Please don't tell me what to eat!

I know, I've been there.  You've transformed your life with food and you want to share your experience with the world.  What better way to do that than tell everyone who will listen what they should eat to make them feel better?  You're really on a mission to share what you truly believe will help everyone.  But here's the thing, just because it worked for you, doesn't mean it will work for me.

As Joshua Rosenthal says in Integrative Nutrition, "Nutrition is a funny science.  It's the only field where people can scientifically prove opposing theories and still be right."  We are each biologically diverse and there are many factors that may contribute to nutrition study findings.  Correlation is not the same as causation.

For me, personally, I get irked when people tell me that all humans should be vegetarian, and the only reason to eat meat is because it tastes good.  I can tell you from several years of personal food exploration that I do not do well on a vegetarian or vegan diet.  I get bloated and lethargic when I eat too many grains, or any legumes at all, which are primary sources of non animal protein.  If I don't get enough protein I get serious blood sugar drops and spaciness.  I am not alone in this. I know quite a few people who have had the same experience, including some who spent a significant amount of time eating vegan, such as this person.  I once happened upon an article from a woman bemoaning the fact that our environment was so toxic that even on a perfect vegan diet she still suffered several autoimmune issues refusing to consider the fact that maybe her diet wasn't so perfect for her after all.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against vegetarian or vegan diets in general.  If you are on one and thriving - that is awesome!  I'm just saying that it can't be assumed that it is the perfect diet for everyone.

If you are concerned for ethical reasons, I totally respect that.  I found this article interesting. It does not condone factory farming, but it looks at the ethical issues of farming from a perspective I hadn't considered. 

I myself have found that something close to the Paleo diet, or "Perfect Health Diet" seems to work best for me.  When I first discovered the difference it could make in my energy and health, I wanted to share it with the world.  I realize though that what works for me, might not be great for everyone.  When people trash the concept though they are not seeing the people for whom this diet has really transformed their well being.

Most of us know these days that cutting out processed foods and moving to a more whole foods based diet can have a positive affect on our bodies.  Everybody has different needs though when it comes to proteins or processing different types of foods such as grains, legumes and dairy.

Please do share your own experiences with food, but lets make a deal - don't tell me I'm wrong for eating meat and I won't ask you where you get your protein.

Easy Dairy Alternatives

There's a reason it's hard to give up dairy. Cheese is actually addictive. It's no wonder it took me so long to admit it was an issue for me when my reaction to it was not immediate.  Unfortunately, when that was the only major thing I cut out, the evidence was undeniable. My skin cleared up, my digestion improved and I lost the 10 pounds I had gained when work started back in the fall.  

The idea of never eating cheese again seemed terrible. I immediately got an Artisan Vegan Cheese Book. Unfortunately many of the recipes are pretty time intensive, and I don't have a lot of time to spare these days. I'm sure I will get to experimenting with the recipes some time, maybe this summer, but in the mean time there are some easy recipes I've tried when cutting out dairy in the past, and a few new ones I'd like to try.

Almond and Coconut Milk - One of my biggest vices is a nice creamy and sweet cup of coffee.  I've gotten to the point where I usually limit it to one time a week, if I have something like teechino instead.  Still, I like it sweet and creamy.  I'm not a fan off soy milk (or really any soy that's not fermented).  My local coffee shop Di Tazza makes me a great almond milk latte with maple syrup. They even went out and bought almond milk when I asked for it.  I find though that too much nuts can be overload on the system, so at home I often make my own coconut milk by putting one cup shredded coconut in a blender with two cups of water.  For almond milk I use about twice as much water.  With my Vitamix, I just blend on the smoothie setting and strain through a nut bag.  With a standard blender, I boiled the water first and blended for a whole 10 minutes before straining.  Coconut works well for me in coffee, but if I want to make hot cocoa for myself and the boy, almond is more creamy.  Next time I think I'm going to try to combine the two! 

