You are what you EAT!

Some days do you ever feel like you just cannot find the motivation to do anything?! It takes all your will power to drag yourself out of bed in the morning then you spend the whole day half-heartedly attempting tasks, avoiding the ones that you’ve been putting off for weeks already and generally just shuffling paper around until you can justify another coffee break. You leave at the end of the day with a to-do list that is twice as long as when you started and you’re already dreading tomorrow. Perhaps this only happens to me, although I am pretty certain it doesn’t, but it just leaves you feeling even more unmotivated and weary.

I have often heard that feeling drained, tired, unmotivated and lethargic can so often be connected to how good your diet is. Not that I profess to be a nutritionist or anything but there is definitely something in that. I found myself feeling like this recently and so I looked back over the last few weeks at what I’d eaten and got up to. I do have times when I go through major junk food phases (not wanting to sound like I having eating problems or anything) and I’ll easily snack on crisps, biscuits, sweets, chocolate bars and a number of glasses of lemonade – basically anything that is easy and instant. Being a student could be my excuse – I don’t always have the time, energy or money to cook proper meals every day – but in reality I know it’s often down to laziness. But I feel the effects of it; I have less energy, I am tired more easily, more receptive to colds, my skin looks duller and often I’m hungry most of the time.

It got me thinking on how if eating unhealthy and not looking after my physical body has these effects then the same can be said spiritually. I know this isn’t anything new, but perhaps I am just realising it again, but what we put in is what comes out. I begin to think about different situations in life; why I reacted the way I did, why I said what I said, the way I responded to things – and find myself thinking ‘where is all this coming?!’ but how can I expect anything good to come from within when I’ve been snacking so unhealthily.

I realised that although I pray, sometimes, and read my bible, occasionally, and worship, usually just on Sundays – I just wanted instant, quick hunger satisfaction. My spirit was hungry for more and I was trying to survive on snacks – instead of healthy nutrition filled meals. I could make excuses like my life is so busy, it’s hard to find the right time, but in reality I know ‘it’s often just down to laziness’.

Unlike my body when I have not been eating well, I can see how it is affected and I feel the effects – it’s easier for an unhealthy spirit to go unnoticed. As much as my body needs it’s ‘five a day’ and has to have a good balanced diet to work at its best – so does my spirit need wholesome and nourishing food to work at its best. Just as quick as I am about changing my eating habits, I need to be about changing my spiritual ones.

So ask yourself; how healthy is your diet? And what do you really need to be feasting on?