what you shared here Fiona is this…”There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” Enough said really, if more people just listened to what their body was telling them, we would have far less complications around what diet works or doesn’t.
Fiona great sharing, i too have not followed ideas, beliefs or diets. I have gone with what my body feels. If i have eat food from my head and not felt into by body or beliefs what my body wants, i have had to pay the price with feeling heavy, overridden, tired and cloudy mind. Its very simply gluten and diary, makes the body heavy, tired, cloudy and lots of mucus. If you want to feel light and clear in the body then these are foods to avoid, something i am still working on.
Fiona – this is a great learning on how our body will constantly talk to us. I have recently had a baby – and throughout my pregnancy – like you my body told me loud and clear what it needed. It was a great experiment to let go of the ideals of a good diet – and start to eat from listening rather than a mental understanding. It has taught me a lot and reminded me the power of our bodies and how wise they are.
Masterful writing Fiona, you had me grinning widely with your experiences around food, even they were uncomfortable experiences for you, they were written with the lightness and joy of saying good bye to a very disempowering, mental way of choosing food. I so resonated with your tenacity to stick with foods you liked and your hilarious account of your D-day and how gluten has within it the derivation of glue.
Well said Fiona , ‘There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.’ When we take the time and stop and listen to our body it lets us know everything we need.
What a great sharing Fiona, it is a great example of when one allows the mind to take control of what we ‘think’ we need versus what our body ‘actually’ needs. It is amazing that we can override so much what the body is really telling us. Yet we can continue doing and eating things that are just not what the body wants or needs.
As in your experience Fiona, I too have people around me questioning my diet and forever asking if I feel I am missing out on so many foods. My answer is always no, as no seemingly tempting foods are worth the 30 seconds of pleasure in my mouth, if that momentary sensory delight is followed by two or three days of misery in my body. These days my body lets me know very loudly if I have eaten something that it doesn’t want, but unlike in the past when I would ignore it and then suffer, I now listen very, very carefully.
Thank you Fiona, this is a great sharing and you raise some awesome points. Your story is very similar to mine, as I was vegetarian for many years and when I began breastfeeding my baby I was so incredibly hungry that nothing I ate could stop this. I always felt like I was missing something. One night I allowed myself to feel that my body was craving and needing meat and so I had some chicken as well and instantly I felt better and had more energy and vitality. I had become so identified with being a vegetarian I hadn’t even stopped to feel if this was true for my body or not – and clearly it wasn’t. These days I eat meat a few times a week and feel much better than when I was vegetarian, changing my diet has certainly supported my body in many ways.
Awesome blog Fiona. It’s true deep down we all know what is best for us and our/the truth and Serge Benhayon is the biggest advocate of this; it is just whether we want to listen and respond to what our body is sometimes shouting very loudly to us. This is still work in progress for me but what I have found is the more self loving I am with myself the more loving changes I make to support my body. No trying, no pushing just a natural and gentle unfoldment. Before meeting Serge I had tried many weird and upon reflection maybe not so wonderful diets but as you shared ‘I had never considered asking my body how it felt about this decision. On reflection, this would have been the natural thing to do.’ Crazy it seems the most obvious thing to do but was not obvious at the time at all! I guess this only exposes how lost and far away from the truth we have become.
I have been noticing the number of times I override what my body is saying and eat something out of need rather than nourishment without looking at the reason why I am needing it in the first place. Our bodies talk very loudly when it comes to food but we are so used to getting a pill to “fix ” it. For example if we get indigestion we tend to get a pill to fix it instead of asking what we may have eaten that could have caused this. So simple really! A great sharing Fiona.
Hello Fiona, from this, “What good was my peaceful protest against animal cruelty if it ended up destroying the protestor?” to “Donut Day” this blog was a great way to look at things. I enjoyed reading your travels through the food pyramid of life and agree with what you are saying. At any point it’s always been my choice what I put in my mouth at anytime. If I look back at the crazy things I’ve done it becomes a bit comical, the protein faze, the takeaway faze, the salad faze, the protein faze again, the organic faze and the list goes on. My diet isn’t complicated and I’m not recording the food groups. I eating to how things feel and if I eat something and afterwards I don’t feel sharp and light then I simply ask a question, “What’s going on?” At times the answer is straight there and at others it takes me to ask it a few times and the answer comes in pieces for me to ‘digest’. Which ever way you look at it what we do and use food for is a big thing and it’s great to have a discussion around it.
This is so true Fiona, and yet we are meant to be the intelligent species, ‘All other animals know what and how much to eat. Yet somehow we seem to have lost this natural ability from the human psyche and have made our minds king.’
The more I listen to my body the more my food choices are reflected in a renewed vitality for life. For so many years I let my mind override what my body was telling me and ended up sick and exhausted with my love of life in danger of being extinguished. The relationship I am building with my body gives me such a solid foundation to go out into the world and be all of me.
Beautifully presented article. Thank you Fiona. This is perfect for me to read right now as I am at a stage where I can feel certain foods are just not supporting my body in its vitality and lightness. I have been resisting my letting go of these foods because of my attachment to them but my body is becoming very loud too and I am at last listening to what it has to say regarding these substances. I feel the abuse I have been allowing as my body lets go of stored hurt, for that is what it feels like. I am already feeling though, in the whole of my body, a lightening and freshness as I release the hold these foods have appeared to have over me. I am seeing the need I thought I had for them which came from my mind and , like you, am allowing my own body wisdom to lead the way.
Thank you Fiona I enjoyed reading this and it reminded me of some of my more extreme choices in the past. Today I am appreciating the choices I now make around food which are ever evolving and my body certainly appreciates the fact that I am listening more and more to its messages and the benefits to both of us are immense!
It’s a great way to eat Fiona, very empowering. Not ruled but the “I should eat this and that because they say it’s good for me” One thing that I have come to know is that there is not one food that is good for everyone. Especially when you consider what we do with our bodies everyday and how we live, what we need to eat must be different for all of us. I have become very aware of the need to eat because I am not dealing with things that need to be addressed and really I have been eating like this for all of my life. Interestingly it doesn’t actually matter that what I choose to eat is healthy. The way I eat and the reason I eat it would be the same as if I sat down to a packet of chocolate biscuits. Food is medicine, but so is the reason why we chose our food in the first place.
The benefits of not eating gluten has been a revelation to me. I feel so very different, so much more vital. We were having this discussion at work yesterday and one colleague said how she feels a mess when she eats gluten and carbs , her whole rhythm gets disturbed, she can’t sleep properly and feels exhausted ….. really, its all about listening to the body.
This is why I feel dieting never really works because eating according to a book, program or our ideals and beliefs around food is very unnatural. Our bodies are constantly communicating to us what foods we need to eat to nourish and support it. We can choose to connect to its natural wisdom and it will guide us. What may be supportive for one person may not necessarily be supportive for another, our bodies are the experts and by listening to it is a very loving choice.
You’re right, our own bodies are the experts in what is right for us to eat. We can feel the ill effects of our bad choices and that’s how we know. However, the process of saying goodbye to what we thought were former allies can be a tough one and the trick is not to strive to be perfect but instead to be dedicated to caring for the body and to getting back on track in those early moments when we drop off. This way we build up a new momentum and confirmation of the validity of our new choices and eventually the cravings and the go-to’s will simply fade away.
I remember resting meat for 15 years, then whilst at a Universal Medicine presentation in the lunch break they were serving amongst other things lamb and butternut squash curry, I could feel my whole body want it and so I ate it – my first bit of meat in 15 years and not only did it taste super super yummy I could feel my body literally rejoicing from the nutrients it needed. Great lesson for me to listen to my body rather then any ideas I may have.
Not for one moment did it occur to either one of us what was really going on – that we were actually on ‘mission impossible’ – we were trying to fill an underlying feeling of emptiness with food. Even when our stomachs were so full that we felt like a pair of bloated toads – the feeling of emptiness remained. The ridiculous thing is we were both gorgeous, intelligent (most of the time) young women with lots of close family and friends, we had great jobs and lived in a beautiful suburb by the harbour in Sydney. We also had very full social lives. We had the world at our feet yet we couldn’t see it because we were constantly seeking fulfilment outside of ourselves.
Eating is such a popular topic! I can relate to so much of what you have shared in your blog Fiona – I was about to say without the extremes and then I remembered some of the ridiculous diets I went on in my early 20’s as I was trying desperately to regain my naturally gorgeous size 10 body size and shape which had ballooned into a size 14 due to allowing myself to be coaxed and tempted by my flatmate (who was highly intelligent I might add) to join her on her daily adventures with her addiction to eating (over-eating was the truth of it). Of course, she also gained weight and then we both found ourselves on the very long and frustratingly difficult, diet and exercise treadmill. Crazy!
When 1 million people, one third of a whole city section of one of our biggest cities , are so obese that it is recognised as a health crisis, we are surely so out of touch with our bodies, that we must realise that whatever we have turned to as an answer is not working, and to consider that we must reconfigure our awareness in such a way as to address not just this but all the other signs that humanity is really out of touch with its essence.
Thanks so much for sharing Fiona! It would be easy to write off you ‘donut-day’ and say “well you had too many donuts, it doesn’t necessarily mean gluten is bad for you”. The same line of thinking would allow us to say we would be okay with 1 donut a day. But without Gluten you have shared the amazing benefits, and the clarity and lightness that comes to the body is unmistakeable.
In the past I have tried various different diets, not with the intention to loose weight but to detox, and give my sluggish body a lift. I found them impossibly hard to stick to and any changes were always short lived. Now I eat a diet that is no way forced, it is what I choose to eat because I can feel how beneficial it is to my body.
My body knows precisely which foods it needs, I just don’t always listen.
We have accepted the brain as the centre of all wisdom for a long time now. To accept the fact that true wisdom comes from the body seems like a huge leap of faith and will often be rejected as nonsense. When the wisdom of the body is listened to and acted on, the symptoms of physical wellness can be quite noticeable. All that is required here is to make a commitment to live for an amount of time by listening to the wisdom of the body and the outcome will prove where the truth lies. Thanks Fiona – a great article and opportunity to go a little deeper in exploring the questions we have around illness and disease and their relationship to our choices around food.
I got over the theory and beliefs dominating my food choices faster than taste.
Taste is a sense used by energy to dictate our choices and what determines what energy we allow, is largely determined by how willing we are to be honest about the hurts and patterns we have not healed. Once we are honest, we can arrive at the truth: that to deeply surrender the choice to contract and dull ourselves, we can then make clear choices about what foods will support us and not just taste good.
Taste is alluring and I have found the best way is to enjoy my sense of taste in full, but only in the quality of full presence. Then I can really appreciate what I am tasting and not overdo it.
Second to that, I find that after my evening meal and especially the next morning, I am given a clear reading as to whether the previous day’s food has been correct for me and what adjustments are required; whether to ingredients or the quality in which I prepared and ate the food, or to the quantity that I ate.
Serge Benhayon is reluctant to discuss the specifics of food in my experience. There are certainly no specific diets recommended by him. He openly discusses the effects of both gluten and dairy on the body, but beyond this, we are the students of our own bodies and need to observe, feel and discern for ourselves what and how to eat. Personally, I am not even that influenced by the diets of other students anymore because I can clearly feel what works in my body, what doesn’t and what will support me to live a quality and vital life.
How amazing is it that we can trundle along in life, making decisions about our diet that pertain firstly to taste and preference and then, as it was for me for many years, all about nutrition, without actually feeling what works in my body?
I was fascinated by nutrition and would read books for pleasure on how to assemble the most whole and nutritious foods, but I was acting on theory, on thought and on taste, all of which was oblivious to what effect the food type or quantity was having on my wellbeing. It sounds so simple and is so simple and yet no-one before Serge Benhayon has ever raised awareness in this way on this subject.
Yes Fiona, the whole idea of ‘missing out’ played on me for a while and people around me still mention it as if they pitty me and my food choices. But since changing my diet to something that suits my body and my vitality more, my body has changed and I feel so much better for it! So what am I really missing out on..? Treats, rewards, celebrations, cakes…?
It’s interesting, as I feel more connected to my body and my awareness is not so dulled by my food choices, then I don’t need the rewards or treats, it’s just an honour to feel the beauty I am. That’s the real treat!
‘ I realised how much my body knew and how harmful and inflexible life run by ideals and beliefs could be.’
Hear hear Fiona – once we have the realisation that we are not just a mind on wheels, but a divinely built intelligence that runs from head to toe – then we can start to live the wisdom this body holds. Living from the mind alone is so rigid – it’s like we are selling ourselves short when our whole body is a brain!
Our body is extraordinarily intelligent… It is like is schooled in the deepest science, the wisest philosophy, because it knows exactly what to do and how to live… We just need the ears to listen, and the love to feel.
What’s interesting Fiona with the media articles, is that since meeting Serge Benhayon I have dropped so many ideals and beliefs around food and simply started listening to my body. A body that spoke loudly from when I was young with many digestive issues. I needed to take medication at times to be able to go to school because my body was reacting so badly to dairy and gluten. It wasn’t the norm to question ‘could it be the food?’. I see so many running with beliefs like I did and pushing themselves to keep up with the latest fad, all at the cost of their body.
This is true Aimee, I can see it too: the pressure to keep up and override what our bodies naturally want to feel nourished and content. A lot of this I reckon comes from the images we feed ourselves in the media but also in our own minds. I have certainly experienced that constant dialogue of criticism and self-abuse that makes the body the enemy – a thing to control and overcome. When in fact there is so much love to be had for ourselves, just through the simple act of listening and honouring what we feel. The angry tension can go away, and there can be light and support instead, there can be an internal dialogue that is loving and sweet and that holds you as a precious person.
It would have So great if we where taught from young to feel what our bodies want to eat, rather be forced to eat stuff we don’t like. My diet is constantly changing as my body is going through changes. I am really having to listen to what it wants. It is a learning as, before a lot of times I use to get lazy and ignore signs, skip a meals and the feel hungry and eat quick fix things, not realising I was not providing nourishing meals. I am beginning to understand nourishing meals provide, vitality, energy and good health.
Imagine if we were all taught the importance of listening to our bodies and what foods did and didn’t suit us from an early age and parents shopped accordingly for themselves and their children! A lot of what is for sale in the supermarkets and food stores would simply disappear off the shelves and the overall demand on health facilities would decrease.
I agree Helen, it is very important to raise the next generation with listening to their bodies in every aspect.
It is a fair point to raise that, if so many of us are overweight or obese, struggle with physical ailments associated with food, or even just experience fatigue, sleeplessness, or even just lack of concentration, then isn’t it worth it to start asking some questions about what we are putting in to our bodies, regardless of the TV adverts or supermarket shelves that can often seem enticing and/or manipulative in order to gain a profit? Perhaps there comes a time when the foods we eat need to be in response to the bodies we have, and not from following what is the acceptable and at times complacent norm.
How often do we want someone else to tell us what we should and shouldn’t eat etc! It’s a real cop out because then we have someone else to blame if we don’t like what we are being told or don’t like the results. It gives us quite a platform on which to park ourselves and go nowhere. Yet it is so motivating when we decide that enough is enough and that we will listen to our bodies. I find people often quite defensive when they hear what my diet is these days, as if it’s a personal attack on them and their choices, but regardless, I know that listening to the messages of my body has led to a much healthier me and I will never go back to my old patterns of eating.
I feel it’s because many want to defend the choices they are making for their body for dear life as it keeps them comfortable. There is no right or wrong in this just an observation when you are more in the driver’s seat and listening to your own body.
Thank you Fiona, I really enjoyed your article, I used to think I was on a good diet, but it was mostly choosing to eat from my head. I did many years ago feel the effects of sugar and dairy which I did limit, but gluten I had no idea about until I started to begin to feel heaviness after eating it. It is an ongoing process for me of paying attention to the wisdom my body is offering , in what to eat when to eat and now how much to eat.
Thank you for setting the record straight Fiona, Universal Medicine does not prescribe any crazy extreme diet, just encourages people to pay close attention to the effects of food in their bodies, which will be different for every body. Universal Medicine has helped many people who were eating for comfort or to blank out from dealing with their issues. Given that two thirds of Australia’s population is overweight or obese, is it not healthy to question the current normal diet? And the common practice of having a donut day, feeling ill, then continue with those foods that make us a little less ill?
Indeed Fiona there is no greater expert on ourselves than ourselves, that is of course that we are “in tune” and listen to what the body is saying.
What you have written here is very powerful and calls us to be truly responsible for what we eat and how we feel;
“He never once said we should stop eating gluten. He simply presented listening to and respecting the wisdom of your own body”.
Absolutely right Fiona, it all comes from our livingness, and it is not a concept : what to eat, what not to eat. I am super inspired by Serge Benhayons’ teachings as they remind me back of all the signals that my body is sending out every single day – with these presentations I have and still am building up an awareness to feel more and respond more to what my body needs. Overtime I came to notice that it is not my head that I should follow but actually my body, as seemingly , following the head is always at the expense of the body (from experience) and the otherway around it seems to be equally supportive. So that’s why I am now learning to discipline myself to listen to my body instead of my head.. I must say that it is quiet tempting at times, as with my head I always sought relieve, I seem to actually be addicted to that, that’s where the discipline comes in. Now it is up to me whether I choose to come from my head or my body (my heart).
It is when our body is in disharmony that we loose sense of what, when and how much to eat. I love what you’ve shared here Fiona and I also feel that we are our own best dietician, no one else is better equipped to know our body them ourselves. When we connect to our body to become more aware of the impact and effects of our food choices have on us we are then able to make more loving choices in regards to food and possibly other aspects of our lives too.
So true Linda, I can remember hearing about how we should drink fresh orange juice daily for victim C. When I did this it did not agree with me but I overrode the feeling because I ‘thought’ it was healthy. Our bodies hold the greatest form of wisdom and when we override this we become slave to the fads of the time ultimately compromising our own health and well-being.
“I simply knew that this was what my body needed and I could not keep abusing it” Thank you Fiona I have come to the same conclusion regarding chilli, I have used it as a stimulant for years making nearly all the dishes I make as hot as I can with the strongest chills I can find! I realise now I have been doing this for stimulation and ultimately to avoid a few things! Now having stopped the excess I find I can eat small amounts and feel the true benefit of chillies without needing to go into excess like I had been doing for so many years.
Wow Samantha! Great insight and awareness into how you were using food… even chilli’s! Just shows me that we can abuse anything and make it about avoiding our feelings. So great you’ve come to a point of enjoying the benefits of chilli without the stimulation.
learning How to truly nourish ourselves, is a simple and yet profound process of starting to listen to our bodies, to know what they are truly saying, to be able to respond to this, and then start to feel the unfolding and the awakening of what is happening inside us as we do this… This really is nurturing
Awesome Chris, I agree to truly listen to our body is deeply nurturing in every way. Our body is highly intelligent, super sensitive, powerful, precious and divine. So, why not treat it so?
‘Considering that over two-thirds of Australia’s population are overweight or obese, it may be time to start questioning the ‘norm’.’ Obesity is not a healthy option for anyone and this includes the health of our health care system itself as the implications and the stress on the human body of being overweight is enormous, well documented and thus evidence based. Well said Fiona.
Not only is it good to listen to our bodies, listening to Serge Benhayon also has its benefits
Smiling as I read your comment Joe – very true, listening to Serge Benhayon has many benefits.
