I am from a very small town. Over a couple of decades ago when I was living in that small town, I started noticing several people in town were losing A LOT of weight. I remember asking how that was happening. They were taking some kind of supplement or pill. It was so long ago; I really don’t remember. I just remember a lot of people were taking it and they were noticing a difference. Over the years there have been some popular diets that people have been doing to lose a lot of weight. Atkins, Keto, Paleo, etc. I was one of them. I went on the Paleo diet exclaiming it was a lifestyle. And, truly at the time it really was a lifestyle. I was dedicated to eating the way the Paleo Diet says to eat. No gluten, no grains, no refined sugar, no dairy. You can eat meat, veggies, some fruit, nuts and seeds. That is the Paleo Diet in the simplest form. I definitely lost a lot of weight and I felt great!
Then I started dating someone who didn’t eat that way and started saying to myself, “Just a little bit of sugar or 1 piece of bread will be fine.” Next thing I know I’m no longer being disciplined, and I gained the weight back. Over the years I have tried a few other things like Keto. I couldn’t stick with it for some reason even though I love dairy and Keto “allows” dairy, it just wasn’t working for me. I tried to go back on Paleo and my body would not respond to it like it did before.
That’s when I had to say to myself, “Self, your body has changed, and you need to find what works for you to make you feel good. You are not the same as everyone else.” Everybody and every BODY is different. What works for one person, won’t work for the next. We have to do what is best for our own bodies. I used to be jealous of those people who could run miles and miles everyday. Let’s be honest, I still am kind of jealous. I so wanted to be able to run, that I years ago I joined a running club to learn the proper way to run. I learned A LOT and the ladies in this club and the woman who runs it and still has a running club to this day, are AMAZING! I did a half marathon, running and walking. When that was over, I was done running. I didn’t like it ( I wish I did!) and I could never get up to where I was running a straight mile without stopping to walk. Even in high school when we had to run everyday, I couldn’t do it. I realized, running is not my thing and that’s ok. I had to find what is best for me.
Bio-individuality means each person is different and has different nutritional needs. I would take that a step further and say the type of exercise our body thrives with is also individual. If someone has an auto-immune disease, they are not going to be able to eat the same things as me. If someone is diabetic or has high blood pressure or heart disease, they can’t eat the same as me. Same with exercise. Some people do well with weight training, others it may be too hard on their bodies.
How do we determine what is best for us and our bodies? Well, unless you have a health issue like the ones listed above, you can do things like elimination and experimentation to determine how your body reacts. Say for example, gluten. For me, gluten is not a good thing. Am I allergic? I don’t think so. As much as I love gluten, I feel sick when I eat it. I still eat it once in a while and I always regret it. I found this out by eliminating it from my diet and got in touch with how my body feels without it. Then I added it back in and paid attention to how it feels when I have it and realized, gluten should not be in my diet. I do this with everything that I eat.
I recently went vegan. The only reason I decided to do this was because I wasn’t feeling good and Paleo wasn’t working. I gave up meat and dairy and I feel better. I haven’t lost any weight, but I do feel better. But I also have noticed that now that it’s hot, I get the shakes a lot more so I eat sugar. When I do that, I feel better so I think the heat is dropping my blood sugar. Now I have to figure out what foods I need to eat that are good for me that will help with that so I don’t eat sugar. Juice is another thing that I absolutely love and love how it makes me feel.
There are certain things everyone should be doing. They are, stop eating refined sugar. It truly is bad. Also, eat more veggies! Everyone should be eating more veggies. The rest, pay attention to your body and how it reacts to foods. Do what is best for you, not what is best for your bestie and don’t let anyone convince you that you don’t know what is best for you. Let me know how you feel!
Healthy Heart and Happy Soul 