Purposeful Eating - Weekly Energy Boost

Food is a basic need for survival, but we eat for many other reasons. This week we explore all the ways we use food to fulfill our desires – to relieve stress, to cope with guilt, to feel satisfied – and the issues related to this type of unconscious eating. Chef Elia Herrera will join us to talk about how to be more intentional with our eating – injecting purpose into what we eat, how we eat, and even where we eat! Episode 1 of 3. Original airdate 7/12/21

Transcript

Good morning, Everyone. Good evening, Good afternoon, Wherever you are, And welcome to this week's Weekly Energy Boost. My name is Ellie Sheva, And I am here this morning with David and a very special guest that I will introduce in a moment. Monthly Energy Boost is a seven-day spiritual energy forecast where we offer up the most powerful and practical wisdom and tools for our listeners to navigate the coming seven days. We've actually been focusing on monthly energy, And we're shifting gears this week from last month's energy to this month's energy. Today is actually the third day of the month of Leo, Is that right? Yes, It's the third day of the month of Leo on the Kabbalistic calendar, Of course. What that means is that we are connecting to a new energy, And for those of you who are. . . For our Leo listeners, We'll be very gentle, Don't worry. What's interesting about the month of Leo is that, And I guess you can look at the symbol of the lion to understand how that works, Is that the Leo energy. . . Leos kind of consume everything around them. They take in all the energy, All of the attention, All of the limelight, And also all of the food. There's very few Leos who are not interested in food and eating, And we have been. . . I personally have been trying to get in this concept, This topic to talk about, Which I know we've had tons of questions about over the years. There isn't a person on the planet who doesn't eat, Right? It's not like there's anybody out there who can say, Well, I don't need that, Or that doesn't concern me. You could hear a relationships episode and be like, I don't need that, Or a meditation episode, I don't need that. These next three episodes are literally for everyone. That's why we brought on for this week's episode a fabulous example of what it means to use food as a tool for connection, As a tool for intention, For elevation. Welcome Chef Elia Herrera. She is from Canada. She lives in Canada. She's originally from Mexico. She has this beautiful way of combining both her love for her culture and cuisine, And at the same time using food as a platform for bringing people together, For sharing, For connecting. We can't wait to have her input and her presence and her wisdom, Because she's also a student of Kabbalah and has somehow, I guess I do it in the closet, But she does it in public, Serve people with an elevated consciousness and create an experience that transcends just the gastronomic level. So I am- That was powerful. Listen, People know already, If you follow me, I am definitely, My alter ego is a chef. I didn't follow. What do you do in the closet? I cook like I'm a chef. I pretend to be a chef. I'm a closet chef. I'm a public foodie, But a closet chef. So I'm also a fan of Elia and her work, And I'm so excited to have you here, And I'm sure that everybody who's watching is going to be excited to hear from you as well. So A, Welcome, And B, Tell us about you. I mean, Let's hear from you. It's better than- And I want all our listeners to know we got good secrets. We all prepared stuff, And we're going to have Chef Elia comment on it and share her perspective as well, But secrets that unite the spiritual world with how we eat, Our relationship with food, Our emotional attachments, And stuff that probably we didn't know and will give us an aha moment. And also bear in mind, We're going to do two more episodes on the topic with different angles, So if you have questions, First of all, We're going to do also an Instagram Live with Elia later in the week. I'll talk about that afterwards, But we'll continue this conversation for the next two weeks, So you will have the opportunity to, Pardon the pun, Digest a lot with us over the next few weeks. So I'm sorry, Elia, Take the mic. Hi, Everybody. Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of this. Well, As you know, My name is Elia, And I'm from Mexico, And I was a pastry chef for 10 years, And now I'm an executive chef, And my specialty is Mexican cuisine, Which are my roots, And the reason why I decided to start cooking savory is because my grandmother, She was a chef, And I grew up with her, And bringing all these memories, It was very important to me to keep her alive and close to me somehow. And also, I love the fact that I have the opportunity to share with the community here in Canada my culture and where I come from and what I used to eat and the memories behind and the celebrations, And I just love what I do. Sorry, I love it because I think it's a great way of bringing people together. And what's your cooking philosophy? What makes you stand out from other chefs and other people in the culinary world? To be honest, All the time I say to my team, It's all about flavor, But more than anything is the intention behind cooking with love, Cooking with caring about the people. We know we're here doing all these amazing dishes, But at the end of the day, It's for you, For you to enjoy, For you to create memories, For you to come back and bring more people, But not just that, Just whenever you leave my restaurant or after you eat my dish, You live with a smile because it was an intention behind for you to be happy and to just express yourself with your friends and enjoy everything. Beautiful. I thought we'd kick it off with some concepts that I wanted to talk about, And then we can all have a good discussion