Banana Ice Cream - My favorite healthy ice cream substitute is simply a frozen banana in a blender or food processor.  It's great alone or with added cocoa, nut butter, cherries or anything else you can dream up!  I take any extra and put it in push pop molds for future consumption. 

Almond Cream Cheese - When I first went paleo, I made a grain free pumpkin bread with this cream cheese substitute.  It was super tasty and a big hit at parties, but I realized I was going overboard on the nuts so now its an occasional thing.  I also tried it as a substitute for sour cream to make a tasty dip. 

Nacho Cheese Dip - This one was surprisingly tasty. When I stopped eating a lot of grains and beans, I haven't really used it, but I think I will try it again. It might also be a good cheese sauce in some sort of casserole or Mac n' Cheese like recipe. 

Cashew Parmesan - Another deceptively simple one.  I just combined cashews, salt and garlic in the food processor and blended until the texture of Parmesan cheese.  I even put this on one of our attempts at grain free pizza.  The "cheese" tasted better than the crust. 

Cauliflower Ricotta - So many cheese substitutes involve nuts or other foods you probably shouldn't consume in large quantities, so I was super excited to find this substitute for ricotta that mostly consisted of cauliflower!  I even made an easy lasagna by layering sauce, gluten free lasagna noodles, "ricotta", ground meat and sauce two times and then topped with Daiya cheese. 

It's not super pretty, but it was super tasty!

I know what to do, so why can't I follow through?

As long as I can remember, I've been highly sensitive to my environment.  I remember feeling like an emotional roller coaster and would experience times where I'd be overwhelmed by a specific sensory input, such as sound.  I also constantly struggled to pay attention in school and learn "inside the box."  In early college I read about ADD, and thought "Aha!  That must be me!"  I went to a counselor to pursue a diagnosis, gathered original copies of my school files to give him and never followed up on an appointment to get "officially diagnosed."  I was never able to track those papers down since by the time I thought to look into it again, I could no longer find the practitioner.  I remember later taking a psychology class and learning about dendrites, which are your neuron's branchlike extensions that carry nerve input to the cells, and deciding that my problem was "overactive dendrites." Somewhere in there, I began experiencing the beginning of Fibromyalgia with Chronic Pain and Fatigue.  I always believed that these were all intertwined, but only recently has there been the beginnings of research to support it, such as this article, which connects them both as Autonomic Nervous System Dysfunction.

Executive Functioning and Chronic Pain

People with ADHD have difficulty with Executive Functioning, defined on Wikipedia as, "cognitive processes that regulate, control and manage other cognitive processes, such as planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, verbal reasoning, inhibition, mental flexibility, task switching, and initiation and monitoring of actions." In the educational setting, we often compare Executive Functioning to an "Executive Assistant" who helps to plan, execute and manage projects.  In Executive Functions, Self-Regulation, and Chronic Pain: A Review, they note that, "Chronic pain conditions may be associated with impairment in executive functions, which is not surprising given that the same brain regions are implicated in both."  In addition to the negative impact that executive function and self-regulatory issues can have on physical pain, physical pain can also have a negative impact in the other direction.  It was found that "self-regulatory strength is a limited resource that can be depleted or fatigued."  This presentation further supports the idea that chronic pain has a negative impact on persistence of self-regulatory tasks.

So what exactly does this mean for me?

In short, poor self-regulation skills can contribute to chronic pain and chronic pain can exhaust your stores of self-regulatory ability.  Almost all of the things we know to help increase wellness and decrease pain involve creating consistent positive habits.  Creating new habits requires a significant degree of self-regulation.  Well crap!  No wonder I've cycled through any number of diets and physical therapy programs without sticking to them! 

Unblocking the roadblocks on your path to wellness

I've been working on this question for years, but things have really started clicking for me personally in the last year or so.  I am embarking on a journey to research what works to help people with self-regulatory issues actively change their habits and make it stick.  In the mean time, I will share what I've learned from a personal standpoint that has really helped.

