Introduction

Do you know how to listen to your body to really feed it what it needs to eat? Do you have cravings and are not sure if the food you are craving is what your body needs?

When I was living in London many moons ago, I was doing some volunteer work at a meditation centre, personning the phones and having cups of teas and chats with people who came to visit. 

Some people were coming in to ask questions, some people were ringing to ask questions. To be honest, it wasn't a very busy day and as it was snowing really hard outside, it was so exciting it took me quite a long time to get there. I left plenty of time.

Usually for me, I hadn't brought my lunch, so normally I take my lunch everywhere I go and I was wondering what I should buy for lunch. I was going to go out, close up the meditation centre and get some lunch. As these things happen, synchronicity, or is it more than synchronicity? I opened one of the meditation books and lo and behold there was a meditation called Talking to the Body. It was an Osho meditation and I read the instructions and sat and meditated until my body told me what I wanted to eat.

It actually didn't take long on that occasion and the answer was shocking to me. The answer was lettuce. I didn't want to hear that so I kept listening and it kept saying lettuce, lettuce, lettuce. It was shocking because it was the middle of winter and, you know, for goodness sakes, I'm not going to sit down and eat lettuce. 

I probably can't remember but I probably hadn't eaten lettuce for at least a week or more. I closed up the meditation center and went down to the local supermarket and bought a lettuce.

Of course, I didn't just buy a lettuce, because even back then I knew that protein was important. I wasn't vegan, I was vegetarian but I bought a falafel pack with falafel and tahini and I knew that would do the trick. I went back to the meditation centre and ate my lettuce first. I just wanted to eat that lettuce and my body was humming after eating the lettuce. It felt so good.

Since then, I've always remembered this meditation and I come back to it time and time again and I do teach it to people in the Vegan Foundation course .

What I found out later is, lettuce is super high in vitamin A, which is important for controlling anxiety, preventing certain cancers, boosting the immune system and is super good for eye health. It's also super high in vitamin K, which is good for blood clotting and it strengthens bones so it helps also to synthesise calcium. It's also a good source of calcium, folate, magnesium, and vitamin C.

So for those people who told me and still continue to tell me that lettuce isn't worth eating, it's not that healthy, you're not quite right.

Lettuce also keeps you hydrated and it contains lactucarium which relaxes the body and helps your body to sleep. It's a fabulous neuroprotective, so it's good for brain health. What's really good for me right now as well and something that I learned very recently, is that, surprisingly, it's high in omega-3. Yay! So looking back at this all now, I can see clearly why my body told me to eat lettuce.

I was looking after a meditation center and was super new to meditation, and for people who know me, I can be very fearful of new things. Like when I first started recording the podcast, I was so scared, but now I love it. I just can't wait to record. I was super new to meditation and was nervous that I wouldn't know what the heck fire to say when people asked me questions about meditation or came in to ask me questions about meditations that they could do.

I think that my body must have been calling out for something to relax it, and that's why it came up with lettuce. Another reason is that in those cold days of a London winter, which was certainly new to me, I was sure to need the nutrients lettuce offered me. When I look back now, absolutely. And quite possibly, like I said, it was probably at least a week, if not more, that I hadn't eaten lettuce. I'm a lettuce girl. From a very early age I have eaten lettuce twice a day. So my body was certainly missing it.

And then the big one is hydration. I'm sure I wouldn't have been drinking enough water in those days, especially because it was cold. I was drinking black tea. I would probably need something hydrating to eat. I could look at why my body was craving lettuce and gave it to myself.

How to interpret what your body tells you

Now, this meditation is about being honest with yourself and your body and not letting your mind jump in. For example, the last time I did this meditation, I first got sausage. There's no way that my body needs fatty, gristly, low-grade sausage meat wrapped up in the lining of a cow's stomach. No, no, no, no. It does not need that.

So when I felt further into what my body needed, it wanted comfort food, which then translated into mung beans. I'm a big mung bean fan. You all know that if you listen to the podcast number one.

I'm still vegan. Don’t worry, I don't need a sausage. Yay. 

Another example of this is, I have a beautiful client who is craving bacon a lot so we did this meditation together and she realised it wasn't bacon she wanted, she needed protein. It is about being mindful of what is actually coming up in your mind or you might be getting something that you know you don't want to eat. For example, I often get lollies. I absolutely don't need lollies but when I get lollies, I know that's comfort food.

Guided meditation

So if you would like to do the meditation, we're going to do the meditation now. If you're out jogging or exercising while you're listening to this, you can do the meditation as well as long as there are no busy roads to cross, so make sure that you know, if you're running, that you're not crossing any busy roads. To stay on the path with no roads and with your eyes open and continuing to exercise. 

So if you are out and about just keep your eyes open. So when I say close your eyes, don't close them, keep them open. Okay, let's start.

If you're listening and you're sitting:

Sit comfortably and make sure that your shoulders are nice and relaxed and that your body is relaxed. 