around it and chime in when you feel like you have wisdom that our audience would appreciate. So one of the things that I want to talk about is how our relationship with food interacts with our personal tikkun, Which is the Kabbalistic definition of what we came to this world to transform and how we utilize the energy behind food to sometimes feel lack and as a result, Maybe not deal with the things that we need to deal with. So just to back up for a moment, Kabbalists explained that sparks of light, Our purpose is to elevate what are called sparks of light in this world until we create a completion of all of these fallen sparks. The way we do that is that these sparks have been captured in four different kingdoms, Which go from mineral, Plant, Animal, And the human kingdom. So these sparks of light are kind of trapped. Imagine in this encasing, In this shell, We call it in Kabbalah a klipah, A shell. It's like a peel that covers the fruit, And our job is to elevate them. In the human kingdom, The way we elevate them is through the relationships that we have with each other. When we have a relationship of love and respect and circuitry, Those sparks are elevated. That's why, For example, There are certain people that we interact with. There are certain souls that are born to us in our families or we have certain siblings. It's all beautifully constructed because those are sparks of light that need to be elevated. So that random person that you met or maybe a random person that comes to, Quote unquote, A random person that comes to your restaurant or that waiter who awaits you, Awaits the table for you, All of that has to do with sparks that need to be elevated. It's not random. It's not by chance. Through those relationships, We either elevate sparks or we lose sparks of light to the negative side that we then have to come back and redeem. So almost imagine that if you had a bad encounter with someone at a restaurant or wherever else, You lost energy, You lost sparks of light, And sometime you have to go back to that restaurant and undergo a challenging experience to re-elevate those sparks of light and how you do that and all the stuff that we've learned in our prior podcasts and in Kabbalah 1. Then you go down to the animal, Vegetable, And mineral kingdom. So how do you elevate those sparks of light? We can talk about this endlessly. By the way, Cut me off at any moment if you want. Animal kingdom in certain cases. I think we'll focus more on the specific things that we get from each of those kingdoms and how next week because that's when we'll get more into the. . . I think this week, Today is really more about setting the intention. I think that that's something that, By the way, David probably mentions in every single episode is that if we're not choosing our consciousness, If we're not injecting consciousness, If we're not assigning something purpose and intention, It is by default reactive. It means something external, Actually could even be something internal, But I am not in control. Something else is driving my thoughts, My words, And my actions. I think for a lot of people, Food is that thing. Food is the most, If we're honest with ourselves, It is an area where we are most reactive. We wait until there is a lack quite often, Whether the lack is hunger, Whether the lack is I am deficient in certain nutrients, Or whether I'm feeling miserable and my only respite is Ben and Jerry. We think in terms of. . . We think of food almost like a drug. It can alleviate, Relieve, Or assuage some kind of discomfort that I'm feeling in the moment. Again, It might be hunger. I only bring up that one. It's probably the most balanced or most benign one because it's natural. It's not something that, Unless you already get into the hangry zone, But the body is designed to tell us when we need to replenish. The question is, Have I consciously in advance chosen the foods that are going to nourish me well, Or am I reaching for a Snickers bar every time I get hungry? By the way, That's their marketing. If you're in a bad mood, If you're hungry when you're down, We're a great pick-me-up. That works for a lot of people in the short term. Think about, If this is the first episode that you've ever heard of our show, I encourage you to go back a few episodes just to get a little bit of an angle because we talk about these concepts often, But this is the first time we're saying we're discussing this around food. If I need something, If I can't not have it, It's controlling me. Essentially, We're here on this planet to achieve control, To be the creator of our own reality. The moment I need that Snickers bar, The Snickers is the creator of my reality, And I'm the victim. I am the effect of the sugar and the chocolate and all the things that come with it. We really want to talk today about creating purpose and meaning around what we're eating. Like Elia was saying, Sometimes the reason I want that bowl of chicken soup is because it makes me connect. . . Not makes me. It's a connection for me to my grandmother who used to make me chicken soup when I was a little kid. Therefore, It's more than just calories and vitamins. It is an emotional and even an ancestral connection that I'm creating to my culture and to my family. I can appreciate that before we get into that granular of an understanding of it, I wanted the audience not to fall into the, Well, Make sure the food doesn't control you. You control the food. Obviously, That stuff is topics we've covered. I thought to take it back all the way and understand holistically that you have these kingdoms. I want to finish that point just so that when we dive into it, It can coalesce better. We have these kingdoms and you interact with all these kingdoms in a very specific way. There's a reason why that chicken soup came to your table. That chicken even came. That specific