Hoorn, The Netherlands, 9th June 2023
What do I mean when I say change your relationship with hunger. I will give you an example of my own life. You know that we are always choosing versions of ourselves, at any moment of time we choose who we want to be. I used to be this person: Afraid of hunger and always thinking about food. Afraid to eat, but wanting to eat. Struggling to let the chocolate or the fries alone and when I did eat them feeling awful. Scared that I wouldn’t be able to stop myself eating when at a party and when I would have a trip coming up packing way too much food. Getting out of bed because I was so hungry, only to feel extremely crappy after eating something so late at night and sleeping awful. In short, a lovely relationship with hunger. Not. My first reaction to hunger pangs was one of fear and reaching for food.
This, naturally in the case of my old self, led to very tight favourite jeans so I did what most people do I went online to figure out ways to loosen up my jeans. After some research it seemed that intermittent fasting was a probable answer so I went for it.
The next stage was kind of less me to fit into those jeans, they didn’t really feel to comfortable still though AND I had a chronic bloated belly. You might say gluten, I know it’s not. Just a knowing. And gluten intolerance is a whole different game of nonsense that I will not get into now. So, again enter online research.
In addition to many people trying to tell me that my bloated belly was age related and I’d just have to deal with it – which I didn’t buy, it has a deeper meaning, we create what we believe AND all experience happens for a reason and might be linked to purpose – I found another probable solution, my hormones weren’t too happy.
I quit drinking coffee again because the hormone cortisol was running rampant in my earth suit, resulting in a smaller belly but I was still missing something. It was a hunch, an intuitive nudge from the larger me. .
Hmm. This time I listened within instead of going online and all of sudden I realised it! One of my versions was addicted to food! To processed foods and sugar, and this was a very smart way of my body to let me know. All versions of me that I know of so far are vain, I am very much into looking the absolute best version of myself.
I want to look THE BEST according to my beauty standards, not yours, not my friends, not the media’s even though I have co-created this beauty standards, together with all of you that experience a certain beauty standard. We create our own realities remember? So, I decided to go on a water fast.
The water fast was something that I wanted to do so many times before already, and I have tried and failed miserable a couple of times. How do I know that it was divinely guided? Well I couldn’t wait to start! Even though I was really scared I could feel the excitement of my body and really wanted to dive in, so I started a day early.
Was I hungry? No I wasn’t at all, which was surprising, until I was at day 3,5 about 81 hours in. I ended the waterfast at the end of the 4th day because alarm bells went off in my body and I know when to listen so I went over into a juice fast which then taught me another thing.
My first lesson about hunger, which I had learned 9 years ago already. but decided to forget for some reason or another, is that hunger isn’t.a physical hunger. It is usually a mental hunger. Until the body tells you with certain signs that only you understand since this is your unique life experience, something else is going on. Boredom, sadness, excitiment, fear, anger or another common uncomfortable emotional feeling.
So again, I learned experientally that it’s all a mental game. Yes the body feels uncomfortable and even though I did have massive headaches and less energy it was very doable. I even did 2 hour walks daily and my daily number of push ups and even added some sets of Navasana’s.
After having my first juice my body went first from gratitude into full tantrum mode a couple of hours later. It wanted to chew, and chips and chocolate and all the things that I haven’t even had in a couple of months in case of chips and a couple of weeks in case of chocolate. However, I did not cave. I knew what was going on and I stayed strong. I thought about two things; 1. Who do I want to become? 2. The pain cave is where the work really begins.
What does this teach me? You might get something different out of this story, to me this means a couple of things:
My body is still used to being the old version of me I’m ready to level up so it’s a question of will power and informing all my physical cells of why I’m in this game and who I am stepping into. It is about me remembering myself who the new version of me is. It is what Neville calls the ‘New man’ and the ‘Old man’.
Also, I know that I’m perfectly on time and in the place I want to be. How? As soon as I have arrived in the pain cave it shen the growth really. begins. It doesn’t begin where it is easy peasy. It happens where it is difficult.
To answer the statement I began this Ted Talk with; How can you change your relationship with hunger? By testing yourself, by depriving yourself of food. Start with your favourite foods and then go to either a juice or a water fast. Your resistance with regards to these ideas shows you where you are. Do you have lots of resistance, then you probably still have some mental work to do. As I told you I couldn’t wait to get started. Even though I knew it was going to be a tough one.
Also remember that calorie restriction is harder than going into a full blown fast.. Choose wisely, I’m not you and you might be able to go 11 days on water easy or you might have to first ween of carbs and processed foods.
Now I embrace hunger and I can listen to my body much easier, I know what really nourishes it. I know when my temper tantrum version is showing up and I listen to her but I don’t act according to what she says.
If you’d like assistance in either this food journey or into knowing yourself better, because in the end THAT’S what it’s all about. Who are you, and who do you want to be? Reach out to me and we’ll see if we’re a match monique@moniquebjagroe.com
Before I leave you with yourself, I used to be envious of people that could eat whatever and stay thin. Now I’m grateful that I get a direct reflection of what goes into my body. Remember that low vibrational foods take their toll on some level on people that aren’t enlightened. On people that aren’t Abdullah, Neville Goddard’s teacher. For some of us it’s the body that pays the price, for others it’s mental clarity. For other’s it might be result in a food related disease like diabetes.
In any case. I trust this post was valuable to you. If it was, share it with somebody else that you love simply by clicking on the link, copy and paste it and share it in an email or a WhatsApp and ask your loved one what they think of it.
With much love,
Victoria-Monique