I've been starting the day with a peanut butter sandwich on really good locally-baked multigrain bread.
I get the protein in, and it's the original comfort food, so it seems to send my brain a "welcome" message.
I'm going to get some natural health food store peanut butter today. Mmmm.
And more good bread.
And club soda so I can make my cranberry spritzer.
I noticed you said "put in" some food at regular intervals, CH...that was striking. Made me feel how you might feel disconnected from your body, not having joy or pleasure in it.
I wish you self-love, nourishment, the permission to delight in flavor and in nurturing your precious flesh.
hugs
Hops
Hi Hops,
Oh my, no... thank you for your concern, but it's not that I feel disconnected from my body.
This is a deliberate choice, on my part, to disconnect - to a point - for a specific purpose.
I'll try to explain...
First off, I am most definitely able to experience joy and pleasure in my body, with regard to all things... taste, touch, scent, beholding the beauty around me, listening to music - and the birdsong - and the sounds of laughter when my children play...
In fact, over the past 3 years, each of those senses has re-awakened and become heightened to a greater degree.
I attribute all of that to the sense of security, love, gentleness, and safety with which God and my husband both have surrounded me since the days of ex-N.
Until these senses began to spring to new life, I had no idea how very much they'd shut down during my years with him.
Anyhow, still - on a daily basis - I'm struck with the amount of pleasure and enjoyment there is in just the simplest experiences!
But specifically regarding food - while with N and for some time afterward, I had lost alot of ground in this area particularly, due to a # of factors, I think.
One big factor was my drinking, which I quit 2 years ago now, thank God.
So it's not even so much that I didn't enjoy eating, but that eating had been squeezed out of my daily routine for so long that it seemed irrelevant.
Took me awhile to recognize just how harmful that was to me, but my body was so tuned to consuming liquids that I had to teach it to accept normal foods again. I had to make food relevant, but my body could still drink coffee all day long and go without sustenance.
So - this business of "putting some food in" at regular intervals was a matter of choice - to recognize that my body is fundamentally a machine which requires food. I didn't need to pamper my flesh, I needed to discipline it.
You see, I couldn't count on my body to know when it needed to eat... and because of my enjoyment of the "wrong" foods, I couldn't count on my body or mind to tell me what I should eat.
I mean, I could live on cheese, chocolate, and ice cream, and that would hardly be conducive to good health - lol. Yet, that's what I enjoy.
It was necessary for me to disconnect from being led by my desires so that I could be master over my body and not vice versa.
By the way, I enjoy Jif peanut butter on toasted whole grain bread... and soda water with cranberry juice is one I'll have to try.
Many thanks again for caring, Hops
With love,
Hope