one came in front of you or that fish came in front of you or that egg or whatever it is because there exists a spark of light that belongs to your soul that you need to elevate. Then we can get into the, Well, How do you interact with it? What needs to be your thought consciousness? Everything down to the chewing of your food. I said in Kabbalah 2 a couple of weeks ago and it garnered a laugh but the truth is it is the truth. When you go eat, I said when somebody goes and eats at a restaurant or you have a sushi, Like a spicy tuna in front of you, To think that the way you eat that, There's a spark of light that could actually bring you to your soulmate relationship. It made people laugh but to realize that's how valuable and powerful these different kingdoms of food are. Sometimes salt, You add salt to a food, The salt is the mineral kingdom and there are sparks that are being elevated. There's so much consciousness around it and it's not just like, Oh, Here's salt, Here's a spice, Here's food. It's so much bigger and to understand it, To know that and to appreciate it. You said you wanted to get into it. That was it? Well, That was the overview. That was the overview and toss in some secrets. I think it's important also to point out that we're not here studying and I want to hear, I know that Elia has a, This is something that she's very passionate about. We're not here to say exist on grass for the rest of your life and anytime you want a steak, You're controlled by negativity. The key here and by the way, This is the key in every spiritual effort that we make. It's not to be one extreme or the other. Kabbalah teaches that we are on this planet to enjoy. If we weren't, We'd all be walking around wearing potato sacks and eating gravel. There wouldn't be any, What would be the purpose to all of the beautiful colors and textures and foods and experiences in the world? We were created according to Kabbalah to enjoy and the problem is when the enjoyment takes over and we're no longer focused on the purpose. One of the things I know that Elia is very passionate about is helping people achieve or understand what it means to balance in not only eating but also, I mean of course cooking and shopping is included as well, But when people come to you and say, Well, You should be, There's a huge movement now around being vegan. There's a huge movement around eating organic. There's a huge movement around no carbs. What diet fad isn't there these days? How do you help people understand how important that balance is? Well, All the time, Whenever I express myself, I say like at the end of the day, Why are we limiting ourselves when we came here to be happy and enjoy ourselves? I guess like if we have balance in our diet and we have a better and happy life because we're not abusing either the animal or the plants. I guess like three days a week I eat meat and then the other four days I eat vegetables. I think it's fascinating because you can put so much creativity into it and just enjoy yourself. It doesn't have to be so extreme, I believe. Being extreme is I think an easy way out for people. This is what I do. This is what I don't do. This is clear the black and white helps people mentally but I think energetically, Eventually, Their willpower and their desire deteriorate because it's too strict and too limiting, Like you said. So we have to first be clear about something because I think we touched upon a negative belief system that the world at large has, Which is what is my purpose? This is that a person experiences happiness and joy. That's actually a soul's purpose. That should be the end result. A lot of times people are addicted to self-punishment and we all collectively have a belief system that if there's something wrong with being happy or too happy or enjoying, We all kind of get overcome with some reason for guilt, I shouldn't be doing this, There's something wrong with that. Even as a Kabbalah student, So I assume many of us are on the path of Kabbalah and I hear it all the time. As soon as I start to learn Kabbalah, My life changed and I learned tools and this, That and the other thing but you also, There's a negative side to it, That if you don't catch it, It can consume you. You're auditing yourself all the time. You're criticizing yourself all the time. You're punishing yourself all the time and then you start to have guilt about enjoying, About receiving. So I want to be clear. The Creator wants us to enjoy and my motto is, I'm collecting this from Kabbalistic teachings, When you don't enjoy that which is permissible to you, You will enjoy the things that are not permissible to you. So for example, If you do not enjoy the meal that's in front of you, It's in front of you, It's there, You're meant to eat it, It's meant to be eaten and let's say you're not focusing, You're thinking about something else, You're just swallowing it quickly or trying to rush through the meal, You're not fully grasping the power and enjoyment of the meal. You will do something later on to get energy because you're deprived of it but in a reactive way. So you'll look for attention in a reactive way. You'll look to actually eat food that's not good for you later on. You will punish yourself in a different way because you didn't get the energy and if you just sat and really connected with what you ate, Then you would feel full energetic, You would feel joy and you wouldn't steal it from someone else or in a reactive way, As we say, The not permissible way. So that right and I love that Ilya said that because we have to first accept that we must enjoy what we eat. So let's start there. It's interesting that you bring up that specifically because I gave a course years ago exactly about these concepts and one of the things that I read is that the Kabbalists recommend that when you eat, You sit. I was just about to say