Sweet Love

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Hooray.

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Ghia here.

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Welcome to the creative, spiritual

journey podcast, where Judy and I talk

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about those things that bring us joy.

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For me, I find joy by

connecting with nature.

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Connecting with Jesus Christ

in our heavenly parents.

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Seasonal living and all the bits of magic

and wonder I come across while navigating

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this remarkable journey we call life.

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As part of my morning.

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I spend a few minutes in meditation.

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As part of my meditation.

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I say a little mantra with

hand and arm gestures.

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I say things like I am grateful.

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I am receiving.

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I am humble and I am abundant.

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At one point, my hands come naturally

before my heart in prayer position.

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And I decided this would be a good

place to say something about love.

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But I struggled with

exactly which words to use.

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Should I say, I am loved.

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Or I am loving.

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It took me a couple of weeks of

going around and around saying

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different renditions of love.

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Before I finally decided that if I

can say I am grateful and I am humble.

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Why couldn't I say, I am love.

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It seemed weird and a little awkward.

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But the more I thought about it,

the more it seemed appropriate.

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So I've probably been saying, I

am love for the last year or so.

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But just the other day as I

was going through the motions.

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I found that when I say I am grateful.

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Specific images and feelings

of gratitude came to mind.

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And when I said I am humble.

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The overwhelming feeling of one

of the most humbling experiences

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of my life easily washed over me.

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But when I said, I am love.

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There was kind of a blank.

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Now, if you ask me if I know what love

is, I would feel confident that I do.

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I am a mother, a wife, a daughter.

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These experiences in my life

have taught me about love.

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In fact, in relation to love.

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I once had this powerful experience.

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I was Creek kayaking.

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That means the river was

small Rocky and steep.

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And I had to self rescue after a flip.

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That means I had to pull my paddling

skirt, which keeps the water out.

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And exit the boat before drowning.

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And I had to get back in the kayak

and down river before I lost my group.

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Do you get the urgency of my situation?

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I was panicked.

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The problem was Mike paddling

skirt was extremely tight.

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In fact, it was so tight.

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I always asked for help getting it on.

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Faced with doing it alone.

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I yelled out if Riley needed

help, could I do this?

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Riley is my beautiful daughter.

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With one pole.

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I got that paddling skirt on.

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That to me is the power of love.

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But despite this experience

saying the words, I am love seams.

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I don't even know how to describe it.

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Foreign, uncomfortable, awkward.

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These just aren't words.

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We generally use.

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So because of this, one of my goals

this year is to deliberately explore

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love and see what I can find.

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What comes up for me?

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What images and experiences

might these words invoke and how

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do these words feel in my body?

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Now.

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It's no coincidence that this

podcast about love is coming out

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right before Valentine's day.

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So I want to shift gears a little

and talk about love differently.

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Valentine's day is a whole

day set apart for love.

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Isn't it wonderful that we have

a holiday dedicated to love.

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There are lots of theories floating around

on the internet about where Valentine's

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day came from, where it originated.

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I'm going to tell you

the version I like best.

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Why not propagate the most romantic.

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The story goes, that Valentine

was a priest in the Roman empire

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during the third century a D.

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During this time, the emperor Claudius

the second was embroiled in war and

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desperately needed more soldiers.

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Because Claudius believed men were more

likely to enlist if they weren't married.

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He shockingly dared to outlaw marriage.

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Can you imagine?

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Who would ever think this was a good idea?

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But apparently he did.

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Ah, but here comes our hero.

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Not believing this law to be

just priest Valentine, performed

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marriages, despite the law.

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And was eventually thrown

into jail for his crime.

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Here he is said to have fallen in

love with the jailer's daughter.

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The night before his execution, which

was to take place on February 14th.

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He sent this girl a love

letter and signed it.

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Your Valentine.

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Isn't that a heart-wrenching story.

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But it doesn't exactly.

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Explain how we got our current holiday.

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You may know that Valentine's day gained

its popularity during the Victorian era.

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But do you have any idea what

catapulted this holiday to success?

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It was a reform in the English

postal system called the penny stamp.

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This affordable stamp bait, sending

Valentine's cards, all the rage.

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And listen to this.

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Victorians began sending so many

Valentines that postal workers were

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given a special refreshment allowance to

help them get through the long delivery

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days that were required to get all the

Valentines to their appropriate mailboxes.

