You Are What You Eat

For the past 9 or 10 months I have been struggling on and off with my diet. You would think that with the number of specialists I have worked with, including Naturopaths, Traditional Chinese herbalists, Personal Trainers, a father with a PhD in Food Science as well as reading all sorts of nutritionally related books over the past 10 years, I would be right on top of this. Well, all it takes, apparently, is a couple of months of not making nutrition and exercise a priority, a continuous bending of the guidelines, putting yourself under an immense amount of pressure or some combination of all of them. For me, it was the combination. 

So, after I finished school, I decided to do something drastic. I would radically change my diet to a higher amount of vegetables and vegetable proteins than I was eating and far less animal protein, keeping wheat and dairy pretty much out of the diet as well. I figured that as it was summer, I wouldn't cook the vegetables but eat them raw, predominantly in salads. I would also be a bit more disciplined with my exercise and try and do Nordic Track 3 - 4 days a week for at least 20 minutes, some core work at home as well as starting a Belly Dancing class. That should do it.

Unfortunately, as the summer progressed, I got tired more easily, had less energy and even less motivation and my clothes were fitting the same, which is to say I could barely get into them.

So, here I am, about 15-20 lbs. over my ideal fighting weight. But more than that, my digestion is off, sometimes to the point of extreme discomfort and sometimes pain. I am constantly tired, and getting out of bed in the morning is a battle. Ironically I am also frustrated and impatient with this situation, but I struggle to maintain any positive changes that I make. Or worse, make what I think are positive changes but there is no change physically either with losing weight or how I feel.

I decided to get some nutritional counseling. I had recently signed up for a health package where I do dance fitness. What caused me to sign up was unlimited yoga and dance fitness classes for a very low monthly fee, but it also included biweekly group nutrition counseling sessions. Sometimes it helps to be lucky rather than good!

The first class I attended (I missed the actual first class) was about how food and good nutrition helps your immunity, but not just from colds and flu, but from serious illness and disease. I won’t bore you with the science behind it, but effectively, if you want to get the most out of your food, it needs to be sourced fairly close to home in order to prevent spending too long being transported, and then it can’t hang around in stores losing vitality. You also need to eat it raw, because even lightly cooked or steamed food can cause vital nutrients to be lost. Even more, some of the best immunity boosters are fruits, which can only be grown in New England for a very short period of time. 

How does this help me? Too much raw food has been making me feel worse! Yes, of course I would like to do what I can to help prevent serious illness and disease and, yes, I would be really pleased to get rid of a few pounds. But what I really want is to not feel crappy, tired and unmotivated to live my life!

This caused me to wonder how, with all the information I currently have and all the new information and research that is going on, do I find that balance? How do I negotiate this minefield of information to determine the way, not just to my optimum health, but to that most elusive of qualities; wellness? How does anyone? I decided to experiment on myself! I figure, you are what you eat, and as you have to start somewhere to be well, you might as well start with something as basic and all pervasive as food. 

For the next few weeks, I’ll be trying out various methods and approaches to diet and exercise to determine what might be appropriate for me as well as my thought process as to why I chose them. I’ll let you know the types of foods I’ll be eating, generally how I will be preparing them and report back how I feel both physically and mentally. I’m kind of making this up as I go along, so I have no idea where this will take me, but it should be interesting!