that. That's crazy that you said that. That you should sit when you eat which to me automatically brought my mind to the idea that when we had an episode about prayer a few months ago, That when in prayer, There's different times that we stand and there's different times that we sit and when we sit, We are drawing energy. So to me, That makes sitting around the table to eat a form of, Right, Prayer is nourishment for the soul, Eating is nourishment for the body, But it's the same physical position that the Kabbalists say put your body in the same frame so that you can receive that light, That energy, That nourishment that you need for when you then need to get up and start to do the connections that you need to do. Ilia, What are some practical ways that you can recommend for people to enjoy their food more? I think you can answer this question in so many different ways. I can't imagine some of the answers. I can think of some answers, But I'm curious to see what creative answers you may have and advice for our audience how to enjoy and garner pleasure from your food more. To be honest, The first thing I will say is literally make a time for it. Make a time to smell the food, Taste the food, Look at it. Everything starts from the eyes. As a chef, Obviously we are artists and we express ourselves through food, So we like to play with the presentation, The harmony, The textures with it, The combinations with flavors, Like your palate is always jumping from the savory to this acidic and there is so many different notes. Just take the time and go through it and experience and recognize the flavors, The notes on it, On the ingredients and just enjoy it a lot and create a memory. You said it starts with the eyes. We eat with our eyes first. I think that was really valuable because if you really think about it, How many times are you looking at the food? You're invited to look at my Instagram page. My account I follow is on there. I might be looking at your food on your Instagram page, But how many times when I'm eating am I looking at the food? Obviously we know that the eyes, It's so many different things called the light of wisdom and it's a gateway. With windows to the soul. Yeah, It's the gateway and windows to the soul. The person would never even think, Well, I should be looking at my food as I'm eating it, As I'm connecting to it. It's kind of a tangent, But it's not. I'm teaching my two year old to take off his own shoes. He has a therapist also because he has some issues. The therapist said that the best way to teach him to take off his shoes is he has to look at his shoes because what he was trying to do is trying to take, He was looking up in space and trying to take off. His attention was elsewhere and he was trying to remove the strap and remove the shoe, But he wasn't looking at it. The therapist said in order for him to really connect with the process, He must be looking at his shoe as he's trying to take it off. I found that to be so powerful because as adults, What we're looking at and what we're doing usually are two different things. I saw the study done on people who are addicted to social media and this guy said something that always stayed in my brain. He said that when you wake up in the morning, There's only one of two things that are happening. You're either checking your social media before you pee or while you pee. I don't know why I laughed at that, But how many of us, You're using the restroom right when you wake up, But you're also checking your phone? Not me. Besides Alicia. Everybody but me. I don't even know why I'm bringing that example in. I probably just wanted to make people laugh and kind of break it up a little bit of humor, But we're usually doing one thing, But the thing that we're doing is not the thing that we're looking at and not paying attention to. Also in that gathering around the table, Whether you're in prayer or you're in a meal, You're allowing the energy to integrate into yourself. That's really, I think, Important when we're talking today about taking our food consumption to the next level. We're not talking here about being saints. We're not talking here about abstention. We're not talking here about nothing. I hope no one ever gets any impression from listening to our shows that we're here to be in extremely anything. The balance is the key here. If I can, When I'm eating, Take that moment, Make the visual connection, Appreciate the effort, Whether it's someone you know that made the food, Whether it's someone that you don't know that made the food, To appreciate the, I don't know, To me, It's like alchemy. A great food is like, A great meal is like magical. That the realization that it's really up to us what we get from it, I think that to me is one of the most powerful principles. You may have a favorite restaurant or a favorite cuisine or a favorite flavor of ice cream. There is a reason you have that. It's not just because you like the way it tastes or you like the vibe. What David was saying before about elevating sparks, There is a reason that you are mindlessly connected to those things. Today we're talking about how to bring more mindfulness to those experiences. What else can you share with us, Elia, About the process of enjoying, Connecting, Extracting the sparks of light from food based on your experience? It's also nice when, I mean, Based on in my restaurant, Like when the server comes and explain where you eating comes from, Like where the animal was raised and where the vegetables were also bring from, Like it's nice to know all these hard work behind before it becomes your dish. So I really appreciate that. And it creates even more like a better experience because I know where everything comes from, How everything was treated and then how everything was transformed in my plate for me to enjoy and have an amazing experience. That's beautiful. I