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So there you go.

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You've been refreshed on your

history of Valentine's day.

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But I had an alterior reason for

telling you this whole story.

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And that is because I want to

talk about the tradition of giving

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little sweeties for Valentine's day.

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You know what I mean?

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Chocolates, candy hearts,

and sugar cookies.

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Why do we do this?

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What is it about sugar

that represents love?

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It's a feeling right.

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Sweets, give us a feeling in our bodies.

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And the idea is that these feelings

mirror, the sweetness care, appreciation,

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affection, and love of the giver.

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To be honest while growing up, I would

have said giving sweets for Fallon

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tines day was simply a tradition.

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I would never have correlated

suites with a feeling.

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Suites are subtle this way.

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I think we as humans have been giving

sweets based on an inner knowing.

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That our brains haven't always recognized.

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But nowadays we're all over it.

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Right?

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We have science that explains

how sugar gives our bodies.

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A dopamine hit that causes us

to have short term feelings

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of happiness and pleasure.

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Makes sense, right?

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We aren't simply giving a

pretty heart-shaped cookie.

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We are giving the feeling of pleasure.

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This is wonderful.

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This is great.

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I love giving pleasure.

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Don't you?

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The problem comes when we realize that

for Victorians sugar was a real treat.

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It was rare and special something

they only got in small amounts.

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Did you know that 200 years

ago, the average American only

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ate two pounds of sugar a year.

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In 1970 Americans ate approximately

123 pounds of sugar a year.

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And today the average American consumes

almost 152 pounds of sugar in one year.

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I was recently reading over some

food storage guidelines that

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suggested storing 60 pounds of

sugar or honey per person per year.

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YG.

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That is going to be a huge drop in sugar.

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For those of us who are

so used to eating more.

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I actually shouldn't say used

to eating more, I should say,

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are addicted to eating more.

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Most of you probably know that white sugar

is as addictive to our bodies as cocaine.

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And the short term sugar may not be

as harmful as cocaine, but if you

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try to stop eating sugar, you will

quickly realize how addicting it is.

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for years, I used to jokingly

say that I was a good Mormon

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because I could hold my sugar.

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I mean, if you can't drink coffee

or alcohol and you can't smoke or do

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drugs, What other fun thing is left.

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Cookies hot fudge sundaes chocolate cake.

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You name the suite and we eat

it and we eat it with relish.

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But here's something interesting to note.

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With all the food controversy

going around these days, about

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how much of what we should eat.

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Which diet is best.

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There is one thing none of

the experts are arguing about.

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And that is whether we should

be eating more or less sugar.

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Everyone agrees.

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We should eat less sugar.

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Isn't that amazing.

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There is no debate on this point.

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Weirdly, there is one standout

anomaly, and that is with the FDA.

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Grab a box or a can of something

from a factory and take a

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look at the nutrition label.

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You will see things like total fat

content, what the correlating daily

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value percentage it represents.

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You will also notice cholesterol and

sodium and their respective percentages.

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But when you get to sugar, you will

see that there is no percentage.

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The FDA does not have a

recommended daily value for sugar.

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Isn't that crazy.

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It turns out that in our commercial

food system, sugar is so problematic.

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The FDA has chosen not to quantify it.

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I'm not trying to declare a conspiracy.

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Or make anyone feel bad

about sugar consumption?

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I'm simply trying to make a case for love.

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Where do we want our feelings

of love to come from?

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And what form do we want them to take?

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Sugar is wonderful.

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Our bodies need sugar to function

properly, and I don't think there was

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anything wrong with a dopamine hit now.

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And again.

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But if you're like me and you wonder how

to control your sugar cravings without

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taking all of the sweet joy out of life.

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I have three suggestions.

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Number one is to eat mindfully.

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Oh, there's that word?

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Mindfully.

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Everyone seems to be using it

these days, but how do we do it?

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Let me explain my interpretation.

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First.

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Do you know, one of my

favorite things to do.

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I love to go on a road trip

with my fabulous man, a good

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audio book and a bag of gummies.

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I will happily and

easily eat the whole bag.

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It's that much fun.

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Do you do this?

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How about eating a box of cookies

while you're watching Netflix?

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These are examples of mindless eating.

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Here's what I have to say.

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Eat your cookies.