The many games I’ve played to try and sneak in foods that really do ‘harm’ my body – I never ever got away with it – who did I think I was kidding? The results of what is ingested will always show on the outside (and inside). Its been a while since reading your sharing with us Fiona and what a joy to return to it today and appreciate what you offer to us all. It is all about choice and taking responsibility for our choices and often the ‘penny does not drop’ before we become unwell or exhausted to name but a few of the many symptoms that come along to give us a reminder (a wake call) that we need to make changes. As in Serge Benhayon’s wise words “Listening to and respecting the wisdom of your own body”. Thank you Fiona.
Really being honest about what nourishes and nutures my body is constantly changing and developing. Foods that used to nurture can become foods that dull and make the body feel heavy. I so deeply appreciate Serge Benhayon’s presentations on energy with food and why we choose to eat certain foods being an aspect of these teachings.
With the word diet comes the word restriction, you are limited in what and how much you eat, or better say you limit yourself because of the ideal or the belief that this diet will bring gold to you, a beautiful figure, health, no hunger, joy etc. And you will choose the next diet as this one was not it and it is all looking outside of ourselves, we give our power away to what is the trend in dieting. I eat what I feel my body is telling me, at least to the best of my abilities, and I never have the feeling I am on a diet and miss out. I choose what to eat and how much and like you’ve shared Fiona this is always changing a matter of fine tuning with the awareness that ‘There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.’
Thank you Fiona for sharing your experience, I too was a vegetarian for many years, early on in life I was aware of how sugar and dairy felt in my body, and I was able to avoid them. Recently over the last few years I have come to feel to eliminate gluten from my diet, and gradually add small amounts of meat. I am gradually learning more and more how my body is feeling and to honour its wisdom.
Hi Fiona, I too was a much too thin vegetarian when I came across Universal Medicine. I came to recognise how arrogant were the ideals that led me to be a vegetarian in total disregard of what my body was telling me. More and ore I am respecting what my body tells me and am feeling much better for it.
Well said Raegan. It does leave you very empowered and able to make your own choices. If you get it right, you get to feel great, light and vital. If you get it wrong, you know for next time what that food will feel like and do to your body.
So many people the world over are just giving their power away to diets and fads that are what happens to be popular that week or month. “There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” I totally subscribe to this, I choose to eat what feels right for me and me alone. Not what someone says just because they have written a diet book or because they are on the tv, or scientists. I choose what feel good for me, now that leaves me feel very empowered.
Looking back through my life I can see that my body started letting me know it couldn’t deal with certain foods, namely dairy, gluten and sugar, right from my early years. But as a result of my upbringing I believed that I needed to eat what I was being fed, and then later fed myself. At the same time there was a part of me buried somewhere deep inside that knew this didn’t feel right but I kept on eating these foods and so continued to feel unwell and exhausted so much of the time. When I finally listened to the very loud and persistent messages from my body and removed dairy, gluten and sugar from my diet, my health and my vitality improved in the most spectacular ways – and there is no way they’ll be going back into my diet again. Now I eat “what my body really needs” – it’s the expert!
“listening to and respecting the wisdom of your own body”
This is such a powerful message presented by Serge Benhayon; thank you for sharing it Fiona.
There have been times when I have overridden messages from my body and suffered the consequences; today I listen to and am much more in-tune. with what my body is telling me.
Fiona I love how you shared that animals know what to eat and how much of it. How is it that we have chosen to not do the same? In hindsight it is simple to see that animals are choosing to listen to what the body is asking for and not being tempted to not feel what is truly needed.
Me too nb – just shows me how far away we are from our natural ways, like listening to and eating in accordance with our innate bodily wisdom. Animals are always reflecting this quality (and many others) back to us.
Fiona I love how you have shared that your diet sounds extreme and looks like your missing out . The decision to bring health options to your diet that leave you feeling light and content far outweighs the “cement feeling’ you have felt eating gluten.
“When the media articles about Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine came out in 2012, they suggested that anyone involved with Universal Medicine was being told to eat a certain ‘extreme’ diet.” It really makes me wonder how a diet chosen from a selection of fresh meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds and based on what the body feels it needs at any given time could possibly be considered an extreme diet!
Fiona thank you for sharing your experience and setting the record straight on what Serge has presented about the energy of food, and how it pays to listen carefully to your body.
I also love how Fiona sets the record straight that Serge Benhayon never ever told anyone what to or not to eat. He simply presents the truth, we can then choose for ourselves what we do with this truth.
I have overridden the messages from my body in regards to food for many years. I still ate in a ‘healthy ” way in terms of what society deemed healthy but not necessarily what my body felt was healthy for me. Even now I can be seduced by certain smells but it is my choice what I put into my body and I am now a better listener!
When we start to ‘tune in’ to our body we have the opportunity to actually feel what IS natural, until then , as you say Fiona, our mind is running our diet, and it doesn’t really have much food sense!.
Too true Chris, our mind running the show can be disastrous to the body. Simply by asking my body quietens the mind.
I went one step further Ariana – I was so pleased with myself when I discovered a vegetarian product called ‘not bacon’ so my family could have bacon and eggs for breakfast like ‘normal’ people!
What really stood out for me whilst reading your blog Fiona is appreciation of how important ‘true reflection’ is – it gives us the opportunity to connect with ourselves and our bodies and to dispel falsely held ideals and beliefs.
There is no doubt that our bodies can be very loud when they want or don’t want something and ignoring it can manifest in some seriously unpleasant ways. After stopping gluten and dairy for several years I went back to it for 3 days and was violently ill for a week. You can’t argue with it and certainly can’t be told by another what is best for you, we are indeed our own experts.
I suppose the headline, “man suggests, Eat what is best for your body” is not very captivating so the journalists involved had to make something up.
In my experience, my awareness of what my body needs has increased so much because of the inspiration of Serge Benhayon and other Universal Medicine students deeply caring for themselves and living with obvious vitality. I know some people get very enthusiastic and this is understandable because when you realise that your own body responds so well when you feed it the right food for you, this is very empowering and also you feel so good. We don’t always get it right, sometimes we don’t want to. The important thing is choice. There are no rules, just common sense and a desire to be truthful and observant.
Dieting has been there for a great part of my life and I can now see that there was a reason for looking for ways to improve my diet as my body was not properly nurtured for a long time. I was only looking at the wrong direction for the answers to my questions and ended up with fabricated ideas about what to eat and made it more like a regime instead of a loving gesture to what my body really needed. Now I have found that I can listen to my body and follow its directions in when, what and how much to eat and by doing so I feel so much more connected with and healthy in my body. Although I am not completely free of the old ways of dieting, especially the regime type of behavior, the diet I now follow is the perfect diet of my body and I will stick to that for the rest of my life.
It is great that you have said that your diet is not perfect. Old patterns and eating to numb or distract ourselves can always slip in when we are not listening to our body. Once you start to eat from what your body rather than your emotions need, there is no free ticket to a so called perfect diet. We need to keep feeling and refining what we eat and our relationship with ourselves and food.
“I am free from the lure of bakery treats.”
Hi Fi, at last I feel the same about bakery items and anything cakey, doughy or floury. Recently I had been ‘good’ and not had any gluten for at least a week when one morning at work I ate 2 (small!) pieces of a fruit bun. I waited to see what the effects (if any) were. I noticed my stomach felt slightly squirmy but so minor I could have imagined it, however within 20 minutes of eating it, I felt extremely irritable and annoyed at anyone interrupting me. In fact, over the next hour or so it got so bad that I termed myself as feeling like an ‘axe murderer’. How awful is that?! I had finally discovered that gluten doesn’t affect my physically so much (although I have been anaemic all my life, till I minimised gluten in my diet), but that it STRONGLY affects me mentally and psychologically.
Needless to say, since then gluten has effortlessly dropped from my diet, totally. When I see the cakes or slices available at work now, there is none of the ‘lure’, no hooks, no temptation – I can walk right up to them sitting there on their plate and there is just a blank. What a celebration!
So thank you for sharing this blog, I totally relate to it!
What a great awareness to have about what happened when you ate some cake. We often focus on the physical effects of food but it can be the effect in our energy levels or mood that are even more significant. I can imagine that if you were not aware that gluten affects you, that you would not have put the pieces together to realise the effect on your mood. It is amazing to feel the ease in your body of not being pulled by a food addiction. This allows us to actually choose what our body wants rather than our filling a need.
I am Learning to be respectful of my bodies wishes but still override what I hear at times. Thank you Fiona for sharing your journey with food.
No matter what the (mind) chatter may be, the fact remains the body does not lie, and no matter how many times I may challenge or outright ignore it, its me that pays the price when I do.
This is so true, I can totally relate to this too. Often with food, my mind tells me how tasty something will be and I fall for it and override what I naturally know. I used to eat guided by my head/thoughts and I get into all sorts of trouble this way. I get symptoms ranging from fatigue to grumpiness and headaches. It makes me feel out of sorts and I am no longer feeling like myself. This is certainly not worth it when I follow what my mind is telling me to eat. On the other hand, when I listen and honour my body I never feel this way, as my body never tries to lead me off track, it’s constantly communicating to me to make loving choices.
Many years later giving up such foods I still go past a baked foods shop and am tantalised by the sweet, grainy, puffy, fluffy icing covered dried fruit speckled pastries! However I all too well know the grainy, puffy, fluffy, iced over and speckled feeling of my body after eating such food :-(. So I love how my body now says no, without a shadow of a doubt!
I know that too Simon, but then smelling the smell of freshly baked bread through the streets of the city. Sometimes I really like this smell and other times I dislike it and ask myself why it is allowed to release these out in the open without any filtering. The times when I like the smell I can always connect to the feeling the eating of these gluten gave me, the sticky heavy and numbing feeling in the body, becoming less aware and connected to the true joy of life I am connected to now. My body too says no to any gluten as in truth it is poison for the body as it stops it from functioning in the natural way it belongs to function.
For the whole of my 60 years on the planet, there have been diet after diet after diet in the media and many of them ‘extreme’: Pritikin, Atkins, vegan, ovo-lacto-vegetarian, low-GI, hunter-gatherer, blood-type, coeliac, diabetic, etc, etc. A majority of fitness centres, physical trainers and weight loss counsellors create and promote their own, and even the food pyramids (that don’t agree with each other) can be considered as extreme diets with their whopping, unnatural percentages of dairy and grains….
Diet fashions take hold, people get obsessed with them and apply them to the letter for a while, which I feel is what makes them extreme. But I also feel that they are unbalanced, and trying to do ‘one size fits all.’ The problem is that ‘a diet’ is a fixed prescription that would be like making everyone wear the same prescription of eye glasses, or do identical exercises, or wear exactly the same shape, size and style of clothes – complete nonsense! Everyone is a custom-made variation and has to feel and choose for themselves what foods in what amounts and combinations and when. Even our own individual diets change throughout the day, the week, the month, the decade; change with different activity patterns, states of health, stage of life cycle. So how can you write down a diet?!
I even tried the extreme ‘Pritikin’ longevity diet myself for a short while back in the 80s, but felt as if my body was not getting all it needed, and not being met in all its changes, and so I quit it quite quickly. Then I found out that Pritikin committed suicide at the the not-so-old age of 69 (with leukaemia and heart disease) after 27 years on his diets! Well I don’t use diets, am now nearly 61, and look set to out-distance ol’ Nathan by a fair stretch.
The diets come out in the media amidst fanfare and promotions, but the moment a few people in Universal Medicine decide to quit gluten and dairy (like thousands of people before it), there’s an uproar of criticism and downright cyberbullying. It’s weird the way the media pounces on Universal Medicine over every little thing that’s not different from what other health-sensible people have been doing and promoting – obviously an agenda is going on that has nothing to do with the diet itself. So much ‘charge’ around something that should be as simple as people tuning into what their body needs, and while learning to do that, reducing the intake of things that are known to be harmful and increasing those known to be beneficial until the body becomes the dependable authority on what to eat and how much and when.
I did the donut thing too Fiona, it satisfied a need briefly (like all of 2 minutes). All it did for me was make me feel even worse about myself. So I gave up gluten and dairy too with marvellous results, natural and sustained weight loss and a clearer more responsive and responsible body. I wouldnt want it any other way now.
We are so trapped in what we could call our eating disorders because of loosing the ability to truly listen to our bodies and only eat what it truly needs. As in you case Fiona, in being vegetarian, a concept from the mind, what you so beautiful describes with the line “what good was my peaceful protest against animal cruelty if it ended up destroying the protestor?” and the statement “considering that over two-thirds of Australia’s population are overweight or obese, it may be time to start questioning the ‘norm’” makes clear that we have to change the way from which we eat and that we have to become honest with the fact that we as a society have an eating disorder and that the answer is very close with us, as it is in our bodies for all equally so.
I can identify with parts of your story Fiona, having been a vegetarian like you for many years. I became quite anaemic and I could feel my body calling for chicken which I stubbornly refused to listen to preferring my chosen ideal of vegetarianism. It took getting pretty sick before I could break my ideal and listen. I started with lamb bone soup and my body loved it. Chicken came next and then I never looked back, and my digestion is very grateful.
I can so relate to your blog Fiona…I too was vegetarian for awhile, then went vegan and was still vegan when pregnant, however my body started craving meat. Rather than following my body’s messages I waited until a naturopath friend who had done some research informed me that all the tribes of the world had some form of animal protein in their diet. As a compromise I started drinking goats milk, and was drinking litres of it every week! After a month or so I started eating chicken and my body (and baby) thanked me for it – we so needed that type of protein at that time. I had also tried to give up gluten around this time, and couldnt get past living without bread – I made many gluten free breads without success and so continued with gluten. It was after attending presentations by Serge Benhayon where he presented the comfort behind gluten that I decided to try giving up gluten – my body was already telling me it didn’t suit me as it reacted every time I ate it. This time I was ready to accept the wisdom of my body and gluten dropped out of my diet very quickly – dairy took a little longer as I was very attached to cheese…but that has gone now too, and I feel lighter, more healthy and full of vitality than I did in my teens. Gone are the ideals and beliefs of what I think I should eat – now my body is the authority on my food.
‘I had never considered asking my body how it felt about this’ – this is profound Fiona as it is something that most of us don’t consider. I too had received messages from my body that I had ignored for years. However I have now discovered that it is a beautifully confirming and harmonious way to live when we listen to our bodies and make choices that honour and nurture how precious and delicate we and our bodies are.
I have also tried many different and sometimes extreme diets, I became very bloated and sickly with loads of health problems. When it was suggested at a presentation by Serge Benhayon that we were following someone else’s ideas of what our bodies needs without feeling if it was true for ourselves, it made so much sense.
Since giving up on the diets and now listening to what my body can and cannot tolerate, it makes life a lot more simple, with the added bonus of not having to diet to loose weight as 42lbs dropped off naturally.
I agree Julie. Listening to the body is the key to what type of foods we eat. I used to eat food to fill me up with no regard or connection to how my body felt. Nowadays I am much more aware of what foods feel right allowing my body to be the guide instead of my head.
Thanks Fiona for sharing this. I too have had many crazy diets that I followed. I have experience eating my way to poor health and eating my way to great health and am still fine tuning the listening to my body in the choices that I make. I am fine in listening to it after the food, in how that food feels in my body but am still learning to check in with my body to see what it feels to eat next.
‘Listen to your own body’ would have to be one of the best health tips going around. Thank you for sharing Fiona that pushing ‘pause’ on our mind will allow the body to be heard a bit easier 🙂 I find it such a beautiful process refining my food choices, I can be in denial but I always do know the truth of what my body really needs and thereafter the consequences of my choices will come into play.
Two of the main things that can dramatically change the way we feel and how healthy we are, are sleep and food. Why do some people find it so strange to try and do what is best for our health by really looking at these two things and adjusting the way we eat and sleep according to what feels right and has majorly positive effects. I lost 13kg by removing gluten and dairy from my diet, but still ate as much as before. I now am seldom tired although I sleep less, getting quality sleep when I need it instead of watching mind numbing tv. This certainly is not rocket science and people shouldn’t knock it till they try it.
“To others my diet may look extreme and as though I am ‘missing out’ ” and yes it is extreme in comparison to the ‘ norm’ . The diet of the 40’s and 50′ would be extreme in comparison to the diet we now eat with very little packet food, and the bare minimum in tins like tomatoes, baked beans,beetroot and fish. But now you have to search the supermarket shelves to find a whole unprocessed food that hasn’t had sugar, salt, colouring and a myriad of additives and preservatives added. So what’s normal? For me normal is the foods my body feels to eat and in turn I have soon learned what it chooses to accept and what isn’t supportive. Gluten was the first to go and my body responded by releasing fluids and the puffiness which resulted in loosing 4 kilos in a week and no more bloating … that set me on the path of listening to my body which is loud and clear and knows what it needs, it’s the best authority.
It’s funny that eating what lovlingly supports you body looks like missing out, when actually it is such a beautiful feeling to have a light and graceful body, and the desire for too much food wanes, in fact it is filling in, not missing out. Filling in the gaps with love instead of the wrong foods.
Listening to our own bodies and not what everyone else is saying or doing is so important, we are all different and our bodies and it’s needs are constantly changing – depending on a array of things -our job, the season, our health, our cycle… how can a set diet ever really work for anyone?
I definitely eat very differently to many people around me, but I certainly don’t envy or feel I’m missing out, a daily dose of coffee, donuts and over eating would leave me feeling lousy, tired and un-motivated. I’m very aware that I eat has an effect on how I feel, and this is just one of the ways I can really look after myself, inspired by Serge Benhayon not designed by him.
Great article Fiona, and one every doctor and dietician should read. The body has a wisdom that is worth listening to. My Grandmother would never feed my mother processed food when she was a child, calling it rubbish and not real food… nowadays it is so normalised, the supermarkets are chock full of all kinds – and it is considered abnormal or even ‘extreme’ to not partake of it. When I followed all conventional dietary wisdom I remained highly unwell, when I instead tuned in to how my body responded to food, and used that to guide how to eat, everything changed. I didn’t actually know it was possible to not only not feel bad after eating but actually feel great. Maybe we should start to give our bodies more credit for knowing a thing or two.
It is significant that you followed what is considered a ‘healthy diet’ but remained unwell. When we run our diet from what the experts are telling us, it is an imposition on our body, like a jigsaw piece that just won’t fit. Wouldn’t it be great if we all understood what nourishes our body but also started to respect the fact that we know what is a perfect match for what we need, each time we eat.
How wonderful to give us the authority and permission to listen to what is best for my body in what to eat. It puts the responsibility and accountability correctly back with me.
Great point shared here Concetta O’Donnell. The choices we make in what to eat all lead back to the levels of responsibility and accountability we are willing to live with. I have noticed over the years that the food choices I was making although they were healthy options, were not supporting me due to the amounts I was eating.
Fiona thank you for sharing your experience with diet. I decided about 16 years ago to become vegetarian, mainly because I didn’t really enjoy eating meat, it wasn’t because I thought of the animals so much although I do feel some are not treated with the respect they deserve. This didn’t help me physically as far as my health is concerned, I became low in Iron and my calcium intake was not enough either, I continued eating this way until I realised that my body needed more protein and calcium as I had developed Osteoporosis. I gave up
gluten and dairy and felt much healthier and I realised with the help of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayons Teaching of the Ancient Wisdom that there was self responsibility to consider with any illness or health issue.
Quite interesting how we can override what our body is telling us for the sake of a belief or an apparently ‘ideal’ way to live, but as you so rightly say, what is the value of it when the protester dies in the pursuit of their agenda?