like, Something therapeutic for me is I like to go to the grocery store. It's just this odd thing that I do, Just put on my headphones and go to the grocery store. And I realized that probably every, Whatever I pick up, The packaging will say, At least with fruits and vegetables, Where it's from. And it's true because if I went to a restaurant and it said salad, I'd be like, Okay, But if it said salad made with cucumbers from this place or tomatoes from that place, That's, First it's great marketing. Because right away you think, Wow, It's from this place. Not that you think that this place even means anything to you, But it's very powerful. Like, Wow, I'm connecting to that place. I'm connecting to this, You know, Sometimes hell, We flew this fish in from the Norwegian. I'm like, Oh, That's cool you did that. I mean, Otherwise I didn't really think about it. So knowing the origin of something is also helping you connect to its seed level, Its culture, Its energy, Its consciousness, And help you have a deeper connection with it. You spoke a few months ago about the idea that, You know, You go shopping at a store and you see a sweater that you like and you buy it. Cabellistically speaking, There is energy in that sweater. That sweater called you, Spiritually speaking, Not that you noticed the sweater, Which I think is a, We could talk endlessly about that as well. So in the same way, The food is calling you. Like you're looking at that green, Gorgeous green apple and you think, Wow, I never noticed it before. There is a reason you noticed it that day and that, Or, You know, Maybe you're sitting at a restaurant and that piece of fish came to your plate, Like David said, There's a reason there. It's there to help you with your spiritual growth. That's right. And I think that one of the, To me, Even when I was young before studying Cabellum, One of my favorite books and movies was called in English, It's called like water for chocolate in Spanish. It's como agua para chocolate. Got to speak my Spanish for the day. And, And for those of you that didn't see it, It's basically, It shows you how, And it's very artistically done, But it basically shows how if when the chef is sad, Like her at one point in the movie, The family is cooking for a wedding that shouldn't be happening, Quote unquote, And the mom and the grandma and the sister, They're cooking and they're crying while they're cooking. Or maybe it's just the sister that's crying while she's cooking because her sister is marrying the guy that she wants to marry. And everybody in the wedding party breaks out in tears. They can't control themselves. They're just sitting there bawling at the wedding, At the dinner. And one of the things that I have seen work firsthand, And people are saying, Can you give us tips? Can you give us tips? By the way, The book is always better than the movie. And the book has the recipes of the, They cook in the movie, Just FYI, It's gorgeous. So the idea that our state, Our energy is transferred into the food, I think is such an important conversation. Maybe in that movie or the book, It's a little bit exaggerated, But it has merit. And I have done, I think, I don't know if I ever shared it on the show before, But I had a student who, When she started to learn Kabbalah, And she learned about the different tools, One of the tools we've spoken about before is the 72 names of God, Which is a meditative tool. And she wanted to experiment with it. So what she did was, Actually, I think it was her teacher in the class said, Take a glass of water in your right hand, And everybody who's listening can do this as well. And he told the class, Hold the glass of water in your right hand and meditate on these three letters, This letter sequence, Which was awakens, Unconditional love. And she, So, And then he said, Look what, You know, Watch for what happened. So she told me afterwards, Listen, My husband doesn't drink water. I could only do it with Diet Coke. I hope that there was enough water in the Diet Coke to make the experiment work. So she said at the dinner table before she put the cup on the table, She closed her eyes and she visualized the letters and she imagined that she was sending energy into the Diet Coke. She put the Diet Coke on the table. Life went on as usual. And then she said for the first time since maybe they were dating, While she was washing the dishes, Her husband came up from behind her, Put his arms around her and started dancing with her in the kitchen. And she said, You know, There was like, Literally we had no conversation during the day, No romantic interaction, No, No, I didn't slip him in aphrodisiac or anything. I simply injected energy of unconditional love into his Diet Coke magically. And he just, For whatever reason, Felt that love and acted on it. And I think that that, For me as someone who cooks a lot for my family, And obviously this year being at home much more than usual, I had the opportunity to cook much more than usual. Watching how my intention and my energy around when I'm cooking, Right, When I'm trying to cook quickly and just get the food out on the table, There is a very different energy. And it's not only the energy at the meal itself, It's the energy in general afterwards, Right? When someone doesn't like what they're eating, Or they're eating it because it's leftover, They're eating it because they want cookies for dessert, And if they don't eat what they're eating, They're not going to get it. It's a very different energy than when you put your hands in the food, You really act as a channel for a certain kind of energy, How very healing and transformative it can be. And I want our listeners to know whether it's using the Kabbalistic tools, Even just thinking about how much you love them, Or how much you want them to be healthy, Or how much, I mean, Elia, I'm sure you have much