Good-Bye August, Hello Whole Food

When’s the last time you did a Body-Check? I’m saying good bye to Whole Food August, but I am embracing the lifestyle. My energy is electric with great anticipation, yet full of satisfaction at the same time.  I am looking forward to having a glass of wine on September 1st.  Probably two glasses, I’m not going to lie.  But I’m going to hydrate before and after each glass (a good wellness practice), and I am going to pay attention to how I feel the next morning.

Here is the revelation I had this past week…  My husband made a shrimp stir-fry.  It was delicious, but I was in the bathroom all night.  It had familiar veggies and shrimp, so I wondered was the shrimp bad.  I survived.  A couple days later I cooked the remaining veggies, no shrimp, and had a reaction.

Body Check:  I wasn’t breaking out or in need of allergy medicine, but I did notice itching on my arms and torso.  No mosquito bites, no rash.  Then my stomach felt a little bloated.  Nothing too extreme to make me take medicine or need to lay down, but something wasn’t right.  Now this is where being mindful helps to improve health.  You have to actually check in with yourself or key irritants will go unnoticed.  Ok so after eating clean for a month, what could be the cause?  What’s different? No new perfumes or lotions.  Maybe air pollution?  Naaahhhhh.  I’m not THAT sensitive.  Am I?

Diagnosis:  Guess what it was?!?  Soy sauce!  The common denominator.  I shouldn’t have been having soy anyway, but ate it mindlessly because–its stir fry.  Come on, U Gotta kiss a good stir fry with a little taste of soy sauce!  I love that flavor.  It’s considered umami, a sweet savory flavor.  Most people are best familiar with umami’s cousins--sweet, salty, bitter and sour.

Rx: The combination of eating well and mindfulness creates the space for you to recognize things harmful to your body.  The revelation is that the way to maintain a level of magnificent well-being is to eliminate, and then slowly introduce items back into a diet one at a time, taking notice of any changes.

In conclusion, August has been a real eye-opener.  It took me three weeks before I started seeing changes in how my clothes fit. My real gift is patience and perseverance.  I had to accept the old days are gone when I could lose 10 lbs in 3 weeks, like that (snap)! I am now mentally prepared for the journey. The cherry on top is that I can actually learn the foods that make me feel like my best, BEST, vibrant, most wonderful self with this new tool that I am practicing more and more every day.  It’s called mindfulness.  Be patient, pay attention to your body, and become your best self.

U Gotta Eat…So eat mindfully.

But they who wait upon the Lord will get new strength. They will rise up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weak. -- Isaiah 40:31 NLV