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If you want to just try

to eat them mindfully.

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Do you notice how I keep using the word?

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Try.

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Remember cutting out sugar is

like breaking a cocaine addiction.

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When you begin to think about it

this way, you will find all kinds

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of compassion for drug addicts.

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I'm sure there are lots

of ways to eat mindfully.

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But for me, it looks like sitting down,

closing my eyes, savoring the sweetness

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and noticing how it feels in my body.

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My point.

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Is taking the time to

truly enjoy the goodness.

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Now how many of you would

say that's great Ghia.

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Kia.

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But once I eat one, I can't stop.

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This is where my number

two suggestion comes in.

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I have found that I can

cut my desire for sweets.

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If I eat a big fork full

of fermented veggies.

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Try it.

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I can just about guarantee

they will cut the craving.

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It's important to note that traditionally

every culture has had some form

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of fermented food in their diet.

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Unfortunately, the standard American

diet is missing any fermented foods.

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You might also ask what are fermented

veggies and where do you get them?

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Never fear.

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There are lots you can buy.

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Note, they must come from

the refrigerator section.

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You can't buy, for example, sauerkraut

off the grocery store shelves.

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Because in order to make the

sauerkrauts shelf stable.

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All of the healthy

microbes have to be killed.

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One brand of fermented veggies

that I can suggest is Bubby's you

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heard me Bubby's B U B B I E S.

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You can find it in lots of

grocery stores these days.

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If you want to make your own fermented

veggies, I would highly recommend you do.

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They are easy and tweakable

to your individual taste.

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There are lots of recipes

online and I will post one.

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I like in the show notes.

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Okay.

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We have reached my favorite sugar tip.

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I have a cookbook called with a

measure of grace from the hell's

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backbone grill and Southern Utah.

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The restaurant is known for delicious

food with local ingredients.

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One of the owners and chefs

was once a river guide.

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Like I was.

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On the river, she learned to cook

delicious food in the roughest conditions.

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She called it extreme catering.

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I can totally relate.

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River trips are often known for

great food because unlike other

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outdoor sports, such as backpacking.

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On the river, you can bring anything

you want without having to carry it.

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Because this hell's backbone,

chef was such a good cook.

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She got invited to cook and other

types of extreme catering situations

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until at one point she was invited

to cook for a group of Tibetan monks.

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After a meal, one of the monks

complimented her food and

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remarked that he could tell.

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She put a lot of love

into the meal preparation.

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When I read this for the first

time, it really struck me.

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This monk could taste the love.

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Now I believe that who makes our food

and how creates a perceptible difference.

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Food made with love and care is

different from food mass produced

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in a factory or fast food joint.

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This led me to decide that if

I was going to eat a sweet.

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I was going to eat it deliberately

and it has to be made with love.

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Meaning homemade.

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I just figure if we're going to have

sugar, this food of love, it has

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got to be so much better for me.

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If it is made with love.

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Call me crazy, but I want

all my sweets to be homemade.

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Now if I go to what church event and they

are serving cookies from Costco, I pass.

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Only if they are made with love.

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Do I let myself eat a couple?

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Okay.

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Sometimes I have more than a

couple, but you get my point.

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Homemade things are so much more finite.

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They take more effort.

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They're harder to eat mindlessly

because they're easier to run out of.

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So love your sweets.

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Love how they make your body feel.

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Recognize the feeling of

happiness they provide.

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But do what thoughtfully,

slowly and mindfully.

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I love this quote from president Nelson.

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When Jesus Christ asked you and me to

repent, he is inviting us to change

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our mind, our knowledge, our spirit.

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Even the way we breathe.

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He is asking us to change the way

we love think serve, spend our time.

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Treat our wives and husbands teach our

children and even care for our bodies.

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This Valentine's day.

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My goal is to care for my

body by continuing to change

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my relationship with sugar.

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It won't be easy.

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I am addicted after all.

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But my body.

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My body is worth the effort.

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Judy, and I know your time is precious

and that you have many choices.

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We love that you have chosen to

walk with us for a few minutes.

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As we talk about the joy we've experienced

while navigating this journey of life.

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If you like this podcast, the

biggest things you can offer

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is to share it with a friend.

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And remember.

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Sugar.

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Isn't the enemy.

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Just don't overdo it.

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You're sweet enough already.

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Nama stay.