more experience with this than I do, At least on a bigger scale. How do you use the power of intention and meditation and consciousness when you're behind the scenes in the kitchen? I like to, Basically, Whenever I'm prepping or whenever I'm cooking with my team, It's just like have harmony. Because at the end, That's what I want to project, Happiness and enjoyment. So just being respectful to the part that we're cooking with, And also respectful to each other and having a nice atmosphere and work, Collaborate together in a very positive way. I wanted to add, Because as you were saying something, It keeps bringing inspiration into my mind, That a lot of people, And I see this written in the chat, The whole beating myself up or being hard on myself about what I eat, How I eat, When I eat. And we have to say it, We say it almost in every show, There is no light that is revealed. And there is never a suggestion, Even spiritually, To do so, To be hard on ourselves. In fact, It does not accomplish anything positive. We do so because we think, Erroneously, That it is connecting us to the light of the Creator in some way. Otherwise, We wouldn't do it. But for the record, There is nothing about being hard on ourselves that is a positive for the soul, For us to build our relationships that benefit our kids, Make us more money, Nothing. There's zero. One of the life hacks that I was taught early on in my relationship with my wife around food is depriving yourself, And studies show this, Depriving yourself of the things you enjoy. Study after study shows this, The starvation technique, Always backfires in a worse way. So if I did a seven-day cleanse of any kind, Where I'm depriving myself of something that I'm enjoying, What's happening is the bounce back after those seven days will be very reactive. So anything that is depriving you, You need to know that at some point, The intention there is what? The intention there is it's not healing. It's not necessarily suffering. It's something that I'm doing. It's almost like a punishment. So the bounce back will be something that will be negative and will be reactive. The way I was taught to have a healthy lifestyle is to once in a while include what we call a recreational meal, Where I'm eating whatever it is that I feel. Maybe it's that thing I loved growing up as a kid. Maybe it's that Kit Kat bar. Maybe whatever it is. We all have these things that give us a lot of pleasure. I was at a business meeting and I saw the nerds. Do you remember nerds? I do. I mean, I saw this box of nerds. And all the memories started flooding back. I said, When was. . . I said, I haven't seen nerds in decades. And I grabbed the box and my wife was there. She was smiling at me. I mean, What is this pure sugar? And I said, Look, I'm going to eat these nerds and I'm going to just chew it so I'm going to enjoy every bit of it, Even though it has zero nutritional value. And all it's going to do is be not good for me. But I took those nerds in. So much joy. I mean, I took the whole box. I mean, Important people are looking at me, Talking at me. And you have to see, I was just eating nerds. I did the thing with my box. I'm like tapping the box like this. It looked ridiculous. And so mature. It looked so immature. It looked like my three-year-old was doing it. And everybody was kind of smiling and laughing because they were enjoying watching me enjoy. And I think I enjoyed it so much that it didn't even make my blood sugar spike. I think when you enjoy something so much, The light of the creator like encodes your esophagus, Your duodenum, Your colon, And it just goes down this channel. David's Weekly Digestion Discussion. It just goes into this channel where it's like mana, But you have to truly enjoy it. Now, If you have a little guilt, A little whatever, Whatever, Or shame, Then it starts to hit the blood sugar, Then it starts to feed the tumors and all that stuff. So if you can get to a place that you really, Really love it, There's a protection there. Now, Obviously if you're doing it all the time and it's a reactive and you're leaning on it, Then we have another issue. But once in a while to have a recreational snack or meal. And then the other life hack I was told is never have two recreational meals back to the back, And there's a lot of reasons why physically that's not a good idea. So this was the advice that I was given. Have one once in a while. Feed that part of yourself and enjoy it. Chew it. Chew it really well. We had a show about this, Right? We chew it till it's liquid. We chew it. It's a form of restriction. Also the saliva alkalines, Whatever it is that's causing it to be acidic, Which is also a problem. So that's another life hack. And meditate on it. Look at it. Connect with it. Connect to its origins. I love it. I love it. No more beating ourselves up around food. This is a huge secret. We're not secreting those stress hormones that are actually causing. . . Those are the things that are really causing us to gain weight and be unhealthy. I'm sure everybody who. . . Not everybody, But a lot of people who are listening are just being made conscious that they use their food as a weapon or a reward for themselves. That's not something that everybody is conscious of. And if you reflect, You look at. . . And I think for a lot of us, It comes from. . . For a lot of people, It comes from their upbringing. That maybe their parents were very conscious of being how they look. So that trickled down to the kids thinking about food as either a reward or a punishment. This is how we eat a certain way. And when we're good, We get a reward. That might not even be something that's in your conscious mind, That you realize that you do, That you behave, And then you cut loose. And I've read different studies as well on. . . I know a lot of our listeners are outside of the US, But one of the