It is probably pretty clear that I am passionate about
health. In all aspects. Today I have been thinking a lot about health
with regards to nutrition. What is
healthy?
Today we are so bombarded with diets X, Y and Z. X will promise this result, Y will make the
results of X better, and Z is a combination of both, but it will promise the
extra good results. I think you get my
drift. We are bombarded with an
incredible amount of diets that are just confusing our population to no
end. The fastest growing, and the most
lucrative industry of today is the diet industry, yet our population is
perpetually become more and more obese.
Does that make sense? You do the math.
Like the majority of the population, I grew up knowing that
food was supposed to be at every occasion.
Birthdays, family gatherings, funerals, Sunday visits, the list goes
on. Even a walk to the park typically
meant that we could have an ice cream cone or a Popsicle in hand. Every occasion was surrounded by FOOD. For many of us this is OK, for many of us:
not so OK.
Coming from a family that was relatively torn apart for a
number of years, I often sought food for comfort. Food would never yell, fight, or keep me up
at night. It was just there whenever I needed it. That relationship ended up manifesting itself
into the rest of my childhood, my adolescence and still into my 20’s. However, despite the challenges that it posed
for me, I feel like this relationship has led me to a path of what I consider
health.
Although I struggled with my weight for the majority of my
life, I always knew that life offered so much more than what I was
experiencing. When I moved to Newfoundland, I
met my boyfriend, and managed to reach my peak weight of 167lbs at the mere
height of 5’2. My boyfriend at the time had the metabolism of a pre-pubescent
boy. He could eat anything, and I ate
along with him. Dorito’s brownies, ice
cream, cookies. You name it, we ate it.
I was a size 12-14 pant, and I hated getting ready for any
function. I wore spanks (the most uncomfortable
running shorts known to man) when I would go out, and at any opportunity, the
sweatpants were on. Not long after that,
I began experimenting with food. I would
go through phases of not eating, eating everything, keeping myself in my bedroom, and feeling sheer loss and fear that I was
depressed and could not ever look and feel the way I knew I wanted to.
Then things took a slight turn. Our relationship was failing and I knew that
something really needed to change. So the
experimenting continued. I began trying
fad diets, I tried the special k diet. Failed.
I tried the salad diet. Failed. I
tried the extremely processed and low-calorie diet. Failed.
Despite the failed attempt at the salad diet, I always felt
wonderful eating vegetables. They made
me feel... clean. So I went back to the
salad diet. I started to incorporate
other things into my salads. Eggs, lean
meats, nuts, seeds, and oils. Within a
relatively short period of time I started to notice a difference in my body and
my energy. Clothes started to fit, my
energy was up, and my confidence started to rise. It was nice feeling. As time passed, I continued to experiment
with this.
Although the majority of my diet consisted of vegetables,
lean meats, good fats and oils, I was still consuming dairy (Yogurt parfaits)
and the toast in the morning. The
experimenting trend continued. I cut out
the dairy first, and noticed a change. A
positive change. My energy had increased
even more and my clothes started to fit even more nicely. The next experiment was the toast. I cut that out, and again positive
outcomes.
The reason I started experimenting with dairy and gluten was
because I noticed that every time I would eat them, my body was telling me
something. I was honing in on the
signals that my body was giving me, and I was adjusting according. It’s incredible how much you can learn from
your body if you ACTUALLY listen to it.
Despite the fact that these changes made me feel good,
friends and family kept telling me that I was being unhealthy. “Sandy, you have to eat bread.” ‘Sandy, you
need to eat dairy.” “Sandy, you can’t just live on meat and vegetables”. My body however was saying “YES YES YES”
while the people around me were yelling “NO NO NO”.
It did not take long for me to dive into research. I read and I read, and I couldn't be more
thankful for the information that was at the tip of my fingers. I was feeling so much better, I wasn't getting sick anymore. I was sleeping
better. So many positive changes. So
while everyone was saying “Sandy, you need to eat bread for fiber and milk for
calcium”, I continued to stick to my guns.
I managed to go from 167lbs and a size 12-14 to about 125lbs
and a size 0-2. I feel much better, and
this is MY health with regards to nutrition. Our bodies need REAL food. What is more real than clean meats and
vegetables, nuts, seeds, oils and fruit? These are foods that expire, they don’t
have labels, you don’t find them on the shelves. They don’t come in fancy boxes
with pretty writing and marketing strategies.
Instead these are foods that fuel our bodies. They give our bodies the nutrition they need
to exist in a healthful manner. These real foods create the shift from eating
easy foods to living life easily. When
we are properly fueled life becomes easier.
Think about it.
I will leave you on that note, and I will be sure to
re-address this in more detail within some other posts.
Bon Nuit!