Find something that works

Now this may seem like a no brainer, but over the years I've noticed something about my self.  If I haven't noticed a significant change in two weeks - I am highly unlikely to keep it up.  This is especially difficult with fibromyalgia, since it is very hard to find something that is so quickly effective.  I'm not saying not to do things that you know will have long term positive consequences, but if you can find even one thing that has an immediate impact, it can increase your motivation to make the changes that don't. For Patricia Stephens, author of Reversing Chronic Disease, it took a diagnosis and medication for AD/HD to spark the healing process, then she went on to find natural ways to treat her issues without conventional medication.  I shared the things that have worked for me personally in my last blog post.  These things were so powerful, that it was easy to maintain them.  When I found stretches that stopped my chronic headaches in their tracks, it became much easier to do them than not to.  When I can see how eating grains can make me feel like I was hit by a mac truck in the morning, it takes almost no willpower to avoid the muffins in the staff room.  

Routine, routine, routine!

As a school psychologist, this is one thing that I encourage in all students with Executive Functioning issues.  For me, if it's not in a routine, I'm unlikely to do it.  Since bedtime is the one consistent part of my day, it helps to tie things to my bedtime routine.  This means it often takes me an hour to wind down for the night, but that process also helps to slow down my brain and prepare for sleep.  You can also plan routines around wake up, getting home, after meal times or any other natural transition in your day.  

Ditch black & white thinking

This is big!  When you lack self-regulation skills, moderation can be hard work!  For years, I would dive into something 100%, then fall completely out of it after one break. Food has been one of those things until very recently.  I'd try something that felt intuitively right, but never made enough of a difference to stick with it.  Now I realize that low carb diets felt good for me for a while mostly because I wasn't eating grains.  Now I've come to learn that I can eat more carbs and still feel good, as long as I stay away from most grains except rice.  I am finally able to make decisions about what I eat on a case by case basis.  If I'm tempted to eat something that I "shouldn't," I weigh the pros and cons.  Sometimes "but it's delicious" is a completely valid argument.  I sometimes acknowledge that I overindulged, but I never feel guilty about it or "throw the baby out with the bath water."

Listen to what your body has to say

When a grain of sand in the bathtub is extremely irritating to you as a child, you begin to learn to block things out.  When your body is constantly sending messages of pain and discomfort, you try your best to stop listening.  I have always said that I have a very low pain threshold, but a very high pain tolerance.  Having been through natural childbirth, I now know this to be true.  The thing is though, if you are ignoring what your body has to say, you might miss when something is starting to work.  More importantly, if you aren't paying attention to the signals your body is sending, you will likely persist longer in activities that aggravate your pain.  This is where the mindful moments I discussed in my last post can be useful.  Basically, set a reminder for yourself every hour to check your pain and tension levels.  This can take you a long way in awareness of what is going on in your body and how things progress.

Take care of the ones you love by taking care of yourself

For some of us, it may be much easier to do something for the sake of others than for ourselves.  My best persistence with self-care activities was when I was trying to get and stay pregnant.  Fixing my pain for myself was never enough, but fixing my body for the sake of even a future child suddenly became more motivating.  Partly for this reason, my pregnancy was the healthiest time of my adult life.  What I've needed to remind myself is that taking care of myself is the best thing I can possibly do to take care of the ones I love.  First of all, there's the concept of putting your mask on first before you put it on your child.  If you don't take care of yourself, you won't be as effective at caring for those close to you.  Also, those who love you are often pained at seeing you suffer.  Finally, if you have a child and want them to thrive, the best way of doing this is to be a strong role model for good personal care.  

Take time to plan your time

When you are lacking internal organization in your brain, it becomes imperative to create external structures to support organization in your life.  Plan time in your week to do the things you need to do to feel good.  If you don't schedule it, it is unlikely to happen.  I recently took a webinar with Marydee Sklar on her program, Seeing My Time.  In this program she walks you through the process of making the abstract concept of time more tangible by making it visual.  Some strategies she uses include using analog clocks to see the passing of time and always having your daily schedule in view.

