Health, what does it mean to you?

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!