Blog Posts

Hi hi hi it’s Mere, so here we go…

Insecurities.

As soon as that word is heard you probably immediately thought of what yours is, something probably came to mind. Sadly the thought may have already come through your mind today, maybe even a few times today. I hope that’s not true for you but in a world flashing what seems to be “perfection” in our faces, insecurities become a harsh reality. Whether your insecurity lies in your body image, your personality, your resume/job, your social life, etc. we can all relate on how it makes us feel. In high school I lived insecure about my body and the way God made it. I didn’t view my body as a masterpiece made in God’s image. Instead I viewed my body in comparison to others. I saw what someone else looked like and I wanted that, I didn’t understand why I didn’t have that, and I tried everything I could to get that. Whatever your “that” is, to be honest, it isn’t worth it. Nope none of it is worth it. All the time I spent worrying and stressing about what someone else had that I wanted, all I was doing was first of all offending my Creator-telling Him He didn’t do a good job and that I am dissatisfied and unhappy with the way He made me. And secondly it took away joy and excitement from my life, I was too busy throwing a pity party for myself. After God created man and woman he called it “good” he was pleased and satisfied in how we are made. Yet we communicate to Him that He failed, that He is wrong and we are right. Sounds harsh but it’s what I did, it’s what we do. When I began realizing that’s what I’m communicating to my Savior, it caught me off guard, broke my heart, and I realized something needed to change. I wish I could tell you I never once felt insecure about my body after that but that isn’t the reality either. The reality is we are broken people and having insecurities is natural in this world but we are here on earth to live for so much more. God wants us to live a life with so much more meaning, purpose, joy, and peace than stressing about something that He gave you. He made us the way we are for a reason and a purpose. There’s a reason you have that “thing” about you that you wish you didn’t. The Lord promises in Romans 8:28 that He does everything for a reason. He wants us to live in peace trusting His word and trusting that His plan and creation is good. This takes a fight, we can’t sit back and hope our insecurities go away. Thankfully the fight is made much easier when we have the Lord on our side, who wants to fight for us against the lies we believe. Because yes, our insecurities are 9 times out of 10 based on a lie you are believing about yourself. Here are some steps that have helped bring me to where I am today and that help me fight against insecurities about my body image:

1. PRAY, tell the Lord what you are insecure about. Tell him how it makes you feel, He already knows but He wants to hear it from you.

2. ROOT, find the root of why you are insecure about whatever it is. Find the lie you are believing about yourself.

3. TRUTH, find the Truth to bat against the lie you believe. Look in scripture and talk to your friends who can show you what’s really true.

4. WRITE, write down the verses/truth you found and keep it somewhere where you can see it every day.

5. REALIZE, look for what makes it worse. Whether it’s people on instagram you follow, magazines you look at, or certain people you’re around- be proactive, separate yourself, and don’t set yourself up for failure.

6. PATIENCE, this may not go away over night, but be persistent in your prayers and fight against it, the Lord is faithful!

7. TALK, reach out to someone who can help you process it and encourage you! Please reach out to us if you ever want to talk, we would LOVE that!

I know that’s a novel and my words are jumbled into a ramble but I hope it reached out to some of you and that you can be encouraged that you aren’t alone, God is so much more powerful than any insecurity, and He wants to fight with you against any insecurity you have! Thanks for listening and again please please feel free to reach out to us anytime, that’s what we made this for!!! Love y’all and thanks for the support!

We want this blog to be a place where people who struggle with their relationship with food can find freedom, and in order to do that we believe it’s our job to be open and vulnerable about our struggles and real-life experiences, so here it goes!

As we mentioned in the “About Us” section of the blog, we both have struggled with our relationship with food, specifically when we were in high school. One of the most obvious repercussions of our struggle was the guilt we would sometimes feel after eating. Whether that was from “overeating”, binge eating, eating foods we didn’t consider healthy, eating late at night, or something along those lines; we would often feel negatively about ourselves after. First of all, guilt is NOT from the Lord. In Christ we have peace, freedom, and joy. John 14:27 says, “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset.” The Lord calls us into a life filled with peace from Him, freeing us from a life of worry.

Secondly, no matter how much you ate or how unhealthy the food was, you should never let that create guilt, shame, embarrassment, or worry. The food will not “harm” or “ruin” your body in any way; our bodies are extremely efficient at metabolizing and processing our food. Once you have eaten, worrying about the food being “unhealthy” or worrying that you “ate too much” will not do you ANY good, in fact worry and stress actually wreak havoc on your digestive system. It is so important to accept, enjoy, and let go of any feelings of regret.

There’s a true healthy balance to healthy eating, and it is so unrealistic to think that you will never eat desserts or junk food -something we both personally learned along the way – and that is okay! There’s joy found in eating a whole tray of Nestle cookie dough with your friends or getting a corny dog at the fair! Just accept, enjoy, and continue nourishing your body with healthy foods along with those treats! I love girls nights and usually that involves a lot of chocolate and ice cream- don’t be afraid of that, and certainly don’t miss out on special memories with your friends just because you are scared of food! Guilt and shame associated with food restricts you from living a life full of freedom and joy!

