Not in regard to food. I never could make myself throw up. I'm not talking about that kind of purging.
I'm a binge-er when it comes to food. You already know this...
But I'm a purger of stuff.
I have a lot of stuff and when I feel overwhelmed it's easy for me to do away with it because it's just stuff and since having a son pass away, I'm not attached to things, so chucking stuff kind of rocks...because, like I said, it's stuff.
We definitely place value on stuff, but we can't take stuff with us to Heaven. Even though we can enjoy it here on Earth and it can often serve a purpose, too much stuff can be a trigger for overwhelm. At least for me.
So, as the research geek that I am, I usually have stacks of books here and there either on my desk or next to my bed on a few topics. And all of the research is good and fascinating. But I've read a boat load of books about health, nutrition, natural foods and healing, allergens, auto-immune diseases, juicing, cleansing, etc, etc.
And it occurred to me yesterday as I looked at the 5 books I had just grabbed from the library that there really isn't enough time in a day or week or even month to, ironically, digest everything in those books...and for the most part, I've read them or something similar already at some point over the last 20ish years.
So I know what they're going to say:
"Eat as closely to the way God made food in the first place."
It's basic. It's simple. It's truth.
What does that mean? Instead of apple pie choose apple sauce, but instead of apple sauce, choose an apple.
If we were to eat food the way God made it, mostly raw fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, some fish and lean meats, we'd be really, really, really healthy people.
And when I do eat that way, I feel fantastic.
So, I took every book back to the library. I purged my book shelf of all the random books there collecting dust that "I'll read one day...", I deleted ALL the food blogs I had bookmarked on my computer, and that's just the beginning.
You see, I think that when we learn we have a food sensitivity or allergy or are needing to scale back because the scale is telling us something, we tend to fight it. At least I did. I used to. I would search the Internet then for recipes of what I could eat. What are alternatives to chocolate chip cookies or brownies or cakes or other pastries that are: gluten free, egg free, dairy free, low or no refined sugar, low carb, yada, yada, blah, blah.
And the truth is: When I eat clean, whole foods, I crave clean whole foods. And, when I eat high fat, sugary recipes I crave those things.
Symbolically purging all those books and blogs out of my life and literally looking up Scriptures that have to do with: Filling, Satisfaction, Food, Health, Nourishment, Jesus being Living Water...well, let's just say it helps me to get back to simpler things, like allowing God to fill me instead of a pan of carbs.
This simplifying or purging isn't just happening in my way of eating. I'm de-cluttering my life this Lenten season.
I need to be free to be me. And that freedom will continue to come as I get back to a more simple way of living.
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