What would you FEED your ‘child self’?

If you were to walk around daily with the little, vulnerable child version of you…

What WORDS would you feed yourself?

What IMAGES would you feed yourself?

What FOOD would you feed yourself?

Would you tell the child version of you that they were FAT and didn’t deserve chocolate?

If your CHILD VERSION of you, was tired and hungry would you STARVE IT?

If your CHILD VERSION of you was full to the point of being SICK, would you keep on feeding it?

How would you look after the CHILD VERSION of yourself?

When I was eight years old, I quit SUGAR. 

On a family holiday to Scotland to visit my grandparents, I decided I was chubby.

Unlike the slim, attractive, ‘normal’ girls in my class who weren’t bullied, I was CHUBBY and ODD.

So I decided in order to remedy myself of my WEIRDNESS, I would quit sugar.

I refused to have anything with sugar in my diet.

I didn’t drink any fruit squash in my water.

No fruit.

No sweets.

No honey.

No chocolate.

And you know what happened?

I made myself really SICK.

Quelle surprise!

I vomited.

In a small fishing town in the Highlands of Scotland, I VOMMMMITEEDDDD all over the pavement outside the POST OFFICE.

A tiny little English girl leaving her vomitty souvenir on the pavements of Scotland.

I had no energy.

Whilst my brother and my cousins went and saw the Solar Eclipse
(This actually happened. I’m not confusing science fiction with reality. Or am I?),

I was on my grandparents sofa vomiting into a bucket.

My warped 8 year old brain just made my body really ill.

Then again when I was 10. I became a vegetarian.

Not for ethical reasons. But purely because I wanted to lose weight.

I wanted to be ‘normal’.

I wanted to be accepted.

I couldn’t change who I was fundamentally.

So I had to change my body.

Meat, in my mind, became EVIL.

Just like SUGAR had.

And because they were EVIL, I had to try and make myself GOOD.

BREAKING NEWS…

NO FOODS ARE EVIL!

I really and TRULY believe the moment we start DEMONISING food, is the moment that we teach ourselves how to ABUSE it.

How to punish ourselves with it.

How to starve ourselves.

How to overfeed ourselves.

Your body requires a lot of things to in order to sustain energy and health.

It’s like a car. If you said to yourself

‘No, no! No petrol for you today, car!’

or

‘Let’s fill the car with so much petrol it EXPLODES!’

That quite frankly would be RIDICULOUS!

So why treat your BODY any differently?

Our bodies are naturally designed to digest and run on sugar, carbohydrates, fat, protein, meat, dairy, gluten etc….

We need these things in order to survive and function.

I am intollerant to lactose so CANNOT have it in my diet.

I have also chosen to be vegan/ plant based.

I LOVEEEEE MEAT however I made this decision as a conscious choice based on the effect the dairy and meat industry has on the environment.

I would never FORCE anyone else to adopt my eating habits.

And I proactively make sure I am getting enough protein each day.

(And if you see how much nut butter and vegan burgers I eat – you can see I am NOT LACKING)

As someone who suffered badly with anorexia and orthorexia, it really PAINS me when I see friends and loved ones BUYING into ‘fat free’, ‘sugar free’ or ‘carb free’ diets.

Not only because CARBS, FATS and SUGAR are in my opinion …

HELLA TASTY!

But also because they are A GIFT TO OUR BODIES AND MOUTHS.

Excluding anything from your diet has an AFTER EFFECT.

Your body craves its.

Craves more FOOD because your BODY NEEDS IT!

It infuriated me that every single weekend I was ravenous wanting chocolate, ice cream, pizza, meat and EVERY FOOD ITEM in sight.

I saw my mental health recovery worker recently and he said to me

‘It’s because you don’t eat enough during the week’

He said it so simply.

So matter of fact-ly.

But something clicked in my brain.

I ALWAYS thought it was a mental thing. That something was wrong with my brain.

Now either ….

I am a full on IDIOT or….

now I am realising that after years of running on very low mental and physical energy and constantly suffering with mental health that I….. have had ENOUGH!

I’ve started to listen to my body more.

And check in when I am hungry or wanting comfort or am thirsty.

And when I am hungry, I eat.

My body needs the energy.

I am no LONGER banning foods during the week and treating myself on weekends.

And HONESTLY, this has only been a CHOICE I have made VERY RECENTLY.

Because I’ve had enough.

You only have ONE LIFE.

What a WASTE of a life it will be if we don’t LISTEN to

Our stomachs

Our hearts

Our gut instinct.

Listen to the little child version of you – what does it NEED today?

What I needed on Friday was SALTED CARAMEL!

I have been squirreling away developing a NOT SO SECRET SALTED CARAMEL.

It’s VEGAN.

It’s only 4 INGREDIENTS!

And it’s REFINED SUGAR FREE.

Now, one thing I will say on SUGAR, is I limit my REFINED SUGAR intake.

Refined sugar is like DRUGS for your body.

It’s addictive and makes your body turn into Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory screaming ‘I WANT THE WORLD! I WANT THE WHOLLLEEE WORLD!’

I’m not saying ban it.

Sweet Jesus it’s good – don’t do that!

But be conscious of your intake.

Look at your options of unrefined sugar.

Coconut sugar. Maple syrup. Honey. Dates. Dried fruit. Fruits in general. Date syrup. Rice syrup. Carob.

SALTED CARAMEL IS MY ACHILLES HEEL!

It is the food item that you could present to me at ANY TIME OF THE DAY, and I would eat it!

I would spread it on my brussel sprouts if I could!

(Hmmm… that’s got me thinking)

My recipe is SUPER EASY TO make.

You can top your brownies with it.

You can top your ice cream with it.

You can put it in your hot chocolate.

And today I put it in my porridge.

I’m sharing the salted caramel LOVE with you all today!

Not So Secret Salted Caramel

What you’ll need:

• 200g of Medjool Dates
• 250ml of Coconut Cream
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup
• 1 tbsp of sea salt or pink Himalayan salt.

How to make it:

• Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl or blender/food processor.
• If in mixing bowl, blend with hand blender until smooth and saucy.
• If in blender/food processor, blitz until smooth and saucy.
• Drizzle salted caramel onto whatever your heart desires or spoon directly into your mouth. Mindfully taste the rich, caramelly flavours allowing yourself to enJOY your food. You deserve it!

It’s really that simple.

Look after yourselves today, beautiful people.

Try to remember what LOVE and CARE the child version of you needs and DESERVES.

Much love

and much Salted Caramel LOVE,

Joy xx