28 Days of Abstinence - Day 24 - Get passionate!

-


"When one is passionate about a pursuit, one doesn't have to rely on forced discipline." --Susan Vreeland

As this challenge goes on I am uncovering more and more things that I need to abstain from. Somehow by letting go of wheat, I have come to realize that I also need to cut down on/cut out sugar and corn.

Just typing that makes me feel a little bit hopeless. I want to whine at The Universe, "Haven't I given up enough?!" But the answer, clearly, is "No." 

Not even for any spiritual reasons. (I didn't give up wheat for spiritual reasons, although I believe the process of abstaining from anything can be spiritual practice.) Somehow by abstaining from wheat I have been able to notice more clearly how my body reacts to sugar and corn - and the results are not good.

Although the reaction is not as strong as my reaction to the Pop Tarts I ate before I began the challenge, I do feel unwell after eating sugar and corn. Do I like this? No! Not one bit. But I have to accept that as my body ages, and as I become more conscious and aware of my body through meditation and spiritual practice, I can no longer ignore these unwell feelings. Rather I have to listen to them and make choices accordingly. Which brings me to PASSION. 

As I see it I have two choices: 1) resist the truth that is being revealed and whine about it or 2) accept the reality of my body as it is in this moment and get passionate about eating well for that body. Not the body I used to have or the body I wish I had, but the body I actually have right now. 

And I believe that this is a choice. Not an easy one perhaps, but a choice nonetheless. I can choose to hate and resist this process (and probably not make as much progress toward optimal health) OR I can get passionate about the foods that are good for me. And I have found that that is getting easier the longer I go without wheat. 

I am enjoying carrots and spinach smoothies and apples so much more than I have in the past. In the past I would eat them because they were good for me, but I am beginning to get passionate about the crunch of an organic carrot, the life I can taste in a green smoothie and the juice in a really good apple. And it is this passion - the same passion I once had for croissants and salted rosemary bread - that can make abstinence a joy instead of a chore. A pursuit instead of a forced discipline.

What about you? What is your abstinence challenge revealing to you? What do you want to get PASSIONATE about?

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 14, 2016 at 2:55 PM

    Lara, you nailed this issue in one succinct page. Nicely done!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lara simmonsApril 19, 2016 at 1:21 PM

      Thanks Cat! I really appreciate that you are following along and your comments!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wisdom from Raul Julia

-
"...[L]ife itself is a meditation."  --Raul Julia I have always loved Raul Julia, since I first saw him as the sensitive married man having sexual tension with Susan Sarandon while solving a murder in "Compromising Positions" (the cast of which also included the always entertaining Judith Ivey - I love her voice and demeanor so much I think I could watch her in anything). He went on to play defense attorney Sandy Stern in "Presumed Innocent" and of course the beloved patriarch Gomez Addams in "The Addams Family."  His was one the first celebrity deaths - in 1994 - to really effect me. He always seemed to have an undefinably quiet strength and grace. I get it now - he saw his life as a meditation - and that makes all the difference.  I hope someday to be remembered for my quiet grace and thanks to Raul I have one more clue about how to do that. Thanks Raul. For everything.
Read more

Quote of the Week - May 21, 2012 - What happens for one...

-
“On this earth we are connected one to another....to another....to another....to another...to another....to another....to another...such that whatever happens to one of happens to all of us.” -- Anna Grossnickle Hines from her book, "Peaceful Pieces" This is a poem called "Dominoes" that my younger son's class read last week on Friday for " Poetry Aloud ." They read it together as a class, one child starting and each child in turn saying "to another," "to another," "to another..." As I listened, the poem came alive for me. The idea of the poem came alive for me. I saw once again that we are all connected, we are all One and that whatever happens for one of us happens to all of us. Did you notice the Freudian slip there? I wrote, "whatever happens for one of us happens to all of us,"  when what I meant to write was, "whatever happens to one of us happens to all of us." But both are equally tr
Read more

28 Days of Kindness: Day 25

-
Every generation is a life-and-death struggle between wisdom and ignorance,  and there is no guarantees wisdom is going to win.  We have to try to be as human as we can be,  and as kind as we can be, and detach from our need for results.  -- Peter Coyote  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ Be as human as you can be. Practice kindness. 28 Days of Kindness .
Read more