I planted several cilantro seeds when we moved into this house a few years ago. A small few sprouted, but none of them survived. I planted more. Silence from the dirt.
Time went by and I planted more cilantro seeds. Still nothing.
Then winter hit… lots of gray sky and rain… the opposite of what I thought cilantro would want. I noticed a few weeds growing in this bin and went to pull them.
Growing among the weeds, I found my little cilantro friend!
Immediately I saw the metaphor. I’ve been planting a lot of seeds for myself the last few years… and while I’ve grown and made lots of progress, my seeds haven’t taken on their own life.
This little sprout has a two fold message for me:
You never know when life is going to surprise you with exactly what you’ve been working toward. Gifts can sprout up out of the dirt even after I’ve given up on the project or strategy delivering.
Maybe I would have had more success if I had researched growing cilantro in Hawaii more thoroughly. Maybe I’ve been stunting my opportunities for growth by taking a fast and less efficient route..
This reminds me of working with my clients…. We all have goals that we want to find the magic - overnight answer for. But if you’re betting on magic, you have to wait for magic’s timing.
If you’re willing to do some research and map out a plan of action, there’s far more likelihood of little dreams sprouting up.
Let’s take weight loss as an example. If you want to lose weight, many people start with what media has taught us are the two fastest ways to lose weight:
Reduce calories.
Exercise more.
Unfortunately this strategy rarely pays off in the long run. The body needs nutrients, so calorie reduction only makes the body stressed out until it reaches a breaking point and gives you ALL THE MOTHERLOVING CRAVINGS! That’s when my clients blame themselves for falling off the wagon and eating something considered unhealthy… and potentially dropping into full binge mode.
Similarly, exercising more will often make people hungrier. The body is used to maintaining a set point, so if you burn extra calories, but you don’t change your relationship with food, you’ll eat more food, and they will be less likely to be aligned with the body’s genuine cravings.
What do I mean by genuine cravings?
We all know about cravings, but the general conversation around them is that cravings are evil little devils that have come to murder your dreams of being thin enough.
The body craves what it needs: fat, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, and minerals.
It’s the body’s job to tell you what it needs. It’s your job to train your mind and your tastebuds to desire unprocessed, whole, and properly sourced foods.
If you never take the time to learn about proper nutrition, then you’re a slave to the processed food cycle that goes something like this:
Eat too much of nutrient void foods that cause damage to the digestive tract.
Feel bloated rather than satiated. (I didn’t know the difference until I healed my gut at age 23.)
Suffer digestive upset.
Stress to body’s digestive system.
Stress to all the body’s systems as they cannot get what they need if food is void of nutrients and digestion is poor.
Stress to the mind as you blame your own will power for failing you, when it’s really a whole system and environmental failure that probably started in childhood.
Cravings aren’t causing this cycle. Lack of proper education on nutrition and physiology in the general public is causing this cycle.
What do you do?
Learn about proper nutrition, and map out a plan to slowly shift your diet (eating style) to something unprocessed and nutrient dense. As you teach your mind and tongue to accept a new reality, over time you’ll find yourself ready to focus on more involved changes like healing the gut.
This process takes more than one choice one day.
When I first decided to make a shift in my eating style - I gave up dairy when I was 19 - I knew I couldn’t just quit cold turkey, so I experimented with it until I was certain it was giving me negative symptoms. Then I set the intention to quit dairy over the course of a year. I mapped out my plan, and I gave up dairy one food at a time… Until one final day when I took my last bite of an old fashioned donut, immediately hit an energetic brick wall, and said to myself, “Yep, last time I do that.” And it was.
It’s not about the quick fix. Aligning yourself with sustainable, good health or weight loss (the two are not always connected btw), requires a long game mindset and a long game plan. - Similar to my cilantro situation. ;)
That’s why I developed my Love Your Body Now course. It’s designed to align you mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically with long term changes so you can learn to tap into your own intuitive intelligence. Learning to identify the nutrient dense foods your body is craving will change your entire life… and the days that you want to indulge in a less nutrient dense food - you’ll have developed so much trust in your body and your mind, that it won’t be an event that generates fear and anxiety.
You can have a beautiful, symbiotic friendship with your body, and I’m here to guide you on that path. Please reach out with any questions. You can sign up for a FREE breakthrough call here. I love these calls because it give me a chance to get to know you better, as well as answer questions you have about my course and coaching style.
Thanks for reading! Talk soon!
Learn anything new? Leave me a comment letting me know what you appreciated!