Celia Lambert, Ph.D. in Holistic Nutrition, 1990
Through most of the first 30 years of her life, Celia Lambert battled food addictions. In elementary and high school, she was "the big girl" whose conflicts, disappointments and loneliness often resulted in eating binges — some of which lasted for hours on end.
At around college age, Celia learned the crafty second step: first binge, then purge. From there, her weight ping-ponged between approximately normal, rail-thin, and varying degrees of overweight. This life-long habit became life threatening.
"When a young person is feeling out of control in other areas of life, food is often the first thing they learn to manipulate," she observes. "Whether they sneak and overeat, refuse to eat, lie about dieting…these are all things that a child can pretty much control. They just do not realize the danger."
Celia finished school, married, and continued to unintentionally, unconsciously abuse her body until she and Gary had their first child, Garrett.
"I didn't want another human being to ever go through the pain of food addiction, and I also did not believe in telling a child, 'Do as I say but not as I do.' So I decided to break my addiction by learning all about healthy food habits so that I could make better choices."
After Celia enrolled with Clayton College, her growing knowledge in holistic nutrition helped her become more methodical in conquering her own eating disorder as well as translating these lessons into a healthy, self-confident and well informed household that now includes six children! Her husband is a chiropractor.
Their studies gave the couple much more than just "adult conversation" amid a houseful of spirited young children. While raising a new generation of health-conscious children, the Lamberts also share a satisfying life-path that allows them to teach many clients about natural health and holistic nutrition. In 2001 Celia authored her first book, A Healing Journey, to address the many faces of eating disorders and to empower people to heal themselves from the inside, out.
"Right now, I am also gently encouraging a mother of three that she, too, can complete her education with distance learning — even in between nursing and bathing babies and fixing dinner!"
Some of our favorite insights from Lambert's book, A Healing Journey, include:
- Have a real conversation with the illness. Figuratively yank it out of your body and examine its darkness. When the disease no longer holds control, we can emphatically bid it goodbye and become strong enough to win a fight of life over death. Without the addiction’s sinister shadow, the pure self re-establishes order and becomes whole again. With awareness and vigilance, such unhealthy imbalances are never again given domain to rule and try to ruin a human life.
- Use positive language rather than the "dry junk" of many 12-step programs. Instead of saying “" am a food addict," affirm health by saying, "I am consciously regaining my homeostatic balance." Lambert notes that many forms of traditional medicine do not even acknowledge recovery, and instead foster a life-long dependence on prescription drugs.
- When we learn to actively release guilt and fear, we can joyously find many ways to replace "lower" emotions with the "highest" emotions, love and light. Let the old traumas go, whether it's something as simple as peer pressure or something truly catastrophic. A good cry is cleansing, and so is deep breathing. As angst and other garbage flushes out, healing spirit energy rushes in.
- Lambert's definition of dis-ease is "ill at ease." Until one gets to the cause, we are merely dealing with symptoms. Depression, she adds, is anger without enthusiasm.
- Even though humanity is naturally attracted to drama, it is a better use of energy to move away from drama in order to see things more clearly. Take nothing personally, as each of us is on our own, singular, path. When children rebel, many times they run away from parental control. Lambert the mother hopes, instead, that her children will "embrace themselves, look inward, and run toward themselves."
- Ultimately, her book is about empowering people to know that they can heal themselves. "We already have everything we need, just waiting to be uncovered, reawakened. When we remember that we are always connected to source, how can we be lonely when we realize that we are never alone?"
 |
|
 |
|
|
|