Finding My Healthy Part 3: The Rules

After starting to get healthy here are a few of the food rules that I used at various times.  None of them worked out or were sustainable habits for me in the long run. My only real goal at this time was to be healthy and feel better about myself. Some of them still make me laugh and shake my head.  I’ll write more about what worked but for today, we will stick with the unworkable and here they are.....

Monster Chocolate Cake does not look or taste like fruit.

 1. Eating only one serving of something. 4 oz. of cooked pasta will not fill you up. Thank the gods I decided if I was still hungry in half an hour I could eat another serving of something.  Of course I ate every 30 minutes as I was never full.

2. The grilled cheese sandwich moratorium.

3. Fruit as dessert and we are not talking about pie, just fruit.  This one made me stabbity.

4. Clean eating.  I know this phrase is everywhere but it seems restrictive to me and demonizes food.  Is some form of junky chip good for me? No, it is not, but I refuse to put it the into a food caste system that lumps pork shoulder into the same caste due to fat content.  I know what a pork shoulder looks like originally, a pig and the other I am not so sure what it looked like in its pre-processed state. They should not be in the same caste. I no longer adhere to clean eating or call my food clean or unclean unless it involves dirt.

5. Trying to understand USDA guidelines and use the pyramid of food (I know they use a plate now.)  I am still not sure why milk gets its own category as I am not undernourished and I don’t drink it or eat three serving of dairy on a daily basis. Also why are veggies and fruit not emphasized as much as grains. My attempt to get healthy with than food pyramid failed miserably.

What have you tried that didn’t work for you?

Finding My Healthy Part 2: The Ramifications of an Unhealthy Lifestyle

The ramifications of eating trying not to eat, binging, sugar, and eating non-nutrient dense foods was I got sick.  Looking back at what I was doing to my body it is no surprise that I got sick. What is surprising is that I did not get sick sooner.  My body had enough and sent me a very loud and miserable message.

I needed more of this.

I was never a big milk drinker and had started drinking more for calcium, really not the best way to get more calcium, go for some kale instead. I think I always had a mild allergy but with the increases intake of milk I started getting migraines and was snotty leading to sinus infections.  It took me about a year to identify what my migraine trigger was.  I went dairy free, it sucked.  I love cheese and was pretty pissed off about not being able to eat cheese pizza.

And less of this.

Candida was rampant in my body fueled by the large amount of sugar I consumed.  My skin was rashy on my face and digestive tract was inflamed and not healthy.  Yet more dietary changes to get rid of this.  When my acupuncturists handed me the do not eat list for candida, I almost cried.

Not eating had left me with cold hands and feet, that once fall hit never warmed up once they were cold.  Hello classic symptom of under eating. My head was an oil slick, while my body was dry a result of not enough omega-3s in my diet.

I always had a headache, my energy was low, dinner was often sugar, milk in the smallest amounts would give me a three day migraine, poop issues, etc.  This was one of the most miserable times in my life and I did it to myself.  It took awhile to start getting healthy, but other than not being able to drink milk and a random migraine, usually hormone induced, I healed my body by eating real food.