My experience is very similar to yours Fiona. Serge Benhayon has never told me what to eat or not eat but since I have met him my diet has naturally changed. For example when I first started seeing him I used to drink wine 6 nights a week, but after a couple of sessions I stopped drinking alcohol without Serge saying a word about it. There are many examples like that and very much along the lines you have outlined. At times Serge has shared his own experience with food but always whenever he does he very, very clearly says don’t copy me and feel for yourself as we all require different things at different stages of our development and there is no one diet that fits all.
What a difference a day makes, that day was when I stopped eating gluten, refined sugar and dairy. I had been honing and refining my diet for many years, seeking guidance from many and varied practitioners for yo-yoing weight, bloating and general fatigue. Like you Fiona I was a vegetarian and ate what would be considered a ‘clean’ healthy diet. After hearing a presentation by Serge Benhayon I decided to test how my body felt after removing these things from my intake. The difference was astounding, My weight stabilised, the bloating subsided and I felt more vital, my body gave me a great big YES! I continue to refine my eating but now through the knowledge and guidance of my own practitioner, my own body.
I really enjoyed coming back to this article. There is so much wisdom in it. I loved the line,
“All other animals know what and how much to eat. Yet somehow we seem to have lost this natural ability from the human psyche and have made our minds king.” It’s true we constantly override what our body is signalling with our minds. I often get to the point in the meal when I have eaten enough, but I take more than I need as my motivation is to numb what I don’t want to feel. I realise that I eat for comfort, (even the healthy stuff) rather than true nourishment.
This is an awesome blog Fiona, thank you. You are spot on here… how can taking self care give a prescribed diet, when you are always taking notice to how the body responds after it has consumed food… and what I have noticed is this process evolves as time goes on too.
I love how you changed your diet in respecting and listening to your body. It does make a lot of sense what you share and I agree, with obesity, diabetes and other illnesses such as cancer on the rise “…, it may be time to start questioning the ‘norm’.”, as we are very obviously doing something wrong in the way we live as a society.
We all know what is best for us, so do I, but I can still eat things that I know my body does not agree with. We could really learn from the animals, they are not overweight, they are not on diets and they eat accordingly to what their bodies need. Quite simple actually. it is us human beings who have made our relationship with food so complex.
I love what you are saying about questioning the norm. I have tried some extreme weightless diets in my time and none would have anything to say about those. If we think about the plethora of diets out there, and most of them being extreme whether it is for sports, weightless, over indulgence in sugar, caffeine, fast food, gluten etc., and all of these are within the accepted ‘norm’ then yes, instead of criticizing what is so obviously working for a large number of people it would be better to stop defending our ways and look honestly at what we have accepted as the norm.
Fiona, I can relate to what you have shared here. It has taken me a while to really feel my body and what it is saying to me about what I am eating. I was quite ritualistic in what and how I ate. It is amazing how great simply prepared food can taste and my body is in agreement!
“There is no greater expert in what is good for me but me” this is an absolute and undeniable truth. As you also exposed for yourself Fiona, that we actually DO KNOW even when we ignore it and try to pretend we do not hear or feel the messages in our body. In hindsight we all can say..i knew already that this or that was not good for me.
Awesome blog Fiona. I love reading every bit of it. I too was vegetarian for a number of years for similar reasons as yours. My decision also came from my head not from how my body felt to eat. I have never been on any weight loss diet but I can now really feel a deeper connection to my body since attending Universal Medicine events. With this deeper connection I now know what I should and shouldn’t eat. Like you, no one at Universal Medicine as ever told me what food I should eat or what I need to avoid. I simply now listen and feel how certain foods would sits in my body, how I feel after and I pay attention to any mood changes. My body is constantly changing and I adjust according to what it needs. There is no strict rules just listening to my body is what works for me.
I love your blog Fiona, I too know what extreme dieting is. Before coming to Universal Medicine I went through different very rigid strict diets. For many years I was a vegan, then a vegetarian, at times I would goon extreme fasts.. I made my children who where quite young at the time follow the same diet thinking this was the best for all of us. Looking back now I can see the harm I caused us all. Thank goodness I met Serge Benhayon who presents that we know what we need to eat if we listen to our bodies. Since putting this simple principle into practise my relationship with food and my health and well being has totally changed.
“Listening to and respecting the wisdom of your own body” No diet ever before that I’ve been on shared those wise words. Food choices are so individual what suits one may not suit another it is for us to take back responsibility with our food choices – our bodies are our health barometers and keep us well informed as to what does or does not feel good. Like many I have been so inspired and felt really supported by the teachings of Universal Medicine – once I started to listen to my body – much has changed. Thank you Fiona a beautiful sharing.
I love coming back to your blog Fiona
Rereading it inspires me to truly listen to what my body needs in contrast to me thinking I know what it needs.
I love Fiona how you say Serge didn’t mention diet once, yet you simply knew what you had to do all due to the way he supported you. I couldn’t agree more “there is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me”. Crazy how we make ourselves dummies. Brilliant that we are now returning to embrace our expertise.
I agree, it is time to start questioning the norm. If the norm of what most people eat is causing obesity, exhaustion, raciness, nervous tension and is the underlying cause of many illnesses and diseases then perhaps it is time to choose a new norm. A norm is what is right for you and not lamely conforming to what others are choosing. I feel so much healthier and vital since I started listening to my body and choosing to eat and drink what supports me and I can feel a resounding ‘thank you’ from my body.
I had a relatively short experience with donuts. I was in the US living and I have seen around an invention called bagels. One day I was home and someone came to sell a package of things that I thought were the famous bagels (which I had not tried before). The shape was exactly the same one. So, I bought a pack of six. I do not remember how many did I eat. What I do remember is the feeling of total disgust inside me. Talking to my housemate I learn that they were not bagels but donuts (another one I had not ever tried before). The disgust was so big that never ever in my life I tried them again.
I love your article Fiona, how needed is the truth of a real relationship with food and that it is only when we are aware what we are doing to ourselves and to our body. From there to make more loving choices what to eat is the step out of the own stagnation and contraction. What then can follow is a feeling of growing self-worth, because we have done something big – we say yes to our body and start to listen what it is saying, this is real evolution.
What I ate was always a complex mental process that had no relationship to what my body needed. From 17 years as a vegetarian, time as a macrobiotic, so much cheese, obsessed with bread ending up 40 kg overweight, really… It would seem that this would be impossible to unravel. Universal Medicine presented the wisdom that enabled me to reconnect with myself, and from that connection I was able to have the “ energetic resources” to start to listen to my body, and to start to feel what I truly needed as fuel my body. It has been the most wonderful process and continues to this day.
I like the clarity of your blog Fiona Lotherington and it makes the way I eat so clear to me. It looks like that my mind knows exactly what to eat to make my body heavy and loaded, and because of that I am almost not able to feel the delicateness of it anymore, making it possible for me to continue this patterns of eating. I have to stop to let my mind making the choices and instead let my body speak and express the beauty and delicateness of it. Then I will not choose foods that are abusive to my body anymore but instead food that will support and nourish my body on every level that is needed.
Just words of a master Fiona : ‘There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.’ Absolutely true! So logical. Time to let our own doctor (body ) decide its course & food choices. A great and fresh way to live life.
Fiona I am continually surprised by the detail in which my body can tell me what and how to eat. What I have to contend with are the thoughts and behaviours that I have that over ride it’s wisdom eg ‘eat more now so you’re not hungry later’ or ‘there’s only a little bit left, finish it up’.
Eat to live, not live to eat.
So simple. And yet so many of us find it so hard. Ive always kind of been my own experiment in life, from growing up and spending my 20’s eating pizza for breakfast after a Monday night bender working in the hospitality industry in Melbourne, to living off brown rice and only what is grown in the organic veggie patch on a self sustained community in the hills of Byron Bay. Ive heard and seen every diet known to man, and tried so many of them myself. From the finest of fine dining 6 nights a week, to dirty meat pies or tofu dogs outside the pub on the way home from the gig at 2 am to strictly organic and Ayurvedic years with yoga and surfing.
There is nothing that works like simply being clean and clear enough to be able to actually listen to your body and pay attention. When I came to Universal Medicine I had been Gluten and Dairy free for a few years. Why? Because I had tried myself not eating gluten for 6 months several years earlier, and then when I went back to eating bread I quite simply felt .. well crap! Its that simple. So I didn’t eat gluten again. How many people are actually willing to see if dairy is really good for you or not by simply not eating it for a year ( you can eat heaps of other things to get your calcium in the meantime) and then being REALLY HONEST about how your body feels when you try it again?
I can not really explain to someone that “loves” chocolate that “No, I really don’t want to eat even that little piece” – it will make me feel awful and I would rather keep feeling this good.
No one at Universal Medicine has EVER told me what to eat. Sure – food and its effect have been discussed at great lengths, but there is no diet. Everyone is different and everyone is not only encouraged to – but told directly that you must find what works for your individual body as everyone is different. Of course we share recipes that work. So does my mum and all her friends. Nothing strange about that.
:-).
Thanks for what you have shared. Your comment about getting enough calcium reminded me of a documentary on milk that I recently watched. They have found that osteoporosis (the depletion of calcium and minerals from the bones) is actually highest in the countries that consume a lot of dairy!
Yes Fiona I can vouch for this. I used and abused my body with dairy. I had an addiction to plain creamy yogurt which I ate in large quantities practically every day and cheese of course. Where I come from it is a way of life. The result of these many years of abuse is serious osteoporosis. I concur with you that “there is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me”.
Yes, many find it hard to try to leave foods out of their daily nutrition if they feel not good, are ill etc. Even if somebody advises them to try that, they say they can’t do it because they “love” the food. It’s so crazy that we can not even consciously know that we have decided to love something that is actually harming for the body. Many friends and family think, I am very strange with my way of eating, although I know I am choosing to really deeply nurture my body…
Hi Fiona
What a great, straight up, tell-it-like-it-is blog. I love it.
How can not eating donuts be considered an extreme diet when we are living in an age of Diabetes as an epidemic.
Definitely it is time to rethink, radically, our assumptions about what we consider food. The Food/Palate-Pleasure industry has been peddling its food porn for way too long — it is time to get real and listen to what our body needs to be nourished instead of what our mind fools us into thinking…I too was the overweight pasta and cheese eating vegetarian, who told myself I was superior while my body suffered, I have also enjoyed the extra weight shedding after letting go of gluten and dairy as the emotional crotches they were.
Fiona I had many aha moments while reading your blog, especially as I was vegetarian for many years, and like you, wasn’t very healthy for it. When my body began to whisper “fish” to me, I simply ignored it, but six months later when the whisper became a very loud shout I couldn’t ignore any longer, I found myself opening a can of salmon and, almost ravenously, eating it straight from the can. I could hear my body sigh with relief.
So I totally agree with these two sentences about the presentations of Serge Benhayon: “What he has continually shared is to keep feeling what is right for ME.” and “There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me”. Yes, I finally learned to stop and feel, and that’s when my body spoke and I listened!
It certainly is time to question the norm Fiona. When friends and family question “your giving up something else ?”
I lovingly respond, stating that I have replaced and added new foods that are more beneficial to my body. Also, the way I enjoy preparing the food, this seems to allay their fears.
Great point Wendy about people questioning you “giving up something” when you chose to give up something that is a poison for your body. It is equally strange when people almost try to force you to have a “treat” such as a glass of champagne or piece of cake that will make you sick – what kind of treat is that and what kind of friend wants to make you have it?
Great questions Nicola – in my experience, the friend (which has at times been myself) does not want their choices exposed as the abuse they are, so having company or a companion in their ‘treat’ pursuit gives the illusion that it IS normal – power in numbers and all that. We only need the treats as a ‘pick me up’ from the misery of not living from our inner-hearts. What if food is a big part of the loveless-ness we live that keeps us from feeling this place within in the first place!?
I can relate so much to what you have shared Fiona and like you and many of those commenting have shared, I too spent much time negating what my body knew in favour of the latest fad/trend my mind had grabbed onto.
A beautiful reminder Fiona to listen to our bodies when deciding what and what not to eat
Your blog is inspirational and very encouraging of us to take full responsibility for our eating habits.
It’s interesting that when we look back we can recognise that the body has been giving us signals all along but we have either been ignoring them or not fully understanding what it is telling us.
I like many was living for 6 years on a vegetarian diet in the belief that I would loose weight but that in fact wasn’t the case, as I got bigger but still thought I was healthier. At that time I was clutching onto advice from outside of me without trusting that my body knows what it wants to eat and paying attention to how it feels when I eat certain foods, has made such a difference to how well I feel. It is clearer to me now that just because it’s a vegetable or a fruit doesn’t necessarily mean that it agrees with me.
Super true Fiona ! There is no better expert for our body then us. We often give our power away to everything that’s out there and the things that tell us to eat a certain way. For me it’s so I look good. Yet when we listen to what’s going on for us, everything we need is right there. This bit was golden… ‘All other animals know what and how much to eat. Yet somehow we seem to have lost this natural ability from the human psyche and have made our minds king.’ Most of us have forgotten how to listen innately, I know I have, it’s an interesting process becoming a student of your own body again.
So true Emily and Fiona we totally give our power away when we apply a regime or way of being to ourselves without first checking in with what our body is naturally communicating to us all the time. The mind offers short term solutions based on our past experiences and hurts whilst the body holds the energy of all our previous choices. I now know which one gives me the truth of what is happening or going on.
To listen to our body is our evolution!
I love your comment Emily. I too love the sentence you’ve highlighted. We have come to intellectualised food. Allowing outside influences to dictate what we should and shouldn’t eat, like you said giving our power away. It is amazing to know we can bring that back, we can greatly improve our health, our mood and general wellbeing by simply listening to our body.
Despite not feeling hungry, believing we need to eat 3 meals a day can be a really strong habit from childhood. It is really only through becoming more aware and starting to appreciate the lighter feeling in the body that makes you question this. I found this belief was tied in with being a mum, and this created compromising what my body was asking for. Finding a meal we all wanted to eat, eating because others are eating to be social are some of the beliefs that I had pop up and have seen in other mums.
I so agree with you Fiona as I have been consciously cutting back on how many meals I eat, somedays I realise I do not need to eat breakfast nor lunch. At times I go to reach for food thinking I need it but realize I am just not used to the lightness I am feeling in my body from it not being weighed down by unnecessary food.
Thank you Fiona,
Your article made me laugh out loud – especial Donut Day! Hilarious.
I know extreme dieting all too well – I was also a vegetarian for about 8 years, I tried shorter bouts of being a vegan, and even the raw food diet for some time. I remember talking up the food I was about to eat in my head – ‘wow, it’s all raw vegetables’… but – nothing could change or talk up how my body felt afterwards.
I also regularly fasted for days, drinking only water with a small amount of maple syrup and chilli powder (for detoxification and energy),
You could say that if there is a diet or detox out there – I tried it.
In the end, I just stopped eating all together and struggled with anorexia for a number of years.
Universal Medicine has been the only true support in my life in terms of diet and building a healthy body. Universal Medicine has supported me to connect to my body, to let go of all the distorted eating patterns I was holding and deal with the root cause. I was then free to eat for the first time in a way that truly nourished, nurtured and supported my body.
I also ate dairy and gluten for some time, until my digestive symptoms were too great to bear and I finally listened to what my body was telling me – instead of the ‘brainwashing’ thoughts from the dairy industry or the ‘food pyramid’ about how I should be eating dairy or grains. To me, this advice has been the most harmful – and asked me to go against what my body was actually feeling.
Serge Benhayon and only ever encouraged me to listen to my body. And when I listen to my body, it is very clear what is true and what is not ‘good’ for me. Today I eat in a way that is more supportive, nourishing and deeply honouring of my body than ever before. With no extremity in sight!
Awesome comment Kylie. Thank you for sharing your experience in such an open and honest way. I have never tried any of these diets, fasting or detox programs, I have seem friends go through them and I have never had any desire to try it. But I also never really consider how harmful they are until recently. Fiona’s blog and your comments is truly needed to expose what harm these so called healthy programs and diets are for people. I have learnt that our body is the best guide to what foods we should eat to nourish, to care and to lovingly support it to function naturally. It is empowering to listen and to make loving food choices according to what my body needs and being aware and honouring it is amazing.
We really have so many ideas and beliefs about food… I am also pondering a lot on this at the moment. I have also been a vegetarian, have tried to eat vegan etc. Since I know and feel that eating no gluten, sugar or dairy and eating much less because we often just eat to comfort ourselves, is most supportive for my body, my mind is trying to set this up as a new ideal and I often don`t want to eat during the day although I am hungry instead of really listening to my body. So crazy, isn`t it?
I used to think that I needed three meals a day, mainly because that was what I had been given when little. When I started to listen to my body I realized that I only needed two meals a day and some days even one. I feel much lighter and clearer since refining my eating habits.
I so know what you mean! “I had had a big lesson to listen to and respect my body. It can only take so much before it says “No” quite loudly.” It is such a healing when we finally listen to what our bodies have been telling us, what a true friendship we finally have with ourselves when we are willing to listen and act on our bodies needs.
Fiona, I love how you exposed the mind in it’s attempt to override the body’s natural wants and needs, thinking it has a better idea of what is good for the body. I am learning to listen to my body more and understanding that my mind is running on a theme of how I have lived in the past – indulgence and checking out with sugary foods. My body has given me clear signs for a long time and I am now beginning to listen.
This article should be in main stream diet magazines for society to feel the very real harm involved with following certain ideals or beliefs around food at the expense of their body.
I also have attended Universal Medicine presentations, and not once have I ever heard Serge Benhayon tell me to do anything. Concerning food however, I have heard Serge suggest that we observe how it feels in our bodies, a very simple and sensible suggestion that once I heard it, continued to resist and use my free will and choice to ignore it, but then I began to honour what I felt and I feel so much better for it.
Insightful post Fiona, your words here very reflective in regards diets: ” From my experience, what I used to accept as normal was extreme and harmful to my wellbeing. Considering that over two-thirds of Australia’s population are overweight or obese, it may be time to start questioning the ‘norm’”. The norm is really about eating what’s right for our body without any need for justification, or a mind that’s full of beliefs and ideals about what to eat. I’ve found that as we get rid of the consciousnesses surrounding food, like how much, what, when to eat, (whether to eat) in accordance to the cycles of the body, like menstruation, or sickness, even geographic location, that the food gets refined constantly to match this/our changing or evolving. This is eating vitally. And it is The Norm.
Thank you Fiona for sharing the huge benefits of listening to the wisdom of our bodies. I am now developing a deeper and deeper relationship with my body and what it is asking to eat.
What a delicious blog – not only because it was about healthy eating but also about enjoying the feeling of living in a delicious body – one that is well nourished and listened to.
Donuts = concrete stomach, knew it well. This is a great blog Fiona, How much simpler it is when the choice is made to connect and listen to the body.
Exactly Ariana,there are major ideals and beliefs surrounding food and the only way we can truly tell what we can eat or not is the way our bodies react to what we put in them, not what someone may say is good or bad for you.
Hi Thomas, It is crazy that listening to our thoughts is so much the norm when everything in our body tells us otherwise. Before Universal Medicine, I would never have considered that there was anything wrong with this. It was so much the norm, even when my body was shouting loudly I still couldn’t get it. This is why we need to keep sharing this life changing discovery with people – so they too can be freed of this ingrained belief.
Having once been run my extreme ideals and beliefs of what a healthy diet and life style was, I really appreciated you blog, thank you Fiona.