You don't have to sit upright, you can have a cushion or bolster, you could even lay down if you wanted. 

If you're out jogging or exercising, just check in to see where your shoulders are. Are they relaxed? 

Take a nice deep breath, in, and out.  

Taking a nice deep breath in and taking that breath all the way to your toes. 

Then to the soles of your feet. 

Just breathing relaxedly, it doesn't have to be deep breaths, but just taking the breath all the way to the body parts that I am going to mention.

The soles of your feet, 

the tops of your feet, 

your ankles, 

your shins and calves, 

your knees, 

your thighs, 

back of the thighs, 

hips, 

the whole pelvic area, 

the bum, 

the lower back, 

the upper back, 

the neck, 

the top of the head, 

the back of the head, 

the ears, the forehead, 

and the face. 

The throat, 

the chest, 

the shoulders, 

arms, 

hands and fingers 

and then into your belly. 

Taking a nice deep breath into your belly and relaxing your belly, making it nice and big and relaxed, not holding it in. Just relaxing the belly and feeling into the belly. 

And then sensing into your belly and your whole body to see if it's ready to tell you what it wants to eat. 

The mind may jump in with all random ideas, wanting all the attention, but be discerning. What is your mind? What is your body? Listen in for as long as you can, until your body gives you its answer. It may take more time than you have, then you can just stop and see if something comes as you move around. 

In a moment, I'll get you to pause the podcast unless your answer has already come. 

I'll get you to pause the podcast and restart the podcast when you're ready with your answer. 

So take another deep breath in and commit to really listening to your body. Then, in a meditative state, pause the podcast and restart when you have your answer.

Analysing your answer

Okay, how was that for you? 

What did you come up with? 

Did you come up with an answer straight away or it hasn't come? 

Maybe it hasn't come. 

If it hasn't come, that's okay. You can do this later, or as you're walking around the answer may come to you. 

If you have limited time to do this meditation, don't stress. If an answer doesn't come to you, come back to it. At any time, you may get a random food thought come up, really feel to see if that is what your body needs to eat to make it feel healthy.

Whatever came up, does it resonate with you? 

Is it something you would like to eat? 

Is it something that you can cook in this moment? 

So please do feel free to email me at info@veets.com.au and let me know what came up for you and see if you have any idea why it came up for you. I'm happy to help you think about maybe why that food might have come up for you.

My analysis

As I was doing that meditation with you, my mind was crazy jumping in with all sorts of suggestions. It took quite a while to settle it down and then I kept getting potato. Oh girl, do I love potatoes. And it got mung beans. Mung beans again. I need mung beans. Anyway, I knew I didn't have any mung beans soaking or mung beans in the freezer, so I know that's not going to work, but I do know that I've got some tofu, so I'm going to have tofu for lunch with potato and of course. Guess what? Lettuce!

Please do let me know how this meditation works out for you.

Recipe

Actually I'm not going to have tofu, I'm going to have tempeh. 

Tempeh, potato salad

1 block tempeh cut into slices 

1 potato scrubbed and cubed 

Scant amount of avocado or olive oil 

1 tbsp tamari 

¼ lettuce 

1 carrot grated 

2 tbsp pepitas 

Juice lemon and salt and a splash of olive or flax oil 

1. Boil  the potato in filtered water. Bring to  boil then simmer for 8 minutes or until the potato is cooked.

2. Dry fry the pepitas until they pop. Set aside.

3. Fry the tempeh in olive oil on both sides, then add the tamari and cook until the tamari disappears.

4. Add the lettuce and carrots to a bowl. Add the potato, tempeh and pepitas.

5. Add some lemon juice, salt and the oil.

Yuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmyyyyyyyy!

FCT (fun cooking tip)

If you want to wash your lettuce ahead of time, you can do that, but it may go soggy. 

Who likes soggy lettuce?  Not me. So put a piece of kitchen paper at the bottom if you're storing your lettuce in a bag, ideally not, but if you haven't got much space in your fridge then putting your lettuce on top of the kitchen towel in a plastic bag will keep it nice and crisp.

Ideally you would put a piece of kitchen paper at the bottom of a  glass container, then you put the washed and hopefully spun dry lettuce on that and then put a lid on.

The lettuce and paper towel will absorb any excess water left on the lettuce, so there'll be no soggy lettuce. It'll be beautifully crisp and will still be good tomorrow so that is great, it's a great tip.

I learned that tip from the wonderful Denise Latham who used to sell me lettuces for my catering business. She sold me lettuces for 14 years. Denise’s lettuces were amazing.

I hope you have a wonderful week full of sensationally delicious food and until the next podcast, you can go over and have a look at my other recipes on my website. 

I mentioned earlier complete protein. For more information on complete protein listen to podcast number 3. 

So yay that’s it for this week. I just have a favour to ask. To support my podcast, can you please subscribe to the podcast and also share with your friends who you might think would be interested. 

Have a great week, bye for now.