Creepy
28 Dec
When you start paying attention to your body, and even more specifically, when you start paying attention to how food affects your body, you’re easily freaked out. You start recognizing the horror film-like demons that live inside you.
For instance, when I am making myself an espresso, and I smell the espresso brewing, I feel aches in the back of my neck and throat. I get this same feeling right before I am about to eat sweets. And it’s a similar physical feeling I get after I’ve eaten said sweets or drank said espresso, and 20 minutes later, when am on the down swing from the rush.
Is there a scientific explanation for this? Because I attribute this other worldy response to the “yeasties” — the overgrowth of yeast in my gut that I imagine drive me to drink coffee and occasionally gorge on sweets. And, sometimes the yeasties team up with the pack of hormones, who gather like wolves inside me while I am ovulating and drive me to indulge in food that I know doesn’t make me feel good long term.
They all somehow know the food is nearby — and drive me to notice.
They’re not very sympathetic either. Once they get what they want, they are not shy about messing with my insides. Just like I notice the pre-response of eating certain foods, I now also notice the icky things that come out of me after; when I eat too much wheat or dairy, for instance. Icky things that have to do with orifices and mucous and stink — things we normally associate with monsters.
If we cringe when we see monsters on the big screen, why don’t we cringe when we recognize monster-like behavior inside us? The mood shifts? The temper flares? The mucous? The stink? A lot of which, if we only took the time to notice, relates to the food we eat?
Loved how you captured the psychological conversation we can have with ourselves when it comes to choosing wellness.
Wellness is about inviting self-awareness about these very things….that heightened consciousness of how our actions affect our bodies is one of the most necessary & limiting steps I see with my clients.
With nutrition, I cannot give a client a pill and know that they will feel an immediate change within 20 minutes. But I know that if I they at least try and see how they can feel away from certain foods (wheat, milk, caffeine, etc) then they can at least make the conscious choice as to whether continuing a “wellness” lifestyle is right for them.
You have to know how good you can feel away from these things before recognizing what they do to our bodies, and that process can take 14-30 days.
Afterwards, you can feel great but can have lingering problems (like the “yeasties”) from your body compensating for so long…
Once you recognize the monster, it’s about figuring out what triggers you to keep him around and focusing your lifestyle on those primary aspects (like reducing stress), not necessarily focusing on the “diet” itself.
Thanks for the reply Alex. Your clients are so lucky to have you caring for them! I love you use the word “inviting.” It makes me think of how we have to invite vampires in. We can invite awareness; we can invite wellness; and we can invite monsters in (even when we are aware!)
I am so thankful that I made the conscious choice to step away from those foods (as you mention) because even when I am not at my optimal state of wellness I am able to recognize this and acknowledge it…and then choose to return.