What I now realise that by not connecting to my body and how it actually felt I overrode it with my thoughts and ideas of how I should be living. This was very detrimental to my health and happiness.
I have read and seen in various nutrition guidelines that our bodies requirements for food are based on our own bodies and whatever stage it may be in in life (different stages requiring different nutrients etc) – so then why provide a guideline on what foods to eat for everyone? And like you shared Fiona I have fallen for the ‘well everyones doing it’ or following an outside reason as to why I should be eating what I am eating. Lately I have been asking myself how my body feels about certain foods, and even if everyone is eating it, if my body reacts then I am getting used to accepting that as normal for me and that there is nothing wrong with that! If going with what everyone else is eating (even if it may be what is widely taught as being a ‘healthy diet’) is killing us then how does that make any sense in supporting health?
I have been reflecting on the phenomenon of eating what ‘everyone else is eating’ recently. There is actually a lot of silent (and sometimes not so silent) pressure on us to eat what everyone else is eating, particularly in social settings where someone has “gone to all the trouble” of making food. I can feel how food has become so tied in with love. We all want to express love for each other but using unhealthy food to do this is a bit twisted. When the cook needs us to accept and appreciate the ‘loving’ gesture of the food presented, all sorts of issues arise – feelings of guilt, rejection, jealousy etc that can cause us to override the knowing in our body of what is right for us.
It is amazing what we learn from listening to our bodies Fiona. From my 20’s onwards I would get stomach pains, bloating and constipation, especially when eating bread but refused initially to give in. instead, I would just get frustrated, why was I the only person I knew who reacted to eating bread. When the pains got really bad and the doctors could find nothing wrong was when I decided to listen to my body and cut out wheat and saw that the more things I cut out the more the symptoms disappeared. It is incredible how much the mind can over rule what the body is continually try to communicate to us.
Until my fiftieth year I had constantly strived to loose weight with umpteen diets with short term success. Not once really listening to my body’s response to the intake of suggested’good foods’ to eat. Until attending my first presentation by Serge Benhayon/Universal Medicine something in me changed I was inspired to start to really listen and feel into my body and how eating certain foods impacted on how I truly felt. The realisation that the food choices I was making left me feeling heavy, still hungry and very bloated and in some cases very tired. 6 years later with a gentle weight loss feeling lighter, brighter and most of all constantly inspired to experiment with food choices that suit my body – yes I do have the odd slip – my body is a constant barometer revealing how I choose to live. Thank you for this lovely sharing Fiona.
Love this Fiona, it is honest, and such a down to earth approach to eating, there is indeed “no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.”
Oh, how loudly the body speaks! I know as a child I couldn’t eat dairy or gluten as I would instantly experience nausea and bloating. The thoughts were that these were healthy, so I ate and over rode what my body was telling me. Hearing what Serge Benhayen presented, to listen and trust my body, was a confirmation to return to my original diet.
So many of us have grown up being told that dairy is needed for calcium. I don’t think our parents would have ever considered that gluten and dairy might not be the best foods for their kids, as they are so accepted. I developed stomach aches in later primary school and the doctor told me to eat more fibre. Fibre was interpreted as more wholegrain bread which was probably the last thing my digestion needed!
Fiona it’s incredible how we have humans have learnt to ignore our bodies messages. I too did this for years with eating foods that I reacted to. I just found them too hard to give up. This has changed from developing a love and care of my body which has supported me to give away these foods without any will power or denial. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
When we have any empty pockets in ourselves, food can be one of the first things we reach for to fill it. I grew up with food being one of the high points in my week. There was the lolly bag on Wednesdays, chocolate after Saturday roast and icy poles on Sunday. It taught me that these treats were what made up for what was lacking in me and my relationships at home and at school. The truth is that nothing can substitute for love.
Food and eating is such a big thing. Truly eating what your body is asking for seems easier said than done. The mind kicks in, the rules, the beliefs, comparison and the conditioning thoughts we have about what is good and what is not. We can be very strict when it comes to food, going into our mind saying oh I can’t have this because….and then all these beliefs kicks in. The more I let go off all my beliefs and rules, the more free I feel when it comes to eating. There are no rules when it comes to food, there is only the body letting us know what it needs.
Thanks for your blog Fiona. I also found that for many years I was going along with a diet based on what my mind had decided was ‘healthy’ and ignored what my body had to say. I also thought that it was ‘normal’ to have ‘breakouts’ at times eg eating lots of sweet things when I was stressed, so never questioned this habit much further. Since my involvement with Universal Medicine I have come to realise that my body in fact knows just what is needed and as I have listened more and more to what it is telling me, I have learned to adjust my diet accordingly.
Thank you Fiona for sharing your experience. What a difference there is between the regimens we are used to with food and simply connecting to how our food feels to eat. Like you I ate a vegetarian diet for a time simply because of an ideology that I chose to follow. I love how you show us here that no matter how much we try to make life about a rule or doctrine, it always comes back to feeling and connecting to our body.
Thanks Fiona, awesome blog. Fresh veggies, a little fruit, eggs, meat and fish. Very simple, very balanced. I lost lots of weight too when I gave away gluten and dairy. It changed my energy levels and I have not had that bloated feeling or irritation in my belly since. Nor have I had a chronic sinus condition, only the very occasional cold or flu. I also totally agree there has never been any directive from Serge Benhayon and others presenting from within Universal Medicine what to eat or how to live.
Oh this brings back memories. Food was one of the first areas I looked at when I was younger in my quest to look after myself. I was willing to eat vegetarian, vegan, raw food – the only problem was my head was convincing my body this way of eating was good for me. It wasn’t until I stopped eating gluten, dairy and sugar did my body finally say – THANK YOU.
It’s clever (but not very good for our health) the way our mind convinces us that we are taking care of our diet cutting out pesticides, cooked food, meat etc when we are really avoiding cutting out the things that are devastating our bodies – gluten, dairy and sugar.
In the world in general there is so much interference in diet. From an early age there were diet pyramids, recommendations, women’s magazines pushing very unhealthy weight loss diets, and now via the Internet there are a plethora of diets from raw and Paleo to detox and green juices. Everyone seems to be looking for an outer prescribed way to eat. For me Serge Benhayon is the only person I have ever met that simply says “Listen to what your own body is telling you.” Each body is so unique and with its own changing needs. This is an ongoing learning process for me as I’ve given my power away over the course of my life to outer experts, books and ideals. It’s really supportive to get to know my own body and eat for me.
Serge Benhayon has been an absolute blessing bringing common sense back to my life. Even when my body was screaming for meat, I wasn’t able to think of this simple answer, as I was so caught in vegetarian ideals. Serge simply shares that we need to eat according to what our body needs (not what we think we need) and he genuinely understands how to listen to and work with the body. There is no perfection or rules, just listening and responding – and being honest about the consequences when we put our hands over our ears because we don’t want to listen
This is an amazing blog Fiona. I always thought extreme dieting or becoming vegetarian would make someone lose weight, certainly not gain it. I’ve tried things like this in the past, but they never seem to work very well – one week I told myself I would only eat a few green apples, and on day 4 (after eating nothing but 2/3 apples) I broke, and ended up overeating on super convenient foods I wouldn’t normally eat. Listening to my body and what it truly wants to eat is something I’m working on, which is quite a struggle at times but something I really need to look at.
“I realised how much my body knew and how harmful and inflexible life run by ideals and beliefs could be”.
I loved this line Fiona as I have been feeling very much in the past week or so, and even more so today how run my life has been by ideals and beliefs – set upon me by myself, a lot of the time as an interpretation of things I have heard or how I thought life should be. Uncovering these momentums and starting to create new ones is a really interesting process and one I feel 100% supported in, especially with the wisdom shared through Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.
It really is a process undoing the ideals and beliefs that we have taken on, one that requires us to be patient with ourselves and open to the possibility that who we ‘think’ we are may be nothing like who we truly are. The presentations and support of Universal Medicine have been key in supporting so many people, as they constantly remind us we are so much more than the reality we have created for ourselves.
I agree that Serge Benhayon has never told me to do anything, there is nothing ‘prescribed’ concerning his presentations “What he has continually shared is to keep feeling what is right for ME.” I began to pay attention to what my body had to say…I remember a life changing (D-Day) myself with cream doughnuts…I was exhausted and ate some and felt so bad. There have been other days when I felt this with pasta, pastry, white potato…slowly I felt it, no one told me, it was a feeling. Serge Benhayon suggested I have a go at feeling how I feel (my words).
Thank you for sharing your experience Diedre. This shows that we don’t have to wait until something goes wrong with our body before we choose a diet in response to our body. It is a matter of being open to experimenting, as you did, to see how you feel when you remove certain foods from your diet. Even if we feel ‘ok’ this is nothing compared to the amazing vitality our body can be if we work with it rather than against it.
Hi Fiona. Although I never had trouble with my weight, I was never a vegetarian or had extreme diet fazes. I thought I was conscious of eating a healthy diet but I never listened to my body to feel what it was telling me. Serge Benhayon presentations awakened me to this fact but never told me what to eat. I decided to stop eating gluten myself to see how I would feel and I noticed that I had more energy and there wasn’t the need to push myself to overcome feeling tired. A similar thing when I stopped eating dairy, I wasn’t always clearing my throat or after having a cold it leaving me with a cough which would hang around for ages. Like you have declared “there is no better expert on what’s best for me than me”.
I enjoyed reading your blog Fiona and I love what you say here ” There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me”
Since listening to my body I love how I feel, my health has improved greatly and on the plus side I have lost quite a bit of weight.
I can feel that we have all had a “donut day” at some time in our life. I know this one personally as there have been foods that I continued to eat even when I knew my body was saying “hey buddy, what are you doing”. I have certainly found a freedom in eating to how my body responds.
Awesome, inspiring blog! Your D-day made me giggle. Our body is so amazing, but sometimes it needs to shout really loud. Not until the sugar I ate during the day affected my sleep did I start to really listen. Thank you, body.
If diets actually worked, we wouldn’t have obesity. And, if a ‘normal’ diet as presented by the food pyramid was the answer, we wouldn’t have obesity.
Clearly something is not working. However, listening to your body, and making the changes you have described Fiona are spot on. This is what needs to be part of our food education.
I recently discovered that the food pyramid was created by the United States Department of Agriculture. Who else would have such a vested interest as this powerful, political lobby group in advising us to eat the foods that will create the most profit for them. It seems crazy to follow advice from a vested interest – it seems akin to believing pro smoking research by cigarette companies.
Fiona this is a great blog. ‘There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.’ This is true for everything in our life not just food and is the foundation of everything that Serge Benhayon presents. If we know truth and listen to our bodies, then we are truly free to choose for ourselves what it is that we each need in any moment. This is truly living.
Just this morning I experienced what the mind needs and what the body wants in regards to food. Like you shared Fiona when we take the time to listen to the body it will tell us and it never holds back letting us know what will and does happen when we put certain foods into it. My mind wanted walnuts this morning but as soon as I thought this my jaw locked up, placing one in my mouth I paused for a moment and it felt like I couldn’t chew so I spat it out. In the past I would of overridden that feeling and eaten it regardless, thus feeding negative thoughts of self-harm. Over this last week I have taken more notice of my jaw and how I am eating what I am eating, if it is a struggle to chew and/or swallow could that be a sign that the body doesn’t want it? Along with the other signs we may get such as digestive upsets, reactions etc
“There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” I like this sentence as it shows how we can learn to listen to what our body really needs.
Hi Fiona. Thanks for writing about your experience with listening to your body and how it has helped you to choose what foods to eat. It makes sense to listen to our body as it will always tell you what is going on. And in my case I have decided to start listening as well because it was just annoying to be feeling bloated time and time again. It is a real marker for truth in our day and something that I am very appreciative of.
Fiona I loved reading your comment “Listening to and respecting the wisdom of your own body’. A great blog that is very inspiring.
Your blog Fiona is so lovely and simple to read and ponder over. It confirms to me that there are no rules about eating; rather an honouring made from a choice to listen to what the body feels about what goes into it. My diet is always changing as I realise it asks for different, usually more nourishing foods.
It is so true Fiona that that are is no better experts that ourselves when it comes to knowing what is best for us. When we honestly listen to the messages that are constantly reflected though our bodies we can make the choices that support us to live a more vital life. There are so many ideas about what diets work best in society but they do not allow for the body to be the marker of what is needed. I have learned to pay more attention and honour what my body is telling me and I have discovered that this intelligence is the best evidence that I have found for choosing what is true for me.
Perfect – ‘there is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me’.
Hi Bernadette, I have found the same with people. They want to support you with avoiding dairy and gluten (or whatever else your body doesn’t like) as best they can and it is often an opportunity for them to experience another way with food. I also have lots of people ask me about what I am eating and drinking. It is a great conversation starter and I am no longer feeling uncomfortable about being questioned or put centre stage. I can feel how curious people are and the growing awareness that what we are eating is not really working for us.
Fiona I am appreciating how family members and friends really make an effort to accommodate my and my husband’s gluten and dairy free diet, and more people are asking us why? They want to know more, and could it be because we look and feel so vital?
Hi Fiona thank you for sharing your most revealing blog , listening to our body’s needs so as it can serve its purpose is our responsibility and something that is very much a work in progress for me , to get bogged down and think some clever diet is going to answer those evolving needs is barking up the wrong tree.
It is very beautiful that when we start to feel me and feel how we have abused our bodies by eating all these things that are the norm.
Fiona you make a great point. I tried many diets over the years as I was interested in supporting my health, but it just left me in a state of confusion because of all the contradictory information and evidence. I eventually gave up and slipped into eating for convenience – low fat, quick to prepare (pasta!), dairy rich. I gradually gained weight and increasingly was drawn to sweet foods, always a love of mine. It was brought to my attention that I may have a gluten & dairy allergy by a naturopath, but it is beyond my wildest imaginings that I could ‘give-up’ these foods. However, when Serge Benhayon presented the energetic properties of these food types I experimented with gradually eliminating them from my diet. When viewed from this perspective it did not feel like a loss, but more an investigation into how my body felt about these food groups … and thus began a very different and rewarding relationship with my body.
It is true Fiona, how people are challenged by the choices we make on food, so refer to them as ‘extreme’. People can experience health issues and their bodies speak loud and clear, yet chose the familiar path of ignoring their bodies. Interestingly people are now discovering “Paleo” which makes caring for ourselves by the choices of what food we eat more normal in mainstream terms.
Hi Sandra, I went on a cruise last year. At first I thought I would be the only one eating a ‘different’ diet but as we shared our meals with other guests, without fail there was at least one other person with ‘special’ dietary requirements. I realised that the ‘extreme and rare’ is now becoming more the norm.
I have always had an interest in knowing I was eating a diet that good for the body. As a result I bought and read and tried many of the eating regimes that were in fashion at different times, e.g. fit for life, blood type diet, eating for your body shape and many others that I cant even remember now. After 20 years of this and the contradictory nature of all this reading I gave up.
So after meeting Serge Benhayon and being introduced to the idea of actually listening to my own body I felt that this made a lot of sense. This is not a diet fad but a lifelong commitment to getting to know my own body and what it needs. I have never felt more physically and emotionally vital than I do now by listening to my body and what it needs
Hi Karen,
There are a lot of diets out there and they do contradict one another. It has been through something Serge Benhayon presented that I have been able to see something that should have been obvious to me. If something is true, then it needs to be true for everyone. Eating by listening to and respecting your own body is universal and custom made for each individual.
I had never stopped to relate the food I ate to how my body felt, I just enjoyed the taste of different foods and put up with the consequences. I did not take drugs as I knew that they would be harming to my body but I did not carry this through to everything else I put in my mouth. When I first heard the presentation of listening to my body and being aware of what different foods felt in my body I was intrigued and decided to give it a go. I started to look at ingredient labels and was rather shocked by all the unknown ‘stuff’ that I was expecting my body to deal with. My body is saying ‘thank you’ loud and clear as I eat and drink what supports it to function rather than expecting it to cope with what may taste appealing in the mouth but not in the rest of my body.
Great blog Fiona, I too have subscribed to many extreme diets in my time from fasting to vegetarian to macrobiotic to blood type diets – the list goes on! I now have a diet that comes directly from listening to my body and how it feels when I eat something, and I have never felt better!
Hi Melissa,
The endless search for the ‘right’ diet just confirms that we naturally know there is a way to eat and use food, other than what is currently available. You are on the easiest to stick to, most natural diet of all when you just eat from feeling what your body needs.
Fiona, I enjoyed your blog immensely and it got me pondering the subject of what a ‘normal’ diet is.
Over the decades a ‘normal’ diet has changed dramatically. What we ate 50 years ago is drastically different to the normal diet that most eat today. And when you look at peoples weight and health this has changed radically too. You certainly can’t say we are healthier or fitter today compared to 50 years ago. Obesity then was rare, now it has become very common.
Great article Fiona! So important to go through the trial and error process with different foods until you can feel the difference for yourself. I have gone through the same process, and it’s fascinating how much our bodies are changing all the time, and therefore needing different foods at different times etc,
Like you’ve shared Fiona I too have had some pretty clear experiences of how foods are regarded and treated by my body, when I have been willing to listen (because there are still days I will just eat or eat something for the purpose of not wanting to feel something) there is absolutely no doubt as to what the body wants. Now if someone asks me why I don’t eat dairy I only have to remember ‘that coleslaw’ a few years ago to know without a doubt that it is not something I want or choose to have in my diet. The response was strong but the message was simple dairy + body = harm.
The article and comments have highlighted for me the weird belief systems we have around food and how we let our minds and out thinking dominate what we eat. We also learn patterns of eating deliberately in order to avoid feeling uncomfortable feelings. When I start eating like that I don’t know when to stop, my body is shouting at me more and more to stop so I eat more – there’s almost a belligerent determination to quell the feelings but now they won’t be quelled and there’s a feeling of panic until eventually I feel so bloated I do stop. I do the same with emails – get distracted more and more until my body physically hurts, or I have to go out for an appointment or work, and never actually stop and feel what’s going on. A great question someone asked me recently – ‘How bad does it have to get before we do something?’
It’s interesting to hear people speak about diets , I’ve never been on one except for the see-food one, I would just eat what ever when and 50% of the time I would defiantly hear some grumbling but hey I was the one control!! So one day I decided to do an experiment: 2 weeks without gluten, end of the 2 weeks I felt great but really wanted that favourite sand which so I did… Oh the pain to start with then looking like I was 9 months pregnant… That was the start of actually trying to listen.
I enjoyed reading your blog Fiona and I could relate to your story especially adjusting my food so that I could still sneak in the odd cake or bun……it is not until we have a D Day moment (love that ) that we truly start to take notice and wake up to the fact that our body is constantly telling us what works for us and what doesn’t.
I have been Gluten, Dairy & Sugar Free for many years now and recently a work colleague said to me that they were inspired by my willpower to not eat junk food and to maintain the diet I have chosen. What I explained to her made absolute sense and weeks later she has started making some dietary changes of her own. I explained to her that my food choices had nothing to do with willpower and that I didn’t feel like I was missing out…in fact quite the contrary. Don’t get me wrong…I love the taste of certain food in the mouth, but what my body feels an hour later and the 3 days after when I eat something that doesn’t agree with my stomach or body, its just not worth it. Two minutes of sensation in the mouth or 3 days of hell? It’s a no brainer for me now…but in the beginning when I was transitioning gluten, dairy & refined sugar out of my diet, I would go back & forth a bit and sure enough the body would tell me very quickly what was building my vitality and what was depleting it. So no willpower needed, just a choice to feel great each day or not!
