Food Magic and Intuitive Eating - working with Krystle L. Jordan's 'The Witch's Guide to Wellness', Part 3

 Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

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I'm finding I'm needing to blend the reading of Krystle's book with the work I am doing in both her courses - the Vegan Witch Academy and Holistic Wellness for the Magical Soul.  They all intertwine so nicely. And the reasons for trying to get everything into order and flow are best looked at, for me, by paying close attention to the worksheets and journalling prompts she provides in her courses.

For the purposes of her book here, I am referring to chapter 3, Magic for Physical Wellness; and for the source of the questions I'm going to answer, it's a worksheet in Module 1 of the Holistic Wellness for the Magical Soul course, about Physical Wellness and the paramount importance of food to that.

Like most people, I've become more and more aware of how much crap is in my diet - just how much processed and ultra processed food I eat.  I don't eat meat, and I have almost eliminated dairy; but from the aches, pains, arthritis and migraines I get (despite one of my jobs being very active, so this isn't a sedentary problem), there's clearly more I can do to help myself on the eating better front.

It gets slightly complicated by my being about 4.5 stones overweight, because of a rapacious emotional eating habit: I both reward and punish myself with food, which is more common than people would like to admit, but...its messed up and I'd like to be able to move away from that.  To regard myself better and see myself as worthy of good treatment, and good nutrition.

In the lesson about the energy of food, Krystle talks about intuitive eating, the importance of differentiating between actually being hungry and just wanting to eat (to fill a different, often unlooked at or unspoken in my own case, need).  The importance of trusting your body to tell you what it needs.  

For instance, yesterday was Christmas Day, and I ate a whole lot of total crap...all day.  I grazed my way though lots of chocolate, most of a bag of festive nuts (waaaay too many to be reasonable!), several packets of crisps, a whole mini panettone, one very decent Christmas dinner, then a litre of very scrummy vegan pecan praline caramel icecream.  Partly because Christmas dinner itself wasn't happening.  This happens a lot of years but I always forget.  Everyone is overworked before Christmas, so when the little time off comes, we find we actually don't have the energy or real want to create a big fancy dinner.  My youngest is 13 now, and quite moody - he wasn't feeling festive, so the impetus to do it for him was semi removed. So I made a smaller Christmas dinner, a bit resentfully; my partner usually does it, but he was wiped out as became obvious from the many hours of not starting and 'I'll be there in a minute'-ness occurring.  Loads of lovely veggies; 2 rather fat feta and butternut squash pie thingies (Higgidy, very nice), and some parmentier potatoes (too much butter, but yum).  Before the dinner, I was feeling very blah and full of processed potatoes and sugar.  Almost brainless and heavy, fatigued.  Behold, after the actual veggies, I perked up within 45 minutes; only to take myself down again by eating too much icecream after a very typical festive disagreement with the men in the household about what to watch on TV.  (Answer: no one watches anything much after everyone strops/slinks/sulks away muttering. Ho hum.)

So had I listened to my body, and stopped trying to tranquilise it with rubbish that made me want to eat yet more rubbish, I may have felt more calmly able to handle the silly 'every year we have this conversation' disagreement. Instead of almost asleep, feeling bullish anyway, and noting I had properly swelled my stomach out from the constant grazing and felt getting up was ungainly, undignified and almost impossible!  The orange and green things helped (that's carrots and broccolli) and the yellow and brown things (icecream, crisps, chocolate) didn't!  

I know Christmas can be a trigger for many - the I'm supposed to be happy/supposed to want to be with family/supposed to be social/supposed to be grateful and agreeable despite any actual feelings can be a perfect storm for overeating and/or drinking, or diving into work or obsessive doing of something else, so I'm not alone here. That cognitive dissonance between how we're shown Christmas is supposed to be, and how it then is can be very jarring.  I used to really love Christmas (there was a whole post on my other blog about it, but I'm damned if I can find it amongst the everything else), but I've started to feel the pressure of it, and I seem to deal with this pressure by eating.  I forget who it was who said, "you're never going to wake up the next morning and think, shit, I didn't eat a family size bar of Galaxy yesterday - bollox!"  The opposite.  But I tend to have a food hangover after almost any occasion (or any strong emotion!).  Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't, or didn't so often, because I'd managed to actually listen to what my body told me - instead of my mind, which can be vastly misleading?