issues. . . Obviously obesity is a huge issue in the US. And there was a study that was done on people in the US and people in France, That people in France actually consume per diem more calories, But are more healthy because they're enjoying it. Oh, That's so good. That they actually. . . Do you hear that? Do you hear it? Say it one more time, Because I think. . . That the French, On average, Consume more calories in a day than Americans, But they are healthier, They're more fit. And the conclusion was because of how they use food as a celebration, As a way to connect with one another, That it's an event in the house. It goes through the spiritual colon. It's not something that you do between activities. A lot of people, You come home from school, You gotta pack some food in so that you can go to your after school things, And then you gotta run home because you gotta pick up the kids so you have a snack in the car. It's not a scheduled. . . Like Elia said, Make time for it. It needs to be as important as the meeting, As being at school, As having a bedtime routine, Having our meals being etched into the framework of our life is not just as important, It's probably more important than a lot of the rituals and habits we have that aren't really healthy for us. The homework this week should be that we all go out and enjoy something that we would really love to eat, And to apply this consciousness and take our time with it and have a relationship with it and celebrate it, I love that word, Celebrate it. The amount of endorphins that it's gonna release, The amount of stress it's gonna remove, Holistically, Forget about the fact that this food's going down the spiritual duodenum. The gullet, The spiritual gullet. I bet, I bet if studies were done that if people ate this way, They may not even have anything coming out of the other end. Like the Israelites in the desert, That's what it says. It says that the manna had no, What's the proper word? Black products? Waste. There was no waste. The body used it 100%. They didn't have to go to the bathroom. So there is a precedence for this spiritual duodenum, The spiritual colon. It's pretty fascinating. By the way, I do want to make the point that they didn't, In the study, It wasn't just about weight. It was about cholesterol, Blood sugar levels, Heart health. It was a holistic look. It wasn't just looking at numbers on the scale, Which can be very deceiving. It was really about the overall health level of the individuals that were tested. The levels were much lower, Even though the, I mean, Think about French food. It's so rich and it's so, Like go to a French restaurant and you just want to sit there for three hours and chew slowly and enjoy every moment. That's actually the key. That's really the, The, The Kabbalistic advice, Maybe the French advice as well, The French Kabbalists would say, Be peaceful, Like sit and, And relish in the food because that's going to allow the food to reach not only where it needs to in our bodies to serve us in the highest way possible, But also spiritually. And Ellie, I know that one of the things that you focus on a lot on is helping people create memories around food. And we were talking before about how some of us may even have unconscious memories that program their behavior and their approach to food. Now, How, How can you help our listeners create new memories around eating? Like, For example, Like in my case as a professional, Like in celebrations and stuff like that, They come and they enjoy the meal or even like they come and they have a bad day or whatever, But the intention behind, Behind the dish is very like positive and the atmosphere and the everything together. And they basically live with a different perspective and with a different way of thinking that they, I will say like also like put the intention and just enjoy the, In my case as a chef, It's like all about flavor, Right? Like the harmony in my mouth, Like all these flavors, All these combinations, These textures is just creating an experience. So when, Whenever you go to this place and you bring that memory and you connect to whatever you have that experience. I think also we don't realize that we have soul memories around food. I know that for me personally, I have unexplainable connections and we know that whenever you have a memory, Even a fear that's unexplainable, The Kabbalists would attribute that to previous lifetimes. I can tell you, I have absolutely had previous lifetimes in certain countries where I'm just naturally connected to the culture, To the language, To the cuisine. And that's something else to, To think about as well. There is one concept though that keeps on coming up in the feed and I want to hear from both of you about it. One thing people want to hear us talk about is fasting, Which is related to the second concept, Which is restriction in eating, Right? It's one thing to have a scoop of ice cream. It's another thing to have two tubs of ice cream. And how does one strengthen, I know, I think David already answered this, But I'm going to ask it so that we can describe it, Explain it explicitly is how do we balance when it comes to things that are hard for us to restrict on? Meaning Kabbalistically, We know restriction is the act of resisting the impulsive desires, The impulsive need to grab energy in a certain form and finding another way to get it, Right? It's not repression. Repression is resisting the desire. Restriction is resisting the desire, But finding another way to fulfill it. So to me, The Kabbalists explained that used fasting for very specific purposes. It wasn't a recreational activity. It was something that was done with intention and not, Honestly, I haven't come across an example of fasting that was for medical benefit, Although I know that there's a lot of information out there these days around using fasting as