I so agree Marika, I am constantly asked how I have the willpower to eat as I do, but when I connect to my body and listen, it has made making food choices, very easy indeed.
Yes Marika I agree – this is the same way I explained it to my working colleagues when I was changing my diet and losing lots of kilos some years ago. Now one of my colleague started to change her diet because she was diagnosed with diabetes. She also lost lots of kilos and now she uses the same words I used to explain the other colleagues why she don’t eat sugar and don’t drink alcohol . . . !!!
Thank you, Fiona. This is a great reminder. I was just wondering lately whether I had fallen for categorizing food into “should” and “shouldn’t” and eating according to rules, rather than really being honest with where my body it at, and listening to what it is asking for, and how it is responding to the choice of food.
I can relate completely what you are sharing here Fiona. Many people around me ask me if it is not hard to not eat gluten or dairy and if I never feel like eating something ‘sneaky’. The answer is ‘no, I do not feel like eating something sneaky or in the face of anyone’ That is because I know by experience that gluten and dairy do not feel good in my body, which makes it easy to say no. And this is indeed the best diet that is around – the diet of what feels good to me in my body.
Beautiful Fiona. How empowering to feel that we are actually our own best experts when it comes to our food choices. Our body really does know best and all we need to do is simply trust it.
Well said Joshua, it truly is empowering and when listening to the body, the feeling after eating is just lovely these days.
I feel it is really important what you have expressed here as I have realised that when I stopped eating meat not only was I denying my body what it wanted it did not change a thing regarding to the cruel way animals are treated in their living conditions and how they are killed, as it is still just as bad, if not worse “I simply knew that this was what my body needed and I could not keep abusing it. What good was my peaceful protest against animal cruelty if it ended up destroying the protestor?”
Fiona I recognise this too “my body had been begging me to eat meat “. For me it came after an illness and I had to drop my beliefs about yoga and a vegetarian diet and listen to my body instead – to start giving myself what it was calling for. It was such a strong feeling that I could not deny my body knew exactly what it needed and I was able to use this to help me move out of illness towards feeling healthy again.
Hi Rosanna,
Yes, some of us need that undeniable message from our body to push us past the ideas we are stubbornly hanging on to. It took this for me to become humble and start to appreciate how intelligent and all knowing my body really is.
So simple to consider that the best diet for us is the one that develops, changes and evolves by listening to our bodies. I am becoming more and more convinced of this, reintroducing meat after being a vegetarian was so freeing, and I immediately felt amazing for it that it encouraged me to trust in my body again.
I have been able to let go of so much of the conflicting information about food since doing courses with Universal Medicine. Ideas about diet can still be sneaky though, for example when I am not hungry my mind suggests ‘I better eat now in case I run out of energy and find I can’t eat later’, only to eat, feel dull and worse for eating instead of waiting. It is something to constantly check in with – do I feel to eat breakfast today or not? Sometimes if I eat before lunch, I feel hungry all day and over eat, other times if I eat earlier I find I am satisfied and don’t need to eat later. I really am asked to listen to my body. Some foods that work for me don’t work for others and sometimes I get caught into believing that all healthy foods are healthy for me, and it takes a while to stop eating what my body is signalling does not work for me. Sometimes I just need a break or less of certain foods, so it really is never static. I suspect the more willing we are to be honest about how we feel after we eat the easier and clearer the messages from the body will be.
I love your point that what might be healthy for one person is not healthy for another. It makes so much sense and yet we try to put diet and healthy foods into a box and say this is it. Our relationship with food needs to constantly change and respond as we change every day.
Thank you Fiona for your inspirational blog.
Our bodies are certainly amazing in that it knows exactly what is required.
I am committed to taking my listening to my body to a deeper level
“There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me”
I have found that people often feel sorry for me when there is cake being offered and I say no thanks – I then explain that it is my choice to not eat or drink what’s on offer. As others have mentioned there is no desire and the smell of the baked goods puts me right off. Along with my taste buds changing, my sense of smell has become sharper also.
I love having a strong connection to my body and listening to how it communicates. The times I’ve buckled and eaten foods that weren’t supportive or good for me I have paid a high price. Normally one unloving choice with food would have a ripple effect of more unloving choices with food and other things. I’ve experienced this so many times now that I’ve let go of that pattern and understand that what I put in my body exposes a lot about where I’m at in that moment, and by addressing this before poor food choices creeps in and staying connected to my body is crucial in making loving choices.
The body speaks the truth. If we listen to it, it becomes very loud, your doughnut story clearly show us this. I find listening to what my body requires an ongoing choice that I need to keep making to be sure as to not let my mind override and tell me what I think I want.
Hi Fiona – I really enjoyed the ‘light’ read of your article – and can relate quite a bit to there having being a ‘food issue’ in the recent past, but with the belief that I was ‘big-boned’ and therefore after having delivered 3 children it was only natural to carry more weight than b.c. (before children). I never did go down the road of being a vegetarian, my diet was literally a se(a)e-food diet – as the play on words goes, it was if I saw it and I liked what I saw with my seeing eyes I ate it – with the wish/hope of filling the emptiness I felt inside and with the then ludicrous belief that the more sugar and chocolate the better as it would surely provide me with the so longed for physical energy I was craving. How far from the truth can we go I wonder – very far away was I. Fortunately I too was shown there was another way to truly energize oneself and that was to listen to the body and to not depend on the ‘seeing eyes’ to give you the honest answer. This other way was brought to my attention via meeting Serge Benhayon and attending the Universal Medicine presentations – simply bringing me more to my awareness of the possibility that the body actually was more truth-full than the human mind. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Fiona,
I enjoyed every mouthful of your sharing!
There is no such thing as “the power of now” on the other hand “the power of me” in allowing our bodies to let us know what it really requires in order to fully support us – now that’s powerful – thanks Fiona.
You raise a great point Mariette. It is not that you can’t eat something, it’s that you have no desire to. Perhaps this is what people can’t understand or relate to. I can remember the pull to the bakery section was so big, it was like I was caught in a tractor beam! Now when I walk past there is nothing, no need or craving. This is what is possible when we just start to listen to our body.
I also get at times the remark that I am ‘too strict’ or ‘too extreme” and why can’t I eat a piece of this or that for a change, I won’t die and It won’t hurt me. My relationship with food has improved 180 degrees. Where I was always busy in my mind with what to eat and what not to eat, I started to listen to my body. I don’t have any rules and if a birthday cake or chocolate eggs for easter pass my way, I can have as many as I want. The thing is, I don’t have any desire whatsoever. It might not be the normal norm, the way I eat, but with the obesity and health issues that are going on right now, we might need to take a stop and see if our current normal is actually working for us…
We are meant to be intelligent, yet why do, ‘ all other animals know what and how much to eat. Yet somehow we seem to have lost this natural ability from the human psyche and have made our minds king’. It is not so intelligent to listen to our minds, which do not honour what our bodies are telling us. It is actually disregarding ourselves.
This is brilliant Fiona, I love how you share how the only true expert in what your body needs for nourishment is indeed you. We can get so lost and caught up in fads, diets and rules of what to eat and in that we can forget that our bodies are communicating to us all the time on what’s working and isn’t working. For me, my reference point now (years ago before I also gave up gluten, sugar and dairy this was not the case) is a feeling of lightness and spaciousness in my body, and I choose to eat in a way that will support me to feel more of these qualities. So if something I eat makes me feel dull, sluggish or heavy I know that’s my body saying ‘nope’. Trusting and listening to my body sharing with me has brought a complete new joy to my relationship with food. Which is so yum!
I had been aware of the impact of gluten on my body, well before attending UniMed and had at least reduced my intake over the years. However I was fine with the occasional indulgence and happy to accept the consequences of that, in order to enjoy a treat from time to time. I am thankful for the presentations of Serge Benhayon and for obtaining a greater understanding of the effects of gluten on the body, as this finally made it easy to cut gluten from my diet completely.
“My decision to be a vegetarian came from what my mind wanted and my reaction to how animals were farmed for meat.” this line especially reverberated in my body Fiona, as for six years including a pregnancy and two years in breastfeeding that my mind held onto this reaction too. Eating choices that are made from the beliefs of the mind cannot be true when these choices hurt the body of the person making these choices, can it? It is so simple how you have shared, thank you.
There are still a vast number of people that still think gluten is ok, this has rumblings of the smoking is good for you debate which lasted decades. The gluten free way of eating still has a way to go because many still replace the gluten with something else. In truth, the best diet could be the ‘listen to your body first diet’. Unfortunately, our current way of eating and diets numb the body so it is impossible to feel let alone listen to it. As you said Fiona it talks loud and clear when you give it a chance.
Great comment Matthew. It does take time for us to understand and acknowledge what is clearly bad for us – smoking and alcohol are great examples of this. So many people say to me, “I’m lucky I can eat anything”! It takes awareness and a lack of need from the food to be able feel what certain foods are doing. This can be a slow process – it certainly has been for me.
Fiona, I get many people say to me the same thing I can eat anything, or more so, everything in moderation is good for you, your body needs it. I can recall when I use to say the same too, I could eat anything and never put on weight, what a false concept. Now as I am more aware of my body and how it feels. If I ignore what my body says or indulge in foods that are driven by my thoughts. My body shouts out load and clear. I had a little bit of cheese the other day, thinking I will be ok, but not a chance my sinuses kicked in and I have a runny nose. My body telling me it’s not ok to eat cheese. So it’s really about honouring what the body wants.
I had never ‘dieted’ in my life, I didn’t need to I was slim. It never occurred to me that how I felt had any link with what I ate…until I attended a Chris James‘ sound retreat which had gluten and dairy free catering. After that I started to experiment, supported by all the glorious ideas and recipes from UniMed students.
What I love about my approach to food now is ‘No prescription, no rules, no letting myself be led by any ideas, needs, experts or diets’, because…
There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.
Fiona, it’s so true what you wrote about the way in which we dance around the truth of food and how it affects our body, until the body is actually forced to turn up the volume so we make the choice our body needs. We forget how wise the body is, and that its signals are leading us to something greater. This is a great reminder for me, thank you.
Considering that over two-thirds of Australia’s population are overweight or obese, it may be time to start questioning the ‘norm’ – love this line so much. It puts a big emphasis on ‘yea, somethings not right with the way people are thinking and eating.’ and this one – “There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” Agreed. I’ve had many people tell me i should be eating this and that, because of what’s normal and what people consider to be good for you. Great. blog.
Yes I agree Emily. Beautifully put by Fiona. It is definitely time to start questioning the norm.
The “what is right for me” hit the spot for me Fiona. The moment by moment tuning in to when, what, how much and why of my dietary choices has generalised to other areas of my life as well developing my awareness and self care and giving me a greater sense of inner freedom and love for myself and others.
Stephen, that is great advice to become aware of all the prescribed ideas we have about food. There are just so many! eg. You can’t start the day on an empty stomach, raw/organic is always best, we need to eat certain portions of certain food groups (the food pyramid), food is what gives us energy, we need to eat 3 meals per day etc. All these ideas stop us from feeling what we really need.
I feel one of the great examples of eating for what feels rights for you is to be found in gluten sensitivity. Thankfully science is finally catching up to the fact that people can be free of coeliac disease yet still be sensitive to gluten. Before you could go to a doctor and get tested and then told to just carry on if the test was negative, now we know it is not as black and white. I was one case of this and had I not made my body the best marker of my health I would have carried on eating gluten and suffering the consequences. Perhaps we all have a sensitivity to gluten to some degree or other, I certainly consider the latin meaning, glue, that Cherise shared, as a clear signal that gluten is not a product we can take and eat lightly.
Hi Vicky,
I have been playing with the overriding feeling with food. I find there is a clear moment when I can feel thats enough but if I take only 1-2 more mouthfuls of food, I can no longer feel that, its like my body stops talking to me because I haven’t listened. Then I can just keep eating.
My body has spoken to me very loudly over the years, telling me what foods are not right for my body. It is only recently as I have let go of widely prescribed beliefs about certain foods that I have begun to appreciate the signals from my body and started to eat only the food that make me energised and vital. I would recommend to anyone that they choose to listen to the signals from their body and don’t rely on those “norms” to be their guide to what is best for them.
Food is, I feel, a big learning curve for us and I don’t think the majority of us do truly listen to what our body needs and wants as well as the small amount it wants. We seemed to have lost the ability to listen and respond to our bodies true call and instead override the clear message with what the ‘mind’ wants. I know I am still very much learning with this one.
It’s amazing that the body speaks to us, and lets us know what is right and what is wrong for our wellbeing.
It has taken me sometime to listen, and boy what a difference I feel in myself when I do listen.
There was an ‘aha’ moment when I read that what you ate ‘came from what my mind wanted’ as this was where my diet originated, and consequently my mind led me astray. Now I have begun to listen to my body not only has my diet changed and become amazingly varied, but I am now developing a lovely relationship with my body.
When I look back to the time of eating certain foods that didn’t suit me, my body would groan, whereas now my diet feels light and lovely, and my body is beginning to love the way it feels!
With a plethora of available diets telling us what and when to eat, has it become our ‘normal’ to exonerate self from our well being? As you say Fiona … I had never considered asking my body how it felt about this decision. On reflection, this would have been the natural thing to do’…such a great realisation-thank you for sharing this.
Brilliant blog Fiona – “What good was my peaceful protest against animal cruelty if it ended up destroying the protestor?” – great question!
What you have shared about eating slowly is great. We often eat zoned out watching the TV, computer or engaged with other distractions. Making the conscious choice to eat slowly means focussing on what you are doing and how your body is feeling – so you know when you have had enough or when food isn’t agreeing with you.
This is a great point Fiona. When I eat slowly I am much more likely to notice I have had enough food or if something is not sitting right. I also notice that I only feel I had enough food when I pause eating for a bit otherwise I could just keep on going!
And that is a great point from you Lieke – It’s so easy to keep on going just because it tastes good even though the body says that’s enough. Sometimes you might wish that the body was louder in telling us what is best for it but maybe it’s us that have to get more receptive to what the body is already telling us.
i have found that eating slowly is a great way to feel what you eat and have better feeling of how much i need to eat. it has been very challenging to eat slowly , exposing how fast i usually eat. it also gives my body time to feel the food in my stomach, so i know when to stop.
How exposing to me Ken. My raciness with eating! There is room for change here.
Thanks Fiona, that is so true what people can consider is “extreme” is very interesting. I was aware for a long time that there were certain foods that my body could not handle – dairy, certain gluten, sugar and alcohol. The nutritionists that I saw ran tests after test and confirmed this. I tried modifying my diet and while it provided some relief, it was only after beginning to self-care and having support to take care of other areas of my life as well, that I started to see long term permanent changes. My food is far more delicious, alive and full of vitality than it was before – if anything I would say my diet 15 years ago of Pizzas, cheese and bread, rich foods etc.. was extreme – extremely bad for my body by any medical professionals count.
Fiona. Thank you for the clear message in your blog. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. We need to make choices about the food we eat, that will benefit our bodies for a healthier life style.
This is so true Fiona I tried desperately to carry on eating bread and pasta and glutenous foods even though my body was telling me loud and clear by giving me terrible stomach pains and bloating. I managed to override this for 15 years until I came to Universal Medicine who helped me understand what gluten was doing to my health and well being.
While I was never a vegetarian I loved what you wrote here “I simply knew that this was what my body needed and I could not keep abusing it. What good was my peaceful protest against animal cruelty if it ended up destroying the protestor?” This is the madness we will go to, to not listen to our bodies
Beautifully expressed Monika. Our bodies certainly do wear the abuse we inflict on ourselves and although I have been refining this, food is still one way that I can ‘shush’ my body, when it has something to say that I don’t want to hear (like don’t eat that!). I am learning how I use food to adjust how well I can hear my body. I am seeing how I unconsciously vary the quantities and the type of food I eat depending on how I feel. If I really don’t want to hear my body, I overeat and choose foods that make me feel dull and heavy to change the volume. Sometimes I choose something sweet and stimulating so I don’t have to feel that I am tired. Instead of jumping straight for the food, I say to myself “stop and feel whats really going on” and discover there is always something more to feel. I am starting to appreciate that being able to listen carefully to my body is better than any quick food fix.
A great article Fiona. Our bodies really do know what they require if we allow ourselves the time to get to know ourselves and put what our mind may want out of the way. Bread used to make me so tired, and I only found the connection to this tiredness when I chose to not eat it. I had come to accept that the feeling of sluggishness and being bloated was normal for me. I have seen my body change as I have excluded gluten and dairy and also observed my energy levels increase.
Brilliant Fiona – and well said!
I have found it supports me more to feel how my body responds to food rather than being told by anyone what to and what not to eat.
Like you – I was fad diet queen – vegetarian, meat only, carbs before 6, juice diets – you name it – and I could of absolutely convinced myself I wasn’t a ‘dieter’
Now being presented with the simple facts of food, it has allowed me to eat in a way that is not a diet, but a lifestyle choice to support my body, eat clean, and eat things that agree with every aspect of me.
An amazing change indeed.
Food has been a ‘battle’ for me most of my life. Not wanting to give up that which I loved – bread, cakes, rich foods. However I no longer see it as a battle, inspired by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, and with the support of the esoteric healing modalities. I am now saying no to that which I know does not support me. I had to get really, really honest with myself to get to this point but I am beginning to feel free of all the beliefs I had imposed on myself around food and how and what not to eat.
It has been an awesome journey for myself and food, I never went on diets but I ate just what I liked with no thought or consideration as to how my body would feel. With Serge Benhayon presenting what he has lived I have found it to be very inspiring. What I eat and the way I feel before, during and after is still a big learning and the possibilities of being more honest and deeper in my relationship with my body and food is endless.
Isn’t it shocking when we realise that principles which hold so dear and chosen with such good intentions but do not discern the truth behind them, can be so harmful, not only for ourselves but also others. When we cling, “with white knuckles” to them it is usually because there is an emotional attachment that is giving us a false sense of protection from a hurt we do not wish to look at and deal with.
My mind will go through millions of excuses and self-criticisms as to what, why and how much I am eating or go into fears of ‘If I feel what to eat I’ll never enjoy certain foods ever again’, so often I find that I ignore my body and eat it anyway for that split second of taste and pleasure. My body on the other hand is simple: I eat something and if the body doesn’t like that food it tells me so. But what if I ate what my body wanted, that did not leave it feeling flat, drained and heavy – would not every food be enjoyable then, as I eat to support my body rather than eating for a momentary pick-me-up?
This is a great blog, there’s so much I can relate to here and I’ve loved reading it – thank you Fiona.
Thank you for sharing this Fiona
Ariana, it’s so true we get lost in ideals and beliefs and forgot to really connect to what our bodies truly want to eat. It’s not until after I’ve eaten that my body amplifies the dislike in many different ways, often as a heaviness in my body or a sickly feeling.
I totally agree that with the rising rates of obesity and diabetes, to name but a couple of the health crises we are facing, which may be preventable with diet, that it is time to re-consider our relationship with food. So many diets out there are very prescriptive and do not ask the body what it actually needs. I have been following my own healthy diet for the past 10 years by listening to my body and have made my own choices about what to eat and not eat with some guidance by reading and studying the scientific facts of what certain foods actually do to the human body. I have to say that this approach works extremely well for me, given my excellent health and healthy body weight.
So true Toni. When you make a change when your body tells you its time there is no need to stick to the diet or will power required. You simply don’t feel like that food anymore. This can be amazing to feel especially if we have been addicted to something in the past.