So it's bearing all this in mind that I answer the worksheet questions:

Have you ever included magic into your kitchen practices before this?

I've read tons of kitchen witch and correspondences books, made the odd recipe; stirred clockwise for increase in emotions or some other quality, stirred anticlockwise (widdershins) for decrease in an emotion or quality/energy.  I've not been consistent or focussed on it for many meals.  I'm not hugely fond of ccoking because I hate that I'm expected to on many occasions; it makes me annoyed and resentful.  I enjoy when I choose to cook, but chafe when feeling obligated.  There is of course, the simple mind switch I could try of being happy that it's me to do it, as here I am doing it therefore I can be present enough to think of the qualities of the food - the pure nutrition of vitamins and minerals, as well as the magical layer of what each food represents.

Do you feel connected to yourself and nourishment needs enough to practice mindful and intuitive nourishment?

I'm not sure.  I usually know when I'm eating not optimally, and I usually know if I'm doing it as punishment or reward.  Often I'm reluctant to think about it.  But deciding to not be spiritual about it at all, I could simply remind myself that its also uneconomic to binge and eat ultra processed foods - they may be very convenient but they cost a lot.  I'm always trying to think of ways to not waste time as well as slow down my racing mind, and embracing cooking for health, often from scratch, is a way to acheive both aims.  I'll hopefully spend less money, be calmly preparing foods while thinking of their good qualities, and then eating for joy of nutrition.

I've just put a tray bake on - I love a tray bake - there's the slicing prep, then you ignore it for 30 minutes while it bakes at 200 degrees, turn everything over and ignore it again for another 30 minutes at the same temperature, knowing its slow cooking its way to veggie loveliness.  In it I put:

= 2 huge courgettes, sliced thinly (earthy, feminine, an increase in calm; as well as anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory)

= 2 large potatoes, sliced thinly (grounding excess energy, healing - another earthy feminine veggie; as well as lots of Vit C, potassium and antioxidants)

= lots of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half (love, passion, creativity, sacred to Aphrodite; calcium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium)

= Thyme - liberal spinkles (healing mental and physical, willpower, courage; antibacterial, antifungal - good for coughs)

= Oregano, liberal sprinkles (love, family, happiness;  anti inflammatory, antiviral, antifungal)

= Lemon juice and a whole lemon sliced (moon calm, uplifting, protection, friendship; iron, potassium, B6, Vits A and C)

= Quorn cocktail sausages, lots (no clue what the magical associations for this would be; though high in protein and fibre, low in saturated fat)

= Olive oil, just smidges, sprayed over  - the lemon is the real liquid its cooking in (passion, healing, peace, protection, sacred to the sun; anti lots of things in moderation, also a neuroprotective according to some studies)

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Well - I listened to my body with that combination of ingredients, and its smelling amazing now...be ready soon.  Even if I only managed to be this awake to my bodies needs one meal a day to begin with - it would be better than nothing.  Krystle notes its good to let go of the idea of 'perfect eating' and just do your best with who you are and what you have at the time.  Lots of small steps you build on over time.

What about this lesson has you feeling the most excited to move forward in this journey?

Actually paying attention while I cook, instead of being phased out and on my phone or worrying about something.  The idea that these simple acts of concentrating on the correspondences for the foods and bringing them to mind is just one small way to take in food more mindfully, and care for myself better.

Are you feeling confident in your ability to try out more intuitive eating and creating magical meals?

I'm confident that I'll try! 

A book that will also be very handy to help here, especially for UK folks, is Rachel Patterson's A Kitchen Witch's World of Magical Food (Moon Books, 2014) - loads of stories, correspondences and associations for all manner of fruit, veggies, herbs, oils, cooked dishes (even sausages get a mention - a very male energy!).

I think the fact I actually got up and started cooking while re-reading the lesson and writing this is a good sign.  I'm going to go and eat now, so I'll see you again for part 4!