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| La Boqueria Market, Barcelona / June 2013 'Let food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be food.' - Hippocrates |
I’ve rewritten this
post a couple of times over – careful not to overshare but wanting to be
honest.
I have had a turbulent
relationship with food, my weight and self-esteem. Rewind three years ago, and
I was still a teenager riddled with anxieties about her body and plagued with
low self-esteem. I was caught in a vicious cycle from approximately age 13,
where I would (always secretly) diet, lose weight, plateau, eat my feelings,
regain weight. Counting calories (and then later diet pills, laxatives,
starvation) consumed my thoughts.
Every year I took at least a couple months off school, because I was always sick. My immune system was essentially non-existent, my skin was sallow and pale, I would break out into acne and rashes, my mind was foggy and worst of all were the terrible mood swings I suffered. It became impossible for me to escape my emotions, I hated what I saw in the mirror and I hated myself.
All of this, I
attribute to my then-diet. My diet was highly processed. I was uneducated in
nutrition, and misled by advertising to believe that products labelled
diet/low-fat/low-sugar/low-calorie were healthy.
In the context of a product, out of a box, off the shelf, with a label - these
terms are not synonymous with health. Just as fast food is artificial, these
foods are loaded with artificial sweeteners, sodium, food preservatives,
colouring, flavouring. There was nothing nutritious about the food I was
eating, and the condition of my body and health fully reflected this.
Present day, I eat a
nutrient rich, plant based diet. My diet is not always perfect, but I am very
conscious about making good food decisions and focus on eating whole foods. I used to focus on the quantity of the calories I was
consuming, now I focus on the quality. I
have no doubts that the chemicals in the foods I used to eat played absolute
havoc with my clarity of mind and emotions. (Not to mention I was always
starving – how can any positive thoughts find room in a brain that can only
think about when it will be allowed to eat again!) I have made a ritual of
eating, and I have become so mindful of this that I can almost feel the cells
in my body being nourished with every mouthful. Food is no longer my enemy, and
I can enjoy it.
I never deprive myself
of food - the eternal sadness which used to consume me (potentially also
chemical imbalance in my brain) have disappeared, I am motived and full of
energy, I have clarity of mind, my skin glows, my eyes sparkle, I’m never sick
and I have lost around 10 kilos – all of which has stayed off, regardless of
how much I eat. The countless changes and benefits that my body has undergone
since adopting this lifestyle and since altering my relationship with food,
have been so extreme that I could never go back to my old diet, and return to
that starved and undernourished girl. Food is literally my medicine and has
healed me of all my previous ailments.
Make no mistake –
while I mention that I did lose weight, I am in no way advocating this as some
quick-fix weight loss solution. This is a holistic health lifestyle approach
that first and foremost seeks to nourish the body therefore increasing
vitality, and serving to prevent illness (rather than curing illness with
medication.) It requires far more time, commitment and dedication than
microwaving Jenny Craig meals but it is a lifestyle that I have adhered to
because of the way it’s made me feel.
It has completely changed my outlook on life and the way I value myself, so the
decision to stick with it has not been based solely on the way it’s made me look.
It’s important to me
that I share my experiences and spread the knowledge which I have acquired along
the way. A misconception exists that ‘diet’ products are healthy, but in
reality these products are void of any nutrition and are literally poisoning
our body and minds. I believe if the food industries weren’t controlled by the
government, people would receive a more sound education in nutrition, and
effectively, with this deeper understanding, would cease to be misled by food
advertising.
I wish for people to see their self-worth and value their bodies. I hope for people to invest more time in their health, so here on out, I will post at least one entry per week outlining tips for wellbeing, reviewing health products I’ve tried or recipes which make up the staples of my diet.