It is of point to note that with the obesity crisis exploding onto our health care system, that this is ultimately becoming everyone’s tax burden. Would it not make sense to consider a new approach to eating that focuses on us being willing to listen to our bodies and what they truly need, and to consider the possibility that there is a different way to approach food and that listening to what the body actually needs for nourishment, can deliver remarkable results?
Hi Stephen, what a great point you raise. For the small investment of delivering health promotion that supports people to feel and respect their bodies, we could save the struggling health systems around the world billions of dollars. Listening to our bodies and becoming aware of why and how we eat is foundational to lasting weight loss and results in improved health. Never before have we had so many ways to diet or so many gyms/fitness equipment and yet we have never been so overweight or unwell – so something isn’t working. Listening to our body is the missing link.
Looking back I can see that rather ironically, (or cunningly!), I used food itself to actually stop my self from feeling what my body would truly ask for. The amount of chocolate I would eat from my early teens right through to not so many years ago was a lot. It would give me enough stimulation so that I could not feel how I was really feeling – specifically right through homework time, exams, uni and then when I went back into adult studies. Avoiding the stillness naturally in my body meant that I could eliminate the one way back to feeling what would truly support me.
When we eat stimulating food like chocolate, we do lose our ability to feel the quiet stillness inside that knows exactly what we need. I for one had forgotten this stillness even existed. It was only through Universal Medicine that I began to reconnect to this most lovely, natural state and value it more than all the chocolate or donuts in the world.
That’s such a great reflection Fiona, to actually come to the point where we value and appreciate our most lovely and natural state – to the degree that it effortlessly outweighs any need to change it by eating that box of doughnuts.
This is a great article Fiona. I love this….’All other animals know what and how much to eat. Yet somehow we seem to have lost this natural ability from the human psyche and have made our minds king.’…. So true!, thank you for sharing
Hi Fiona, I love your article especially the last line, “there is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” Crazy though this sounds, I’ve been an expert at choosing foods that haven’t been good for me so that I can intentionally feel rubbish and not feel my body. I have noticed that it is when I am not taking responsibility for something I have felt or holding back saying something that needs to be said to someone. I also have looked to society to tell me what was ‘good’ or ‘right’ to eat which was very confusing as different research concludes different things. I do know what my body likes to eat, even though at times I like to pretend that it doesn’t. Your sentence reminds me that this is true and if I’m in a space that I am saying otherwise, reminds me to listen again and then I find it simple to choose what food to eat and nourish myself with. Will always remember your D day too. Excellent!
Hi Karin, It is true for all of us that we often choose foods so we don’t have to feel – be that a moment when we need to speak up, a moment to appreciate ourselves or a moment that is asking us to grow and change. This is something I am constantly exploring. Sometimes the dulling wins but sometimes I stop and ask what I am really feeling, what do I feel I am missing at that moment – usually the answer is I am missing me and my connection to my body!
I was so called a Macrobiotic for nearly ten years and my weight was like a yoyo. I started eating meat again 5 years ago as well as eggs, I do admit sometimes that it taste so good I tend to overdo it. The good thing is that my body never lies, and it will tell me what I need to know and it is then up to me to make a decision accordingly or just ignore it!
Love your D day moment! I had that with decaf coffee another D day moment. I hadn’t had one for about a month and then after drinking a cup felt like I was wired and buzzing, anxious, heart pumping it was awful and lasted for 2 hours. I couldn’t believe it was the decaf and another month later had another cup exactly the same thing happened. Never drunk another drop. But what has always amazed me in this process of listening to my body is how numb I have been to foods and drinks prior to becoming aware and often it is only after a few weeks without something that I was having quite regularly without symptoms – so I thought – would feel how awful x y or z was in my body. Yet when I stopped eating gluten, dairy, alcohol, caffeine and smoking cigarettes my body responded by no longer suffering from hay fever, sinuses, chest infections and asthma, and lost 3 stone. I just thought ‘that was me’ I had had those symptoms all my life (apart from the weight), turns out it was what I was ingesting.
It is amazing how unaware we are of what certain foods are doing to us. We get used to our norm, the bloating, sinus etc and accept a far lesser version of health than we are capable of living.
I love your article it is so clear. I was exactly the same, “My decision to be a vegetarian came from what my mind wanted and my reaction to how animals were farmed for meat”. I loved meat and felt that it was good for my body, but from reaction and peer pressure turned vegetarian for about 12 years! I was with friends and they were cooking a roast chicken for dinner and I just decided to have some and it felt really good to. I have been eating meat ever since. I completely understand when you say our mind just goes off and decides what it wants to eat without consulting the body. This is still work in progress for me. Thank you for sharing, I really enjoyed reading your blog.
I also stopped eating red meat for 10 years because of the cruelty to animals & because I noticed how heavy it was in my body. But then one day, before I had even found Universal Medicine, I had been seriously pondering eating red meat again to support my low iron & B12 levels. With the support from friends, I cooked up a mince beef dish with lots of broccoli & herbs so as to cover up the flavour of meat…anyway surprisingly I actually felt much better in the body 1-2hrs after eating. I really noticed my body perk up which I couldn’t deny and so from that day I continued to listen to what my body was telling me and when it needed some red meat. I have continued to eat red meat ever since…it was beef for many years and now I cant eat beef and I just love lamb, but never did before. My body just knew when to change…quite beautiful really.
I have never been on any kind of diet in my life. I always ate what ever was available. I realize now though, I was eating to not feel. Universal Medicine has supported me in trusting myself. Food has been a great way to start listening to my body and trusting myself.
That is so true Ken. We either eat to not feel, using foods that dull our senses or eat for stimulation, to give us a taste sensation or an energy boost. We have really lost eating simply to provide what we need to support our bodies.
“There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” How true, Fiona. I, too, travelled the vegetation path and other mind driven paths as to what I should or should not eat instead of listening to my body. Following this simple and common sense approach as presented by Serge Benhayon, and also like you he never told me what to eat or what not to, my health as radically improved including a huge weight loss. It has been life changing.
Excellent blog Fiona. We humans are clearly not eating healthily – you only have to look at the obesity levels and manifesting diseases in the Western culture. It is time we all listened to our body, and let it make our food choices rather than allowing the mind and belief systems dictate what we put into our body. I have learnt a lot about nutrition over the years but the wisest words I ever heard are those of a deeply wise woman, ‘Feel What to Eat don’t Eat What you Feel’.
Hi Fiona. Great blog. Yesterday, my body really wanted meat, so I honoured that and boy did my body appreciate it.
A beautiful sharing Fiona, listening to what our bodies truly feel like they want to eat is not extreme, nor does it lead to an extreme diet. It can lead to undeniable well-being and a trust in one’s own feelings. Thank you so much for sharing.
Well said Rebecca – listening to the body brings an end to extreme diets. Just Natural living.
It would be so great to break the belief that food and especially treats equates to love. Often as kids we are trained to behave in an acceptable way with food. We hear things such as “If you are good I will buy you an ice-cream” or “You deserve a treat because you did so well on a test or sporting event.” As a parent I found myself slipping into this at times – showing approval or love through a treat or a favourite meal rather than offering true love.
Asking our body brings a true foundation for life – not just to support what and how we eat but how we exercise, sleep, work and play. It cuts through all the confusion and brings a steady, clear voice that makes life so simple.
So many unnecessary additives, sugar, salt, dairy and gluten have been snuck into our processed food. Yet as you say we the consumers have accepted this. We have also accepted so many other ‘norms’ such as needing to start the day with a coffee, have a coffee after dinner, considering unhealthy food as a treat, relying on medications to allow us to override our body etc.
Our levels of chronic preventable illness are clearly showing the effects of our food choices and the unhealthy norm we have accepted.
Fantastic Fiona and thank you for your honesty. I too would have not been able to deny myself a special offer on doughnuts, (I could have easily eaten the whole 6 in one sitting) until the day I began to listen to what my body was having to very loudly spell out to me – that it was not getting on very well with what I was insisting on putting inside it. As someone said to me, “you have been very scientific about it”, eating something and then observing the results. By doing it that way, I could more clearly decide whether or not to carry on consuming that particular product. Even chocolate got the heave ho after feeling the effects of it on my body, in particular my brain! And all because as you say, “There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me” and from the look of you in your photo, you are advising yourself very well.
Rowena – I had to laugh with your reply – I can relate to the doughnut excess, unfortunately it also applied to chocolate, cakes and thick newly baked bread with oodles of butter! Since attending Universal Medicine presentations, I began to realise how much I was choosing to harm my body rather than stopping and listening to its innate wisdom.
Fiona – it is so true – There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.
In the past 6 years Serge Benhayon has never told me what to eat – but to listen to my body and go from there.
From this, I gave up being a ‘serial dieter’ and began experimenting with not eating a particular food for a time – what I learnt from my own personal science laboratory (my body) was that gluten bloats me, dairy was the cause of serious sinus and sugar (chocolate, wine and cake) was just covering up extreme exhaustion in order to keep pushing through life to ‘get by’. 35 Kilos less – my body feels amazing and very different from 6 years ago.
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Thank you for sharing your experience. It is amazing how we can’t or don’t want to feel the effects of food, especially when we need them because we are tired, bored, unhappy etc. I used to drink about 6 cups of instant coffee a day in my early 20s when I was nursing, usually having one to go to sleep! Now even a decaf would make me feel racy and wide awake. It seems to me as soon as we are willing to listen our body is right there with us, supporting our every decision in life.
‘I had never considered asking my body how it felt about this decision’…this highlights so beautifully the madness of living in a body that we avoid listening to, disregard and ignore, when it is our bodies that show us the impact of all our choices. Thank you,
It is madness. We listen to our car, the sound of the engine and observe the gauges to constantly monitor what it needs. We just need to do the same for ourselves.
It’s interesting how tasty or sweet food is what is often worse for our bodies.
I have been watching some cooking shows lately and the focus is all about maximum impact on the taste buds and senses. Salt, sweet, sour and texture are all used to stimulate rather than nourish the body.
I agree, I had this discussion at work with the chef and he still believes that salt is good for the human body or even necessary. I use to also have this discussion in a previous unit I worked in, they just want taste… which is in a way understandable, however when the salt is already put in, it doesn’t give a chance for the customers to make their own choice.
What about if this was how we were actually educated and brought up – rather than the diet and nutrition information we use to teach our children?
Hi Susan, me too. I remember being in a primary school last year holding classes for health week and the children shared what they had been learning about healthy food, just as you have described above ( minus the alcohol ) it was all about 5 portions a day, what to eat to be healthy, the food pyramid guide etc, this also made me cringe, along with the multitude of information I observe given to adults, as I feel this is not truly presenting information nor allowing our children or ourselves to feel what is true for our own bodies, but already setting us up with these beliefs, that this is the only way, when it is so clearly not. It was funny as when we explored and talked some more they shared what they loved to eat , what felt good and what didn’t feel good for them.
So many of us are looking for support and guidance with our diets and what we eat, but as you so rightly say there is so much information out there that falls short of what’s truly needed, but really where does all this information come from and with regards to the research that is done to back it up – who calls for that? And have they already decided the outcomes they want? And does that keep us all just in comfort and we can then have the excuse but the information / research says that’s good for us. It’s actually sad and very harming information to feed society as then they believe they are doing themselves good. I for one have seen this family whereby people are unwell, but are not being given true diet and nutritional advice and support to really help, though we can’t blame the doctors etc for this, but it just clearly exposes how much true information and support humanity needs around this.
And yes I too feel as a society we have become so comfortable, we can come up with any excuse and reason to back it up, I know I still do this at times with certain foods, and laugh because it is so clear why I am choosing to go for them, and when I speak all I hear is my own excuses and comfort trying to back it up, when I so know the real reason I am going for them.
We definitely need to look and have a new approach to dietary and nutrition information that is available for the general public right from nursery school, through all our health fields and home. And what better way to start than actually listening to our bodies, not our heads as they can so easily justify that a certain food or simply overeating or a particular diet is good for us.
I agree Gyl!
Yes, diets always feel so prescriptive and one size fits all – without an ounce of joy or experimentation in them! There is no appreciation of the fact that we all know what to eat and what not to when we listen to our bodies. They seem to target people with a need – to lose weight, reduce their blood sugar or blood pressure and so offer a temporary bandaid without empowering the person to work with their body and diet for the rest of their lives.
On pondering further about eating what my body needs, a few years ago that would have meant giving in to the craving of sugar in any form of biscuits, cake and deserts. I would want it so I would have it! Since then my understanding has changed as I have been willing to look underneath the cause of the cravings. I know and am aware of how certain foods bloat, numb or make me feel denser. I also know at meal times when to stop, which I still ignore at times, especially if the dish is delicious, but can feel the immediate effect of over eating even with the healthy stuff! It’s an on going development of listening to my body and honouring what it is saying.
So true Rachel, the refining never ends. That may seem like a chore to some but it is quite the opposite. It is lovely to look back and appreciate what you have learnt and continue to adjust as we change and grow.
This is great Fiona. If we listen and act upon the voice our body has, it saves it having to shout at us in the form of disturbance and ultimately illness and disease as a result of us feeding it the wrong fuel.
Thank you Fiona for sharing.
Thank you for sharing, listening to the body and changing food choices as a continuous process is sure what I have been experiencing. The body speaks loud when we take a minute to listen.
I love this, Amita, ‘the body speaks loud when we take a minute to listen’. Having applied so many rules to food for so long, in absolute disregard for what would be really supportive, I am deeply appreciative that my body still talks to me loud and clear!
I love what you have shared Matilda “Having applied so many rules to food for so long, in absolute disregard for what would be really supportive, I am deeply appreciative that my body still talks to me loud and clear!”. How many of us spend our lives living by rules, instead of listening to what our body shares with us and how we feel, and appreciation is the key, so often it is all too easy to dismiss this and simply not stop to deeply appreciate how far we have come from a place of disregard we may have been in, and just how incredible our body really is!
It is amazing to consider how much our rules and what we think of as our norm stops us from even being open to considering another way (or listening to what our body has to say). Unfortunately as in my case it was not until the body started shouting that I actually stopped and listened. I feel those of us who have started to challenge old patterns and rules can be a great support to let people see another way.
What I have also observed is how we have built an unnatural way of being with food in relation to time, that we must eat at certain times of the day because from a very young age we have been told to, rather than feeling if our body actually needs to, and also how we must eat certain foods at those times of the day. Who is to say having soup for breakfast or a roast salmon for lunch may just be what our body really feels and needs, rather than what we have been lead to believe is the norm to eat, such as toast, cereal or a sandwich.
This is so true, we have become so conditioned to eating certain foods at certain times of the day but the moment you turn this on its head our meals become infinitely more supportive.
Absolutely Fiona, much more supportive, eating has become much more about actually stopping, listening to my body and eating what and when it needs too, rather than following a time frame. It seems crazy now for me to look back and see how often I ate when I was not even hungry.
That is so true and is something I have been looking at for some time. I found I was very set in thinking I had to have three meals a day. I had beliefs like – I need a good breakfast to set myself up for the day or I need to eat dinner because I am cooking dinner for my family. I was finding I was not eating what I wanted when I made a shared meal. It was so liberating when I started making separate meals, using frozen meals I had cooked on the weekend and encouraging my son to make what he wanted for dinner. Now we both get to eat what feels right for us. I also had very set ideas about what is appropriate for each meal. I now love being open to eating whatever I feel like and that changes each day.
Well said Susan… I agree with every word!
Thank you Fiona, I totally agree with you and love how simply you have presented a topic which often brings up a lot for people. It is true our body can and does show/tell us what to eat and what not to if only we choose to listen to it. Serge Benhayon has never told me what to eat rather has helped me establish a deeper connection with myself and my body and so from there I have made changes in the way I eat, live, communicate etc. And I feel soo much better and more healthy for listening to my body more and more.
Our body is what we least listen to. It’s great that you can feel what is truly good for you to eat.
So true – we are not supported or encouraged to listen to our body. Instead our minds and our ‘clever’ thoughts have become our focus. It is time for that to change back to what is actually natural and supportive for our wellbeing.
Fiona I love your article and how simple it really is. When you eat, listen to your body, your body knows what it can and can’t eat – what it actually needs. Experiment and see what is making you feel amazing and light or heavy and dull. I know from my experience what works for me.
I love what you share Natalie, about experimenting and seeing how your body actually feels, too often we think we have follow some rule book or what another eats rather than simply feeling what it is our body knows and needs, awesome – so simple.
Beautifully said Natalie. It is so simple and the experimentation and learning from our body never ends. Even when we ‘stuff up’ we get to feel exactly what those food choices do and this is another chance to learn and develop.
Hi Fiona and thanks for the blog! I find it quite interesting how there are so many diets around yet the wisest decider of what the body needs is the body itself. Sometimes people ask me what diet I’m on and I’m like hmm well… my own. I eat what I feel works best for my body, and doesn’t make it heavy. Sometimes I want to have things that will make my body a bit heavy or racy and then I have the opportunity to ask why is that. When that happens the best way for me is to be open and playful and have an openness as to why I want things that make it like that and not try to force it to eat in a way that comes from ideals and beliefs of how I should eat.
I like it: there is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me. Fiona, thank you for sharing.
Great article. I used to suffer terribly from heart burn and indigestion from ignoring what my body was telling me. I was spending £10 a week on these pills that would sort this out. After the gradual process of learning to listen to my body I haven’t had heart burn for a long time. With the support of Serge Benhayon and the teachings of Universal Medicine, the more I listen to my body, the more I know which foods to eat and that support my body. And a bonus is I have saved already from not buying those pills and not having to buy all the junk I used to put in my body to keep myself numb.
Your experience clearly shows that simply ‘knowing’ that some foods are harming the body is not enough. It really feels the turning point is the choice to begin to love and care for ourselves and our body. From that foundation everything opens up.
I was exactly the same Kevin, I used to spend a lot of money on junk food and alcohol which meant having a continuous supply of indigestion tablets, which now I come to think of it, were like sweets anyway with their different colours and flavours. I used to tell myself that I should stop eating this or drinking that but I now recognise there was too much comfort in it all. With the presentations of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I began to feel how these foods truly affected me and was empowered to choose to let them go.
I love your article Fiona, it highlights the importance of feeling the effects that the energy of food has in our bodies, and also how important it is to NOT over ride our bodies’ needs for certain foods.
This is great Fiona, your experience clearly shows the importance of us listening to our bodies and how amazing our bodies really are, that there is a knowing, all we need to do is listen.
It makes me realise how crazy it is that we don’t listen to our bodies and instead follow what is written or that we are told to eat.
It is crazy – but when we stop listening to our body, we are lost and can be fooled into believing that the only option is to look outside for answers. It truly is re-empowering and humbling to become our own experts again.
I love how this blog appeared in my life exactly when it was supposed to…gosh magic is awesome, thanks Fiona for contributing to that.
Isn’t it great Phil how there is no such thing as chance in life, but how things in life constellate to support us – definitely the magic of God at play. 🙂
Thaks for sharing Fiona. Top article. And yes it is very true that we are our own expert on what is best for us.
Almost 20 years ago my girlfriend at the time pointed out to me that it seemed that sugar was not sitting with me very well, and my moods were all over the place when I ate it. Thus began a very long journey of learning to pay attention to how certain foods made me feel. But my tactic for most of that period was not one of removing these things from my diet as they revealed themselves, it was trying to find a work-around so that I could still eat them.