I am continuing along this journey toward wellness and finding my way as I go.  Even if I don't always feel great in the moment, I am learning that every step I take toward self-awareness is a step in the right direction!

Pitfalls to Avoid on the Path to Healthy Eating

I haven't posted in a while because I have gotten into the idea of becoming a wellness coach to help other people find their own path to wellness and have been researching that.  I also started doing hot yoga, which hasn't killed me yet! After just three sessions, both my acupuncturist and massage therapist have noticed a difference in my back!  While I'm still eating whole foods and grain free, I've shifted my personal focus a bit on getting regular exercise and stress management.

I've also been reading a LOT about nutrition and wellness!

Over the last year, I've noticed a few pitfalls on the paths to healthy eating that I have tripped over myself.  I wanted to share with those of you looking to change your eating habits.  They are relevant to anyone wanting to eat healthier, no matter what that looks like to you.

Eating too much of one food - When I first tried paleo eating, I went overboard on nuts and eggs.  Nuts seemed like a great substitute for grains, but it turns out they were never meant to be consumed in the quantities that we eat grains.  In fact, if you think about what a caveman would eat, the time it would take to actually get to the nut would make it very difficult to consume more than a handful in a day.  Some of the reasons to limit your nut intake can be found on Empowered Sustenance, my new favorite blog!   I've also heard of people developing an allergy or sensitivity to a food when they eat too much of it.  When I cut out nuts and eggs for the autoimmune protocol, I had what seemed like a possible reaction to them when I reintroduced.  Now I seem to do OK if I have them only in moderation.  If you think about it though, we were meant to consume a variety of foods, so avoid going overboard on any one thing.

Excluding or severely limiting one macro-nutrient - I have always felt more energy on low carb diets.  Now that I realize I don't process grains well, I wonder how much of that was low carb and how much was cutting out high carb grains.  Now I'm finding that I may need more starches to help curb my sugar cravings.  I'm still working on that balance.  Matt Stone, in his book Diet Recovery, describes his experience of initial positive results on paleo, but then a general decline followed after an extensive period of low carb eating.  Most of his criticisms of paleo surround the low carb version and the overly restrictive dogmatic interpretation of it.  Recently, I've been reading about the Perfect Health Diet, which seems like a better balance to me.

Dogmatic thinking - We are all different, so it stands to reason that one diet approach will not work for everyone.  Most people can agree that we should eat more whole foods, but outside of that, opinions vary drastically.  Integrative Nutrition has a free e-book available that discusses the importance of bioindividuality.    As they say in their book, "Nutrition is the only science in which two parties can comprehensively prove two different theories that are diametrically opposed to one another."  Start with a diet plan that makes intuitive sense to you and then experiment mindfully to explore how different foods make you feel.

Black and white thinking - I have always been an extremist thinker and it's easy to approach things with an all or nothing mentality.  When I'd try low carb dieting, I'd loose some weight for a few weeks, but then I'd go back to whatever eating habits I had before when I'd inevitably "fall off the wagon."  If you restrict your diet so severely that any slip makes you start all over again, then you will never be able to maintain new eating habits.  If, instead, you consider each time you eat how it will impact you and how it will make you feel, sometimes a little "cheat" now and then is worth the results.

Forbidding indulgences - If you can never have the things you love, you will never stay on the path to healthy eating.  Find healthier versions of those things if you can, and limit them to a special treat.  If you don't plan you indulgences, you are much more likely to eat highly processed and unnatural treats when you have a craving.

Don't stress about it! -  While it might be helpful to start with a restrictive diet while you figure out how you react to things, consider it an experiment and play around with it.  Stress negatively impacts your digestion and puts you in a fight or flight mode.  What good is the perfect diet if you're not digesting your food well!

So, the bottom line is, vary your foods, find what's right for you and above all, have fun with your eating!