Philippians 4:6-7 says,  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The Lord loves us so much and wants to know our hurts and pains. Rather than beating yourself up over something, come to Jesus instead, and lay down your worries to Him. Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” Continually working to bring any anxiety and guilt to the Lord will eventually become natural habit, and eventually it will get easier and easier to find freedom in Him and freedom from guilt associated with diet.

I know it can sometimes seem like you’ll never find freedom from a bad relationship with food, but we are here to tell you, YOU can!!! I remember telling someone my senior year of high school, “this is how I’m made, I’m going to be like this the rest of my life”. That was a LIE I believed about myself, a LIE I believed about how the Lord created me, and a LIE I believed about the Lord’s power. Through time, prayer, talking to others, and persistence, we are incredibly grateful to say that the Lord has freed us from guilt and a bad relationship with food. We are here to tell you that when you feel as though the guilt can never go away, it CAN and it WILL! The Lord WANTS you to find freedom in Him and He WANTS to help you. He actually desires to do that for you, and all you have to do is go to Him. Psalm 34:4 says, “I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.  He freed me from all my fears.” 

Here are some practical steps for when you are feeling guilt or shame about food:

• Bring your anxiety and guilt to the Lord, telling Him how you feel and asking Him to free you from it – he will fill you with peace.
• Remind yourself of truth, that you are made in the Lord’s image and the food won’t ruin you/your body. Food was made by God to nourish us!
• Think about the enjoyment you got from eating the foods, how delicious they tasted, and what joy it brought you.
• Thank God for a balanced life without restriction.
• Look AHEAD focusing on eating clean for your next meal, rather than looking back.

We know the Lord brings good out of trials and we believe He let us go through the trail of our unhealthy relationship with food in order to help others, give hope, and encouragement. That is why we are doing this and that is our prayer for Clean College Eats. That being said, PLEASE reach out to us if you ever want to talk. We would absolutely LOVE that!

I hope this ramble has brought some encouragement today!! Love you guys!

We all know it’s flu season and it’s spreading quickly. Hopefully none of you have had it yet and if so, hopefully this can help prevent both you and your friends from getting it again. One of the most amazing things about food is that God created certain foods to naturally fight sickness – let’s look specifically at the ones that support out immune systems.

Claire just completed a year long study, through her TCU nutrition program, on the correlation between probiotic consumption and immune health. This has brought us to understand and directly see the extreme positive impact consumption of probiotics has on our immune system. Yes, probiotics can indeed be the answer to preventing you from coming down with the flu this season!

We all know we need as much immune support as we can get right now with everyone in our college dorms or houses coming down with the flu left and right, so we’ve compiled a list of foods to help you incorporate probiotics and other immune boosting foods into your daily diet:

• Sauerkraut (contains probiotics)
  
  • Eat it on crackers or chips with a slice of avocado and sauerkraut on top
  • Add it to your salads, such as our:
    • Kale salad- https://cleancollegeeats.com/2018/01/10/simple-kale-salad/
    • Salmon, avocado, kale salad- https://cleancollegeeats.com/2017/12/22/salmon-avo-quinoa-salad/
  • Add it on top of your bowls, such as our:
    • Quinoa veggie chicken bowl- https://cleancollegeeats.com/2018/01/01/quinoa-veggie-chicken-bowl/
    • Zucchini noodle bowl- https://cleancollegeeats.com/2018/01/01/garlic-lemon-zucchini-noodles-with-chicken/
•  Kombucha (contains probiotics)
  
  • We know they can be expensive, but definitely worth it to get the probiotics you need
• Yogurt (contains probiotics)
  
  • Make parfaits with yogurt, granola, berries, and honey
  • Add it to your smoothies/bowls like our:
    • Peach berry smoothie bowl- https://cleancollegeeats.com/2018/01/01/peachy-berry-smoothie-bowl/
  • Be careful not to overdo it on the dairy, large consumption of dairy can make congestion worse if you are already feeling under the weather
• Raw Garlic (naturally anti-viral)
  
  • Drink it up: blend together a garlic clove, hot water, lemon, and honey. Drink it in the morning and at night.
  • Eating raw garlic acts as a mild natural antibiotic and will kill any viruses you have in your body
• Fruits and Veggies (super immune boosting!)
  
  • Fruits and veggies are full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals
    • Those  help your body stay healthy and fight sickness
  • Check out our recipe page for some simple ideas of how to increase fruits and veggies in your daily diet: https://cleancollegeeats.com/recipes/
  • *One of our favorite easy ways to add nutrients from 7 different fruits, veggies, and berries is through taking and snacking on Juice Plus+ capsules and gummies

We hope this is a helpful tool for you and your friends to fight the flu and all the other nasty stuff going around. As always, please contact us with any questions or if you want to know more!

Stay healthy xoxo Claire and Mere

*If you want to learn more about Juice Plus+ and the way they’ve found out how to add whole foods nutrients from capsules and gummies into our diets, contact us at cleancollegeeats@gmail.com or check out our website http://clairesorrels.juiceplus.com/us/en