Low blood sugar? Take a supplement to help even it out. Problem with dairy? Take lactose to help digest it. But the whole time my body was almost screaming at me to stop, stop, stop what I was doing and listen to what it was trying to tell me.
By the time I had come to Universal Medicine I had already cut out refined sugar and dairy completely, and gluten was already on its way out (I had a rash on my joints that had been diagnosed as psoriasis, but turned out to be a reaction to gluten), but the greatest gift in all of this for me was to trust the wisdom of my body, and to not override what it is trying to tell me. And that is, as Gyl said, usually that there is something else going on when I am choosing foods that are dulling or don’t make me feel very well. There is something else under the surface that is trying to get out into the light of day, if I just let it.
I had known for over 20 years that gluten did not agree with me but always made the excuse that it was too hard to give up but finally made the decision around the time I came to my first Universal Medicine presentation, and as I had a cold also gave up dairy and have never looked back – within 24 hours my body felt so much better that I had no difficulty keeping it up and when I ate either of them by mistake my body let me know loud and clear that it wasn’t happy! Over the last few years it has been a constant refinement of what I feel my body needs, including more meat at the start and being honest about when I am overriding my body’s messages and why. Thank you Fiona for expressing so clearly your journey with diet.
Hi Naren,
I loved what you shared. It is so true that even when we know that a food is affecting us, we look for an alternative or way around this. I recently had a lady tell me she has pills she can take with a cappuccino so that she can digest it!
The alternative – of actually listening to and respecting our body and looking at those issues under the surface is not the norm and not readily available in society. Just by sharing your story and experience you can offer a true alternative rather than the many quick fix solutions out there.
Great sharing Naren. As a nutritionist I have come across this a lot. Digestive enzymes and supplements used to try and trick the body. Amazing that we think that we can do this, very indicative of the quick fix solutions that we have come to know. Truly feeling our body and taking responsibility for how we treat it is the greatest gift and a great learning and insight to ourselves on so many levels.
I recently saw an ad on prime time TV with a lady looking sad that she couldn’t eat from a platter of cheeses. She was offered a tablet that dealt with the protein in lactose and she was happy that she could eat cheese again (and join in on sharing what everyone else was eating). I found it interesting that the ad played on our need to join in and not be excluded in social situations where there is food. It also amazed me that we can’t just say, “Fair enough! I will just have to exclude dairy from my diet”. It also shows that we are not considering or being educated about all the things other than lactose that our body may react to in dairy.
It is so common in our society to ignore what our bodies are clearly telling us. We want a pill so that we can continue with food our bodies struggle to process. Then when we get ill we want our medical system to provide a pill that will make us better so that we can continue with an unhealthy lifestyle. We can get a lot more out of life by being more responsible and appreciative of our bodies that carry us around and not fluctuate on the borderline of illness.
What I have also come to notice not simply around what diets we follow, but simply the food we choose to eat, is how often I for one, eat when I am not even hungry, either because I am exhausted or tired or I don’t want to feel other emotions that are coming up, for example rejection, sadness or just a general unease in my body and this can even happen at times when I am feeling amazing… I will eat to try and dull myself or bring myself back down instead of allowing myself to feel the expansion. It’s like there’s someone else behind me telling me go on eat it, that I know is not me.
Hi Gyl, I so recognise that – eating when tired, not wanting to feel emotions coming up, and the internal discussion that goes on. I am slowly learning that it’s OK to feel the true me.
Absolutely Carmel, it is so more than okay to feel the real you and us. What I have found is that we tend to have this ideal or perfection that we seek, that if anything we don’t like to feel of feelings that we think shouldn’t be there, such as sadness and anger etc then this is not okay – but the truth is that yes these feelings are not us, they do not belong to us, as they are not who we naturally are, but they are in us for whatever reason, be it from a past hurt, how we have been with ourselves, or even taking on other people’s stuff that we have not dealt with, and they are coming up for a reason, to feel and let them go, – then we have all the more room for love. 🙂
Thank you Carmel, and it is such a beautiful feeling to say it is ok to feel all this and who I am. I am learning every day more about me, too.
It does indeed feel like someone is behind you willing you to eat those foods that affect and dull the way you feel. I have observed people reacting to healthy food choices in many ways. It can bring up lots of issues for others – their weight, awareness of feeling greedy or empty, not feeling worthy of asking for a different meal, self loathing of being unable to commit to eating well, failures with previous diets, lack of self-love etc. In reality we not only have one person standing behind us but literally millions of people who feel uncomfortable about their own food choices and the reflection one offers.
I have always been slim, never dieted or even considered eating regimes, so going to my first Universal Medicine event with gluten and dairy free catering sent me scampering off to find the location of the nearest supermarket should I need to supplement the tuck box I packed to take with me. I experienced the difference that gluten and dairy free brought, didn’t need my tuck box or the supermarket, and decided to change what I ate.
Initially I was just following what seemed to be a set of best practices. What your article brings home to me so clearly Fiona is the power of having a relationship with our bodies and listening. It isn’t that there are some banned foods that I don’t ‘allow’ myself to eat, I just don’t want to eat them. There are some foods which I know others don’t eat, but right now I do… and one day doubtless they too will become dishes that my body doesn’t want anymore as I learn to listen more.
Hi Kathie – yes it’s easy to fall into the trap of copying role models instead of feeling what our own body needs. In the beginning some of it was an experiment for me, but as I felt the benefits, I carried on. In some cases now, as my body gets more sensitive, I simply don’t feel like eating some foods any more. Having said that, I am still aware of the occasional override – where I sense that something isn’t right for my body but I still go ahead and eat it – so I’m working on that one!
Hi Kathie,
Thank you for sharing your experiences. It is so great that you are listening to what you need at this time instead of following what others are eating. There is so much we don’t know about ourselves but our body always does know.
It is wonderful that you had the openness to at least try and feel for yourself what eating foods without gluten and dairy feels like. As you discovered it is quite a contrast.
It is so freeing and wonderful to no longer feel the craving or pull towards certain foods. Having a need to eat certain foods is like smoking – an overwhelming emptiness that won’t quit until that need is satisfied.
I have also found what’s amazing with diets is that I absolutely know when I am overriding my body and not listening to what it is so clearly sharing with me. This may be to not feel stuff I don’t want to deal with, such as how tired or exhausted I am, or emotions such as rejection, anger, sadness etc. In saying that I have also experienced the exact same thing can happen when I am feeling absolutely amazing, so light, bright and playful, it’s almost like there is something there telling me no you can’t be this way, you have to dull it down – which is crazy and so not true as this is absolutely me.
Also how often I eat when I am actually not hungry, or eat what my body is not actually needing in that moment, there’s a nervous energy running me, or a momentum that just keeps me going, rather than simply stopping and feeling am I really hungry? What is it my body really feels would be so yummy, nourishing and supportive just now? And am I actually full?
I have come far in quitting things that dull my senses and it’s only recently that I’ve noticed how I still do this with perfectly yummy, healthy, light nutritious food! I’ve noticed in the last few weeks in fact that whilst nothing on the surface has changed in my life, I seem to be requiring less food. So I make the same portions of the same yummy food yet I’m really REALLY full. The thing is, I am armed with my breakfast, lunch, banana and snack bar at work and even if I’m not hungry, I know it’s there and I know it’s yummy, and so I eat it! Even last night, by the time I’d made dinner, I wasn’t hungry, but it was a salad, so I ate it, and was sooooo super bloated! So just a case of over eating, regardless of the type of food, is still numbing. In addition, eating when you are in emotion of any kind, I have found, bloats me instantly. The concept of clearing your plate haunts me from childhood and even leaving a crumb on my plate is very difficult….!
Absolutely Rachel, it is all too easy to fall into the mind trap that we need to keep eating or eat when we actually don’t, instead of stopping and listening to our bodies. I also have observed recently a child being told to clear their plate, when they are not hungry, and just felt how wrong this felt in my body and how we are setting them up to override what they so clearly feel in their bodies, because of our own beliefs, – thus setting them up to then ignore what their body so clearly shares with them to follow the beliefs of others, and on the cycle continues.
And also this belief about we have to eat three square meals a day to be healthy, and snacks mid day and afternoon, where has this come from? As you share, and what I know to be true, certainly not from our bodies….
All that has been added here is so true. It is no longer just about what we eat but how, when and why too. I see the body as one big science experiment when it comes to food! Only our own body knows what truly supports us to work in each moment so I find it is wise to pay attention and listen to it – not what anyone else says or reads about the latest diet – and accept these needs are always evolving. Awesome blog – Thank you, Fiona!
I love it Julie that you see the body as one big science experiment when it comes to food! It seems I have a pattern with this: I keep getting hints from my body about what changes are required to support the expansion I am currently making in my life, then I notice myself resisting the changes for a while, but I also notice that they slowly start getting implemented and I feel a lot clearer and lighter – then I notice more hints about what changes will support the current expansion and so on. It is ongoing and my body is always talking and expressing its preferences. I can certainly be more attentive and more playful with it all.
I can relate as I am sure that many of us can, to the overeating. I still have the one of needing to finish my meal, not wasting food etc that was drummed into me as a kid! I also notice when I pack food for a day at work or an outing I over pack. It is like there is a fear of actually feeling hungry – something most of us rarely experience. When I look back on my childhood the “up” moments in the week were all around food treats. Wednesday was a bag of lollies, Fridays fish and chips and Saturdays a block of chocolate to share after the roast dinner. It seems from a young age we are trained to use food to give ourselves a temporary “up” moment.
Yes I can relate to overeating as well. I find it hard not to clear my plate and also feeling the need to have a big breakfast to set me up for the day at work and the fear of being hungry when I am away from the house. I have gradually refined what I take to work and reduced the amount but it is definitely a work in progress because I can still, for example, reach for a snack when I am procrastinating about a piece of work that I am not so confident about, rather than asking my body what it needs which may actually just be a drink or a moment of reflection or stillness about the task ahead.
I love that you have taken this discussion further. These are the next steps to look at in the process of refining our relationship with food. We often think we only eat the wrong foods when we are down but as you shared we can also use food to stop us from feeling “too good”. There are so many programs running us like a computer virus, that we are yet to be aware of (or want to be aware of!) Getting underneath these old patterns, developing a commitment to awareness and honesty is what will stop the yo-yo effect of food and diets.
It is amazing how, as we refine our diets, our bodies respond by speaking more clearly so we can refine further. It is an ever-evolving process.
This is so true Carmel.
So true Carmel. When I went to a fully catered holiday I let them know that I am gluten and dairy free. But when I was there with the options provided I realised just how much more my food choices have been refined over time. The refinements are not just about what to eat but when to eat. I found that starting dinner at 7.15-7.30 was way too late for my body. I went to sleep with a full stomach, meaning energy I could be using for restoring and rejuvenating was being used to deal with the meal I had just eaten. It was lovely to get a physical confirmation through the way I felt the next morning, as to why I eat the way I do.
I too have been abusing my body with food, only truly accepting this just of recent. As I am now dropping all the foods that don’t feel good for me, I am feeling much lighter, better about myself and clearer about my choices. Whilst this has been presented by Serge Benhayon at Universal Medicine courses, I did not fully accept this for myself until now through my body telling me.
That has been my experience too. Until I feel something in my body I can only know it in my mind. Once I feel it in my body there is no argument, room for excuses or doubt. Our bodies are absolute in their wisdom.
Thank you Fiona for such a great blog, I too held many ideals and beliefs and was very rigid around the foods I ate, or the diets I followed. So often, if not all the time, this was not because I was not listening to what my body truly needed in that moment, but because it was the latest ‘health’ fad, or training tip from a book or magazine, and all based on the outside appearance. The difference now that is felt in my body when I stop and feel what it truly needs to support it and what would be so nourishing to eat, is incredible – you can feel it absolutely resonate through every cell of your body, completely different to that momentary satisfaction in the mouth, then a feeling of being left with needing something else or wanting more.
It is interesting how many people have noticed that they were “hard or rigid” around their food choices. It feels like we use food as a way to have some control in our life. What a contrast as you said of having control over your food choices and the way your body looks, as opposed to simply feeling and responding to exactly what you need at that moment.
Fiona, I love the simplicity of what you are presenting here – that we are the experts on what we need to eat. We have a huge arrogance that we can eat whatever we want and our bodies will deal with it – I know I have pushed my body to its limits with similar doughnut stories!! Somewhat a battle between what my head would like and what my body would like. Crazy as the feeling from abusing the body is horrible, and the feeling of listening to what our bodies naturally are calling for to eat is amazing, and never incorrect.
Hey Meg great point “a battle between what my head would like and what my body would like.” How many of us have felt this and how many of us have wrongly assumed that what our head is saying is actually what our body is saying and needing?
It is amazing that there is even a battle between our head and body – no other animal seems to have that problem. At least knowing how far our minds, beliefs and patterns from childhood can lead us astray can start to undo the arrogance and hold our thoughts have over us. When we start to have an openness to what is really true then our body will gently lead the way.
Since taking out gluten, dairy and most sugar from my diet, I too can feel the effect on my body when I eat foods that harm rather than support me. Like you Jenny, these choices are not hard and do not take determination as some would believe, they are simple choices that allow me to claim for myself what is good for me by listening to my body.
It is not hard at all when the focus is on feeling good, loving and caring for your body. When this is your focus and what brings joy in your life the need to reward or treat yourself with unhealthy food melts away.
So true, the hardness disappears when we connect to the body and feel the effect that foods are having. Now if I eat foods that are not supportive I feel so awful afterwards that it simply isn’t worth it. I love feeling vital, steady and alive in my body, committing to this is easy.
It is amazing how our body can speak to us and be very clear about what it needs – yet how seldom we honour that which is heard from within. Without eating gluten and dairy too I am able to feel my body even more – and these choices are not hard, they are not sacrifices, they are truths, they feel true for me and any other way would be harming my gorgeous body… so why would I chose that? On the whole I do not eat sugar, but every now and then I do – and I always regret it – it doesn’t even taste that great after all the incredible food I normally eat, and then I crash from the sugar rush, but then I’m also hooked like a drug… a hideous cycle – no wonder the world can’t feel what to eat, but eats what they feel.
That is so true about sugar – and it seems in everything that is pre-made. I find the same problem with salt – which makes me feel racy and then later on I feel flat. We get so used to tasting things high in salt and sugar that this becomes the norm. There is a period of adjustment when we cut these things out but when we remove salt and sugar the actual flavours of the food come alive.
I enjoyed reading your article Fiona. I have also paid attention to what I eat and how it makes my body feel, I stopped eating gluten and dairy long before I attended any Universal Medicine workshop because of bloating and lethargy and build up of phlegm. Like Rachel R I have also experienced ‘normal’ people feeling sorry for me because I can’t eat cake and don’t get bloated, fat, have a banging headache and a fuzzy head for the rest of the day!!!
Despite the amazing changes in my body as a result, I still find that I am being defensive about eating healthy (no gluten, dairy or sugar) to protect myself from barbed comments from those who feel challenged by it. To my amazement and just two days ago my Mum who has made negative comments in the past and thought I was taking eating healthily to an extreme, has just asked for some support to go gluten and dairy free. She has profusely apologised for those comments and feels inspired to change her eating patterns.
Rachel, as I was leaving Love in a Cup last Wed, I heard your Mum say that she would give gluten and dairy free a go. How she expressed this felt so beauty-full, and is also a true reflection of how when we hold steady our light it illuminates the way for others.
That’s beautiful!
That is so true. I was amazed on my recent holiday how much interest there was in food and diet. There are a lot of people who already know that something is not right with the way we are eating and the state of our health. When looking around we only get to see the norm, the food pyramid or variations on diets that are supposed to offer solutions. I loved having the opportunity to share with people my experiences and encourage them to feel what is right for them.
Thank you Fiona for this insightful and play-full article. Like so many others here I can really relate to your blog. I was a vegan for many years before I started to listen to what my body truly needed. I was at times very underweight and my energy levels were rock bottom. Because I held so many dogmatic ideals around veganism I had completely disconnected from my body and was living in a very rigid and unbending mindset and my body reflected this rigidity. As I have connected to what my body truly needs by tenderly and lovingly listening to its many signals my body is beginning to let go of the hardness I had imposed. I still eat no dairy and have cut out sugar and gluten but these choices feel so different as they are from my body and not my mind. There is a softness emerging that is totally yummy.
Awesome Anne-Marie. Reading your reply makes me smile with the truth you share.
Hi Ann-Marie, thank you for sharing the stark difference between making food choices from a hard mindset as opposed to the love and tenderness of caring for yourself. They feel completely different and needs to be experienced first hand.
Too true Fiona, it’s nuts how ‘normal’ people feel sorry for you because you can’t eat cake and you don’t get bloated, fat, have a banging headache and a fuzzy head for the rest of the day isn’t it? Crazy world we live in! I stopped drinking caffeine easily ages ago and recently had a steamed soya milk from the cafe at work. The lady got confused and put a regular tea bag in. It only took maybe 2 sips through the froth to realise and for the rest of the day I just felt awful. The funny thing is that I knew coffee had that sort of effect but never thought tea did much. I then realised this is due to the fact that as a child I wasn’t given the choice and was made to drink tea from a pretty young age – guess that explains why I was such a “bad” little girl then… How it all makes sense! But the key thing as you say is to do what right for you, not Serge Benhayon, not anyone else, just you and adjust as what you need changes. Easy!
Rachael I agree completely. How often do people think that because I am not eating gluten, diary etc.. I am missing out. When I’m told this – i.e “you’re missing out” or “it must be so hard” I am somewhat confused as I find it really enjoyable and not an issue at all. The only time I feel I am missing out (and perhaps not normal) is when I crave some cake, biscuits etc. and whilst they would be gluten free if I had them I realise what I’m missing out from is the comfort that the food can bring. I may find other things to eat but it’s lovely to reflect on what exactly “missing out” means and what “normal” means! Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have provided a great reflection to me as do all the students of Universal Medicine.
I recently went on a holiday with all meals provided and got to experience what I am “missing out” on by not eating dairy and gluten. One day I woke up knowing I had eaten some gluten in the previous dinner. I felt very tender in my tummy and heavy and tired (and a bit grumpy!). Another day I woke up and my nose was all blocked up and felt tired and I knew I had eaten some dairy. Sleeping in and feeling tired in the morning, meant I missed out on all the fun stuff I do when I wake up early – doing some gentle exercise, going for a walk and feeling ready and energised for the day. I also noticed others miss out on the best of me when I do feel tired or dulled by food – so we all miss out.
I agree it is crazy how people feel sorry for us when we say we can’t or don’t eat cake and bread. I have had people say poor you, it must be hard to find things to eat, and when I say no I feel fine with what I eat they don’t really want to hear that and I can feel they are feeling what it would be like to give up their favourite foods. Since I have stopped eating things that contain gluten and dairy I can feel almost immediately if I have eaten something, I feel lethargic and get stomach pains and I can feel I do not have the clarity that I had before, and as Fiona said people are no longer getting the best of me. My body has always felt these things, it is just that before, I over rode it and chose to eat what I wanted rather than what my body was telling me.
Loved the article, Fiona and your message that the body never lies but continually tells us what it needs and what doesn’t sit well. This simple truth needs to be in the school curriculum.
Hi Cathy, it would be so supportive for our kids if they were presented with this simple truth and for parents too. I recently watched a friend struggle with her son having strong skin reactions to dairy and yet trying to find some way around this – to somehow build up his tolerance of dairy. Our actions really don’t make sense when they come from an ideal.
