You Are What You Eat

The topic of diet has been coming up a lot lately, and the connection between what we eat affecting how we feel. As you all have gathered by now I embrace a holistic approach to wellness. Holistic as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary is "relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts". I view my body as a complete entity, with each symptom, pain or issue connected to the others. There is no question in my mind that processed, preservative filled, altered, fake and high fat and calorie foods make me feel bad. My symptoms will flare after a few meals out and let's not even talk about fast-food...road trips are much less fun when the restaurant tour includes salads instead of french fries! It has taken me many years and much trial and error but I have found an eating theory that works for me: If God made it, I will eat it. If man altered it, I try to limit it. Or at least indulge for emotional reasons, not practical ones, for crying out loud! When I open my full refrigerator there is never anything "to eat" unless I have already taken the nutritious, raw ingredients and crafted a dish. Or I want some cottage cheese or a hard boiled egg. It is extremely labor intensive and frequently annoying, always having to plan ahead, but it is something so fundamental to the management of my Fibromyalgia I have finally accepted that a big part of how I consider myself "managed" is because of my diet.

When I was at my sickest and disabled, having lost the use of my right arm and hand and unable to cook, dinner (along with everything else) fell to my husband. I was just a heap of emotional chaos slumped over on the couch, moaning and whining and complaining incessantly. After working his 10 hour days and then hitting the gym his version of dinner consisted of take-out. Burgers one night, burritos the next...and the pounds started packing on both of us. It did not take me long to figure out this system was not working, so we joined Nutri-System. Healthy as far as no preservatives it is NOT but it offered ease and calorie control and we kept at it until looking at one more package of freeze dried hamburger made me want to hurl the reconstituted scrambled eggs I had for breakfast all over the room. I researched nutrition extensively, constantly hearing how this person had recovered from Fibromyalgia on a gluten-free diet or gave up wheat and got better, how for that person it was bananas that were making them sick, or milk or corn. I tried it all. I never was "food allergy" tested but eliminated enough things from my diet for significant amounts of time that I knew the answer was not that simple for me.

When I became ill with CFS and Fibromyalgia an intense journey of self-discovery unfolded before me. I became disillusioned with modern medicine and the limitations it placed on its mastery of the absolute. How can something still evolving, still discovering, hell, something called the "practice" of medicine be so pompous as to discredit what it cannot yet prove? So I opened myself up to alternative methods as a means of survival and adopted a more holistic approach to living. I also came to believe in some pretty radical and off-the-wall truths that exist between man and nature. Our technology has grown so much quicker than we have biologically evolved and we are at the time and place in history where they could not be more at odds. American's have higher rates of obesity while consuming less fat. All these fat-free, sugar-free, calorie-free foods scare me, and I grew up on them! Exactly what are you eating if there is nothing in there? CHEMICALS! Chemicals that sit in your body forever, your organs at a loss as to what to do with them, no way to process them or get rid of them, and toxicity builds and builds until illness is born. So if you ask me what I eat it is simple. I eat a lot of vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and dairy, good fats and limited amounts of real sugar. I am in no way professing to be perfect, it would be a little scary if I was. Yes it is a complete pain in the wazoo, but if you start slow by adding more veggies into your diet and cutting out the processed and fast-food you may discover you feel a bit better, less stiff, less inflamed and more energized, too.

Thanks for joining,
Leah