Why I decided to change up my diet

Honestly I don’t even know where to start with this one. But I’m hoping as I write it starts making more sense and I can make a coherent blog out of it.

Before I had my son, I was fairly active, fairly healthy, and I could eat what I wanted when I wanted without too many negative side affects. I’d worked out a few years previously that dairy was not my friend (although it took me a number of years to accept it, because, well, cheese!).

While I was studying I remember going to a lecture by a nutritionist, who was very passionate about restriction, controlling your food, and having a focus on losing weight (even though he admitted briefly that it was the changes in habits that seemed to change the health outcomes even if the person didn’t actually lose weight). Anyway, it became a pattern that every week after one of his classes, it was my last class for the day and happened to finish right on lunchtime. Well, I got into the habit of stopping at KFC on the way home and getting a zinger tower burger. It kinda felt like my little “screw you, you can’t tell me what to eat” moment. Funnily enough once I stopped having him as a lecturer I didn’t feel the need for KFC anywhere near as often.

Fast forward a little bit and we were trying to get pregnant. I ended up seeing a nutritionist and based on my blood test results and symptoms she recommended I go completely dairy free and do a trial of gluten free. I’d been wondering if I should try gluten free for a while but this was the push I needed to actually make it happen. I was pretty good at reading labels by this stage and knowing which foods were dairy free (my husband is totally dairy free too), but also removing the gluten was a whole different ball game! It honestly felt like a life without gluten was a life without joy. I’d joke that It’s no wonder people lose weight when they go gluten free, there is nothing left you can eat.

Miraculously after around 6 weeks of going gluten and dairy free, I got my big fat positive. Woohoo!!!

Exploring New Orleans back in 2018, about 9 weeks pregnant and struggling

Morning sickness kicked my butt and I basically resorted to whatever food I could eat that would stay down. Most of the time that consisted of jam on toast. It definitely wasn’t helped that when I was about 8 weeks pregnant (right in the throes of vomiting multiple times a day) we went to the States for a couple of weeks. Trying to find gluten and dairy free food in the southern states felt too impossible, so I gave up on that one.

Roll on a few years and we decided to start trying for another bubba, so I went strictly gluten and dairy free again… however this time it wasnt the magic pill we were hoping for. After a few months I gave up and when I introduced gluten again I got these itchy spots all over my skin. It was horrible. But gluten is life, or so I believed at the time. After an unsuccessful year of trying we saw a naturopath, who also recommended I go back to strictly gluten and dairy free. We gave it a go for another 6 unsuccessful months before I’d hit my limit and we put that dream behind us.

Which brings me to the last six months. I want to look after my body, I want to feel good in it and have energy, but for some reason it felt too hard. A rough nights sleep would leave me craving sugar and fried foods to give me the energy boost to get through the day. Not being organised enough to do the grocery shopping before we were totally out of food meant I often resorted to the lazy options, fried processed food from the freezer. I never felt great afterwards even if they were tasty at the time. I ended up spiraling down a little before the end of the year, eating all the things that don’t benefit me long term, Including dairy milk chocolate which my skin is still paying the price for nearly two month later!

I hit my breaking point. Whatever I was doing wasn’t working. I needed to do something different. I wanted to see how good I could feel. I wanted to not need afternoon naps to survive the day. I wanted to practice what I preach, coz honestly If I can do it, you can too!!

I’ve been not too bad with my fitness lately, but eating needed some tweaking

Normally I advocate for changing small things at a time, but for this I needed to do it all at once. I knew what I was getting myself in for, I’d done it many times before. But this time I wanted to do it for me. Not to try and get pregnant. Not to try and punish my body. But to try to truly listen to it. To befriend it. To love and honour it. Honestly I don’t think I can say I’ve tried it for that reason before. And I believe that has made all the difference.

I started super restrictive (not in how much I was eating, just in what I was eating). Never intending to stay with that, but wanting to reset my body. To reset my tastebuds. The first 10 days were super challenging. I know when I stop eating gluten I need to retrain my body with its fullness clues. Normally when I’m eating gluten, what I recognise is feeling full is actually feeling bloated, so I need to change my recognition. Also I started eating a LOT more fibre, focussing on increasing my plant based foods. Vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts and seeds. This got my digestive system speeding up dramatically and it took around 10 days to settle down.

Another change I made was cutting right down on sugar and simple carb foods. For a long time I’ve gotten headaches nearly straight away when I eat high sugar foods (yet I kept doing it anyway), so I decided to actually listen to my body. In the past I have also experienced massive energy dips after high carb foods, so decided to really see how my body could feel if I focussed on balancing my blood sugar levels. Cutting out sugar removed the glucose spikes but is always hard to charge the programming to reach for something sweet when i’m tired. My goal was to give it a go for about a month and see how I felt, and if it was good, to stick with it.

Nearly two months later my energy is way more consistent. My sleep is better. I’m less reactive when things happen, and honestly I don’t want to go back! My husband has definitely noticed the change and I wouldn’t be surprised if my son has too. I’m not as strict as I was at the start, and I never intended to stay like that, but I feel good about what I’m eating, I feel good afterwards, and I have no issues going out and eating something I enjoy while trying to make choices that allow me to feel good in my body.

Some of my fears before I started was that I would lose my joy for food. I LOVE food! However thankfully since we’ve had some time over the summer I have also enjoyed exploring new recipes with loads of good flavours. Another fear was that I would get obsessed with ‘clean’ eating or restriction. I don’t have a history of disordered eating so I’m not totally sure where this fear came from, but I honestly now feel more empowered rather than obsessed or restricted. I can eat the fish and chips if that’s what is on offer (although I don’t feel amazing afterwards, I don’t let any feelings of guilt or regret get to me), and I can go out for dessert with my girlfriends and enjoy every bite. I just enjoy feeling better in my body and my mind.

The mindset change was the biggest thing for me. I don’t feel like i’m trying to change my eating to punish my body for failing in some way (like I have in the past), or even for aesthetic goals which never motivated me enough to stick with it. I just want to feel good in my body and treat it well. Amazingly enough it’s a new thing for me, especially over the past few years. I’m excited to see what happens over the next few years.

If you’d like some help with your eating, relationship with your body and boosting your energy, lets book in a free chat. I’d love to see how we can work together to help you live your best life.