I have heard of other parents ‘building up’ their children’s tolerance of certain foods. It simply doesn’t make sense – to ignore the body’s natural way of communication and what it is telling us seems crazy.
Carmel this reminds me of my experience referred to as ‘developing my taste buds’. More truthfully known as over-riding my natural dislike for certain foods etc. It always occurred to me that I should have stayed with my first impulse and not pushed through to develop a taste for what was a popular or even a sophisticated food just because it was there.
Thank you for naming ‘developing our taste buds’ as another way that we override our body’s knowing of what it needs. That pull to fit in by eating the latest trend or sophisticated foods can be quite strong.
Great article Fiona and so true. My story with food is very similar to yours – from overweight, unhealthy vegetarian of 25 years standing and very proud of that too (I can relate to the arrogance Ariana mentioned) – to the vital, healthy meat-eating, gluten and dairy-free woman I am today. No special diet, just simply being honest about how foods feel in my body and then honouring that feeling.
Hi Lucy, I can feel how freeing your experience has been. We can only feel more full and complete in ourselves when we listen to and enjoy our bodies.
Thank you Fiona. Universal Medicine has never told me what to eat either, but after attending Universal Medicine events I just started to ask myself, “why don’t you eat meat?” I hadn’t eaten meat for 26 years at the time. I remember driving along, and answering that question with, “because it has given you an identity, a totally false one.” I pulled my car over there and then, and went straight into a cafe and had bacon and eggs. I enjoyed it so much. I had heard people say that it takes your body time to readjust to meat after not eating it, but like you my body had been saying very loudly that it wanted meat, and for me there was no adjustment, it just loved being fed what it needed at that time.
Hi Catherine, what a great story. Isn’t it amazing what we can discover when we allow ourselves to become honest and stop living from ideas of how we should. Thanks for sharing.
This article really resonated with me. It covers so many important aspects of diet. I too was vegetarian for years, overriding my body’s need for meat and overloading of my body with a mass of carb rich foods to compensate. I too also noticed an instant improvement in my energy levels on making the change. Sticking with foods that harm our body just for the taste or because of an ideal we hold is crazy when we stop and check in with ourselves and see what our bodies need. Great article Fiona, thanks.
Some people would not feel comfortable eating animals and I wonder sometimes if the choice comes from listening to the bodies or if the ideals and beliefs dictate not to eat? Great article and comments everyone, thank you.
Thank you Fiona; my experience is similar in that I also clung to vegetarianism way past its due by date as I had gotten so used to that way of eating and the comfort of an ideology and identification without ever checking whether it actually felt right in my body or not.
Hi Gabriele, I feel the word “clung” sums it up my stubbornness and arrogance beautifully. It doesn’t matter if it’s being a vegetarian, organic food, raw food etc – if it comes from an idea of what and how you should eat it will never be in line with what your body actually wants and needs.
I love your perspective on this Fiona, having claimed to be vegetarian (but not in fact being so as I also ate fish and from time to time duck or chicken!) I stuck to this. It gave me some form of identity and comfort and meant I could consider myself special and important. Not once however did i feel what my body wanted (and it certainly was not the chips, cheese and bread I ate so much of) but when I did, meat was certainly there and now I wonder what possessed me to hold onto that diet for so long. I know it started when i had a bad experience at School and was sick after being served some mince – but why hold on until my early 20’s! Great to reflect on what the body wants and needs.
Hi Ariana, When I look back it is the arrogance that makes me cringe too. There was the arrogance of being a vegetarian and feeling that somehow that made me a better person. However the biggest arrogance was the absolute disregard I treated my body with.
Thank you Fiona. Not only was I the arrogant vegetarian, but a yo-yo dieter all my life. Traditional diets never worked, always putting the weight back on, and more. It wasn’t until I discovered Universal Medicine that I realised that everyone’s body is different and if I listen to my body by feeling into what to eat and what not to eat, I feel lighter, less tired and have more energy. My weight has also stayed consistent, since I discovered that by really feeling into what I eat I know when to stop and what’s not good for my body.
Hi Sandra, dieting as we know it does seem to set us up for a roller coaster of weight loss and weight gain – mostly because it doesn’t deal with what we are feeling and why we are eating what we eat. We often hear terms like comfort food but don’t stop to look at why we need comforting. Similarly we use foods for a quick pick up of energy, things with salt, sugar or caffeine but don’t stop to address how we are living that is making us feel so tired. I found listening to my body and being more respectful of it helped to feel these things and gradually the need to eat those foods just fell away. I also did years of yoyo diets, but naturally lost weight when I cut out gluten and then more when I stopped eating dairy. It was effortless and simple by making my wellbeing the focus rather than my weight.
That is really the key, isn’t it – looking at why we need the comfort or why we are exhausted. I have refined my diet amazingly over the last nine years and now only eat ‘healthy wholefoods’ but I know that some of those foods, or the amount I eat, is not truly healthy for my body. I am learning to not beat myself up about it, because that only leads to rebellious overeating. Instead, I can say to myself, ‘Great – my body is craving something sweet/salty, or I’m binge-eating again – what is it I’m trying to not feel?’ I’m learning to appreciate that my body is talking to me all the time.
For example, this morning I’ve just eaten a mix of honey and almond paste, both healthy foods, gluten free, dairy-free . . . it tasted yummy . . . but now my head feels clogged. Part of me knew it wasn’t right, but I overrode that because my mouth craved the creamy feeling and sweet taste. I’d kept the honey in the cupboard ‘just in case’, and the almond butter was a new discovery in my local supermarket. I’d been avoiding buying peanut butter and recently gave up on tahini and this was just another substitute – but effectively it is the same. I can help myself by not buying them again but I also need to explore why I craved it in the first place, what was I avoiding feeling, why did I still need to eat creamy comfort food that is not truly nurturing?
If I cut foods out because I feel I ‘should’, experience has shown that I will simply binge on it later, whereas if I stop eating certain foods naturally, there is no desire to eat them again. Honouring how my body feels and what it truly needs for nourishment is definitely the way for me. It is an ongoing journey of self-discovery!
I agree Sandra. I yo-yo dieted for about 18 years before I discovered Universal Medicine and started to heal my hurts, now I’m at a consistent weight.
Thank you Fiona and everyone for your comments. What I Love and feel inspired by is the strength in which you say that “There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me.” It would be so empowering for everyone in the world to claim this statement.
Hi Shevon, I found it incredibly empowering to realise that my health and wellbeing are in my own hands. Often our trust and confidence in our bodies is gradually whittled away throughout our life, as we learn to trust our thoughts more than what we feel. This leaves us relying on professionals or the latest research. As with all science there is always more to discover (scientists were once laughed at for thinking the world wasn’t flat!). Yes, it would truly be a revolution if we all rediscovered listening to our body before looking outside for answers.
Hi Fiona, It is so simple when we listen to the one expert – our body, rather than trying to make sense of all the conflicting information out there. Some research and dietary info has some truth but our body knows the whole truth that is tailor made for us.
Well said, both Fionas. The nutrition/dietary info out there as you say can be confusing and sometimes contradictory, and also depends on what is ‘in’. As we know, companies often watch trends and then push products they think will sell. In my searches for the ‘right diet’ in the past, I never came across this beautifully simple message – to eat what feels right for your body.
I agree Fiona, to understand that the health and well being is in our own hands, it is our responsibility, changes everything. No more looking for someone else to fix us. No more giving our power away to those who think they know my body better that I do. No more being confused by the endless and confusing media releases that tell me what the latest super food is. My body can do all of that, and more!
I agree Shevon, the words “There is no greater expert on what’s best for me than me” resonated with me. All food advertising is designed for us to take advice from someone else about what we should or should not eat. When we take the time to listen to our own body it is constantly advertising to us what will best support us.
Hi Fiona,
Thank you for voicing this, it’s so true. I remember the time when my body called for meat and that too was when I felt it needed the strength that meat protein provides our bodies with. The cement stomach is also familiar! As my body refines what it needs and what it doesn’t, my stomach tells me loud and clear (though often I wish it would just turn a blind eye!).
But what I also found though was dairy was affecting my health too. I had a slight problem that I knew to be connected with eating dairy, it was nothing much but just a feeling that my eyes were too watery or that my nose was a little congested. This was when goat’s milk had just appeared on the supermarket shelves, so I stopped eating cow’s milk products and stuck to goat’s – which health professionals were saying was easier to digest. However the symptoms didn’t really improve. It wasn’t until I met Serge Benhayon and others at Universal Medicine events who had experienced huge benefits from not eating dairy, that I too decided to give it a go, and my body thanked me.
Thank you Fiona for sharing the wisdom of our bodies.
Hi Rosanna, The food we eat is something we need to constantly refine and the only way I have found to do this is to listen to my body. There is a minefield of information out there, much of it contradictory which can leave us floundering. We are often left doubting ourselves and what we feel because an expert or test results says that there isn’t a problem. As you found with dairy, the best way to know for sure is to remove the suspect food from your diet and if your body feels great – trust that.
That is so true Fiona, there is so much information out there and a lot of it contradictory to another so it really is for us to feel what our body is showing us and trust that.
So true Beverley, one example of this is the ‘Five a Day’, which is a complete myth, but how many have been caught up in counting our portions of fruit and vegetables just to conform to a belief that was not true in the first place. From always having a large bowl of fruit at home I have gone to eating the occasional apple, and it hasn’t done me any harm.
p.s. in fact on the rare occasion that I am tempted by fruit or sugar in the form of gluten and dairy free cake, it sends me to sleep anyway, so that IS my body talking to me, very loudly.
Susan it’s so true, it is about our body showing us what feels right and wrong. Everyone is at different stages, everyone’s food style is different too. So it is really truly about us getting to know our own bodies and connecting to what foods are supporting or what are not, at the time. As this process is forever evolving.
Yes Fiona, there is also much conflicting information available so we do really have to bring it back to our own body and choose what works for us. I know I did not realise just how adversely glutenous products affected me until I stopped eating them and found how much more vital I felt.
I agree Fiona and Rosanna, I have applied several changes in my diet using my mind and making rules where there were no rules presented by Serge Benhayon. I became depleted and very skinny because I still chose to neglect my body. I had to become honest of what I was doing with my body and how my mind was still the one who decided what to eat or not. Now I am re learning to listen to my body and to eat what I feel to eat and also when I eat to do this in a nourishing way, with me because I am worth taking care of.
Hi Rosanna, my body also showed me by way of sinusitis and rhinitis that I could not tolerate dairy. Since cutting out dairy, I have clear sinuses and nasal passages.
Great comment Rosanna. I too can so much relate to these. I too spent some months in a vegetarian diet and it did not last as my body was feeling weak until I realised that I needed the protein support from meat. My experience with dairy is similar to yours: I gradually went from cow’s milk to soy milk in an attempt to treat sinusitis, then to oat’s milk, coconut milk and nut’s milk. The way my body would react to dairy products was too to have congested nose and more recently, eye inflammation. I no longer have these in my diet and I feel the benefits of not having dairy, my body feels lighter and I haven’t had sinusitis for the past 4 years. Before, I used to have them every year, sometimes twice a year.
That was beautifully written Fiona. You are right, there is no greater expert than ourselves, feeling our bodies and responding. We know what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat. This truly is an honoring way to live our lives and be with foods.
Hi Leigh, Thank you for confirming what I had to find out the hard way. How great would it be if this was the norm, that we consulted our body first and foremost?
Leigh, so true, we know what to eat when to eat, if we just listen to our body. Our body tells us what is right for us at that time. It is forever evolving and changing.
This is so true Leigh, very simple and very true, ‘we know what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat’.
So true, very inspiring to read as I know I let my mind control my food intake and am learning to trust my body again.
Beautifully stated Leigh.
I agree Leigh, we can be told by all those in authoritative positions like doctors, nurses, dieticians about what we should or should not eat and when and how much to eat, but with the best will in the world they can only come from what they have learned. I am the one that lives with my body so if I am prepared to listen to what it is saying I will, as you say, be my greatest expert.
So true Tim, we live with our own bodies – and there is an authority that comes with that. Despite the best efforts of the medical profession, it was only when I tuned in to what my body also was clearly telling me, (that gluten was making me sick and exhausted), and chose to stop it, my health and vitality rocketed back after being AWOL for pretty much 20 years. So it’s worth it to listen.
This is so true Leigh, ‘We know what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat. This truly is an honoring way to live our lives and be with foods.’ When I listen to my body and stop eating when I get the feeling that I have had enough this feels very honouring and I don’t get a slump after eating, the messages from my body are very clear, it is just a case of choosing to listen to them.
You’re right Leigh,” there is no greater expert than ourselves…” – and despite all the different fads and diets, and slimming products and books out there, none of them truly work in the long term. Keeping our diet simple, and honouring our bodies works. Giving up gluten, dairy and sugar, caffeine and alcohol has not been a chore for me, it just feels like a natural, simple way to eat, going back to basics. This is a constant ongoing process, and the more I listen to my body the more I can refine my diet to what my body truly needs.
Leigh you are spot on. Our amazing bodies know exactly what they need if we just stop and listen with love and support. Awesome.
Beautifully said Leigh. We do indeed know what to eat, when and how much. It is so wonderful to connect to this and move away from the auto pilot way of consuming food just because we are hungry. Feeling the foods that truly supports our body feels so honouring and considerate to our amazing body that supports and loves us in countless ways.
I agree Leigh , its all about how our body is with the foods we eat and how that affects the way we live and interact with others. Thank you Fiona for sharing your great insight.
I couldn’t agree more Fiona and Leigh. We do know, and have known all our lives what food our bodies really want, but we are so often forced to eat things we don’t like or want because we are led to believe that “this food is good for you’.
I know I have done this in the past and overridden what my body is telling me by eating something I knew I shouldn’t, and ended up feeling sick or tired or both! I now listen much more carelfully to my body and it tells me very quickly if I shouldn’t eat something, even sometimes before Ive eaten it!
Leigh I agree, we know when to eat what to eat, our bodies tell us clearly when there are some foods no longer supporting us. I know I have given foods up and then after some period had to go back. It might have been for the wrong reasons I gave up and then when I have really felt into how they truly made me feel it has been easier to let them go. There is no right and wrong, our body tells us load and clear.
Spot on Leigh Strack. We can come up with a million and one excuses to why we need to eat particular foods or why we ate certain foods in a bid to bury what is truly going on. But the body speaks volumes and lets us know loud and clear what is healing and what is harming!
Thanks Fiona, so simple and clear… just like our body’s intuitive voice that speaks from a place of knowing!! I can truly relate to denying my body that true voice in favour or should I say “flavour” of an ideal/belief that dulls the body and deafens the voice of intuition… and yes Serge Benhayon has a very gentle and loving way of allowing us all the space to feel what is right for US individually… and when I allow that space for myself I can feel, hear and honour the strength of my body’s own voice.
In Appreciation of the beauty-full simplicity, Chrissy.
Hi Chrissy, Thank you for your reply. Life has become so simple since I started listening to my body rather than telling it how it should be and feel! It is amazing how we can use food to numb or overstimulate the body so it can no longer be heard. We think we are so clever and yet as in my case it catches up with you in the end. My body had to shout to get noticed, whereas now it can gently guide me.
This is so true Fiona, that the body catches up with you in the end. I was a vegetarian for almost 30 years, never, ever considering that I would want to eat meat again. When I found Universal Medicine my body starting to crave meat. It wasn’t that I was told what to do, I feel that my body just started to shout louder, telling me what was actually good for it, and not what I “thought” was good for it. Apart from always feeling that I wasn’t eating enough protein, being a vegetarian lead to constant anaemia too, and once I started eating meat I no longer suffered from anaemia and had no further need for iron supplements which didn’t suit me either.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Universal Medicine supports us to start listening to and respecting our body and the rest unfolds from there. Coming from a vegetarian ideal as I did, was like putting a silencer on my body. Somehow I convinced myself at the time that the anaemia and depletion were a normal part of being a mum with a baby or something I had to put up with to stay true to my ideals.
There are so many ideals and beliefs around food, and I’ve been caught in all of them, counting calories until became bored with myself, nothing worked though, until I cut out dairy, gluten, caffeine, alcohol and sugar. My weight stabilised and now I constantly look at what I am eating and feel into what is good for ME and not follow any of the faddy diets that seem to abound everywhere, because it has been my experience they never work anyway.
I have had this experience too Fiona. I never got caught up in diets, even though I was overweight, but I did ignore the messages my body was giving me. I used to feel quite ill after eating dairy products especially, but Id been brought up on a diet of full fat milk, butter and cream so for me that was just normal. It’s not until I was presented with the possibility that these foods may actually be making me feel unwell, that I started to listen to my body more and more, and gradually I cut them out of my diet. Not because Id been told to but because it felt right for me. And this is the key – it’s not about what others think but what is right for our individual bodies.
I love your comment Chrissy ” I can truly relate to denying my body that true voice in favour or should I say “flavour” of an ideal/belief that dulls the body and deafens the voice of intuition” – I can also relate
I totally relate to this line. For many years I have denyed any voice to my body and have had many D Days! I am now listening and feeling how I feel so depleted by my dulling behaviour with food. I know that it’s going to take time to build but this is cool as long as I trust the process, listen to the different needs it has and change the foods it requires, and not try to hurry up the process just because I don’t want to face the facts of choosing to ignore it in the first place for so long. It’s a process that can be done with much love and acceptance.
I was a vegetarian for most of my life, it wasn’t until Universal Medicine that I naturally started to crave meat, and I totally surprised myself because I never thought I would want it again. Despite the fact I was constantly anaemic on my vegetarian diet, and often bloated, I ignored my body. I was always putting on weight too. Since starting to eat meat and fish again my weight has stabilised for the first time in my life and I am not anaemic any more. My diet is far more imaginative that it was before, I eat less and I take more care in preparing my meals, and all of this is my choice and not something that I have been told to do. I used to only eat half an avocado and limit my egg consumption because I thought they would make me fat, now I eat more eggs than ever before and I dare eat a whole avocado at once!
Yes, diets can be pretty crazy. I was a vegetarian in my 20s and once got quite sick. As part of the recovery I got a huge desire for a steak and I went and ate a steak and it really helped my body. However, It created such an intense guilt that I didn’t do it again even though my body clearly needed a lot more meat.
But now I have learnt to eat what truly feels right for my body – not that empty craving for another cup of coffee that leaves you feeling worse but the kind of food and quantity of food that feels right.
I have aways loved meat and have notice since I began adhering to how my body wants to eat that I enjoy veggies more than ever, especially greens.
Gosh this sentence is just something i feel we can all related to ” I can truly relate to denying my body that true voice in favour or should I say “flavour” of an ideal/belief that dulls the body and deafens the voice of intuition.” I certainly can. dulling the body with food choices, to deafen our voice of intuition is just gold. It is so true. So why is the desire there to deafen what our body is telling us? Are we afraid of actually feel just how amazing we truly are? Are we more afraid that what we all bring to the world is so much grander than we could ever imagine, so its just easy to not go there an feel that!! I think the answer could be….yes!!
A diet of fish, vegetables and avocados sounds very confirming to me Mary, maybe because they are pretty much what my diet consists of too, that and a few eggs and lamb from time to time. I certainly don’t feel like I am depriving myself in any way because with the help of herbs and spices simple foods are quite delicious! Cutting out dairy, gluten and sugar is the best thing I have ever done for my body, and the best way to describe how I look is that someone said to recently… “maybe that is why you look to cleansed…!” 🙂