Healing Beyond the Plate: My Journey from External Fixes to Internal Freedom. From Green Juices to God’s Grace: The Health Journey I Didn’t Expect.

For years, I believed that the key to health was what I put into my body, what I ate, how I moved, and what supplements I took. I devoted myself to this belief with passion. I went on a 40-day juice cleanse. I embraced a plant-based lifestyle. I ate raw, I fasted, I detoxed.

And yet, I still found myself battling gastrointestinal issues, unexplained fatigue, and emotional spirals that no superfood could touch.

It wasn’t until I began to observe myself really watch how I responded to life that I began to understand why.

Discovering the Root: The Mind-Body Connection

Through deep reflection, journaling, and honest self-inquiry, I began to notice patterns.

Why did certain situations make me feel anxious or shut down?

Why did I often feel unworthy, overlooked, or rejected, sometimes by others, but often by myself?

Why did my body seem to hold on to tension, no matter how many green juices I drank?

The answer was hidden in plain sight: my nervous system.

Our nervous system is deeply connected to our subconscious mind, and our subconscious mind carries every belief, every wound, every message we absorbed as children especially in the absence of emotional support.

Growing up, I didn’t always have the emotional nurturing I needed. I learned to suppress feelings, to be strong, to survive. And unknowingly, those suppressed emotions became programs that shaped how I thought, how I felt, and eventually… how my body functioned.

I wasn’t just battling a digestive issue.

I was battling decades of unprocessed emotions like rejection, abandonment, and unworthiness beliefs that quietly whispered:

    •    “You’re not enough.”

    •    “You’re too much.”

    •    “You need to work for love.”

The Great Mistake: Thinking Health Starts Outside

In today’s world, we are taught to believe that health starts on the outside:

“Eat this, avoid that.”

“Move more, stress less.”

“Take this supplement, do that detox.”

And while these things have their place, they are not the foundation.

Jesus made this clear when He said:

“It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

Matthew 15:11

It’s not simply what we eat that harms us, but what lives within us.

What’s inside our hearts and minds, resentment, fear, rejection, bitterness, shame and anxiety those are the things that truly cause dis-ease.

The Real Path to Health: Renewing the Mind

True healing starts with renewing the mind which also means tending to the nervous system.

Romans 12:2 says it beautifully:

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

My journey now isn’t about chasing the next diet or cleanse. It’s about this:

    •    Observing my reactions.

    •    Noticing where my body tenses up.

    •    Becoming aware of where I still feel like that overlooked child inside.

    •    Breathing deeply into those moments and asking God to heal them.

This is nervous system work.

This is emotional healing.

This is spiritual renewal.

It is slow. It is deep. But it’s the only path I’ve found that actually works.

If you’ve been caught in the endless cycle of external fixes, diet after diet, protocol after protocol only to still feel stuck in your body and mind, I invite you to consider this:

Your body may not need another diet.

It may need to feel safe.

It may need love.

It may need the peace that comes from facing old beliefs and letting God rewrite them.

Health begins not with what we do, but with how we think, feel, and believe.

This is what Jesus came to offer us:

Wholeness. Restoration. Freedom.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28

Today, my health journey is no longer just about what’s on my plate.

It’s about what’s on my mind, what’s in my heart, and how much space I am giving God to heal me from the inside out.

This blog isn’t about rejecting healthy eating or movement. It’s about putting them in their proper place, as tools, not saviors.

Because ultimately, healing begins in the mind, settles in the nervous system, and flows outward into every part of life.

Questions for You to Reflect On:

    1.    Where in your body do you feel tension or discomfort?

    2.    What emotion might be sitting underneath it?

    3.    What belief from your childhood could still be shaping your reactions today?

    4.    What would it look like for you to offer compassion to that part of yourself?

    5.    What might God be inviting you to surrender?