a way to cleanse the body and reset the body. I know many who reverse their diabetes with fasting, So it's not something that I'm well versed in, But I can tell you from a Kabbalistic point of view, It was more something that was used to train the spiritual body to be stronger than the physical body, To train the higher self to have dominion over the lower self and not something to be used. I think that people use either restricting, Or they call it restricting, It's really repression, Not eating for periods of time as a form of punishment. They look at it as a way to suffer for the sake of revealing light, Which doesn't always work that way. And I think also part of the, When I said David answered it before, David talked about enjoying, Allowing ourselves, Giving ourselves permission to enjoy the food, To savor what we're consuming. And at the same time, And I read a diet book years ago called The Carbohydrate Addicts Diet. I don't know if we're allowed to say that on the air. The fabulous book lost tons of weight, And the premise was you cannot not eat what you want. You just have to be more mindful about when you eat it. So you were really good, You behaved all day, And then you picked one hour of the day where you allowed to eat whatever you wanted. Think about that for a second. One hour a day where you could eat whatever you wanted, As long as during the rest of the day you didn't exceed a certain amount of carb consumption. And rather, I'm assuming you don't want to talk about this now because we're over. We're not over because we started way late. You want to get into fasting now in the last two minutes of the show? I want to talk about restriction because we're talking about purposeful eating. All right, Hit it, Hit it, Hit it. I think we have two minutes, But hit it. I've been hitting it, And you're going to have to hit it in a second. The point being that restriction works when it's done with intention and when you have enough energy to do it. That's my point, That a human being, And we share about this in our classes about the marshmallow test, The famous Stanford experiment in the. . . I think it was in the 60s where they gave kids. . . There's that sound again. They gave kids a marshmallow, And they said, If you cannot eat that marshmallow, In 10 minutes we'll come back and give you a second marshmallow. Yeah, That's famous. And they stayed in touch with those kids over 30, 40 years, And how they performed in that test was a predictor of their long-term success in terms of relationships, How many degrees they got, And it was really about the ability to delay gratification. But the point is it's a delay. It's not avoid, Eliminate, Destroy. There is. . . We are here to enjoy. Do not forget that. If you want to enjoy more, You'll find a way to be in control of the enjoyment. For the person that needs to pack, Finish the whole container of ice cream, Buy the single serving ones and give yourself a whole. . . The Kabbalists teach this concept, You have to know your opponent. Everybody has a unique opponent. If you don't know your opponent, You're not going to be able to win. The same way that before the Super Bowl, The two opposing teams watch film reel after film. . . Recording after recording of their opponent so they can understand their plays and their tactics and their strategies. The same is with us, We've got to know where that Achilles heel is so that we can prevent ourselves from even touching it. And so, Go David. Go where? The show's over. Where do you want me to go? We have one minute. One minute. Dangle a carrot for next week's episode and then we'll- Well, That's what I was. . . I had a lot written down here that I know we're going to get into next week's show, But I do want to discuss. . . So, Do a little cliffhanger here. I do want to discuss how we say eating bad food versus good food is actually spiritually a problem. So, When we start to label good food or bad food, So much so as. . . You know, Kabbalists say that if you have clothes on the ground and you step on it, It spiritually messes with your energy and your aura and your protections. A lot of very powerful secrets there on how we label food and that goes into the relationship we have with food. I will also say as a cliffhanger, Having negative associations with food can lead to, And the studies have shown this, Anxiety, Guilt, And then people compensate for that. So, They start skipping meals. They start eating a lot less or eating more or they try to work out more. All of that stuff becomes reactive. Forget about the fact that there's eating disorders that are spawned from that. I thought it was interesting. We talked about how we have like 60, 000 thoughts a day, And the studies have shown we have about 60, 000 thoughts a day. We don't really have space for negative thoughts around even food. It's something I just want to talk about. Diets and lifestyles I wanted to get into a little bit and starvation studies. So, It did kind of seep into fasting and the pros and the cons and what the Kabbalists say about fasting and making sure that it's done right. That's kind of my cliffhanger for next week. This and more next week on Weekly Energy Boost. Chef Elia, Do you have any final words to share with our listeners before we sign off? Yeah, I will say basically, Well, Cook with lots of love and cook. Make sure your intention is to make your people happy and create memories and all the flavors and enjoy it. I love that. So please, To rate, Review, Like and share. We are only as far-reaching as you help us be and our viewership, Our listenership is growing and it's amazing to be able to hear from so many people around the world and to share with you guys. I can't wait to see you next week, To eat with you next week. We will see you next time on the Weekly Energy Boost. 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