We really are what we eat
It’s safe to state that my 40s were the unhealthiest years of my life. Even safer to say that it was self-inflicted due to eating foods that were not what my body needed!
The rot set in when I joined the sales team of a large commercial bakery that supplied confectionery to top retailers. To sell your products, you need to be very familiar with them, and as they consisted entirely of cakes, biscuits and tarts, I was soon munching my way through more sugar than I had consumed in the previous 40 years. I no longer baked at home – I even sold my Kenwood Chef! The family loved the constant supply of hot puddings and chocolate brownies, and at first I had no ill effects. But over the years, the body puffed up and held excess water, my hands and elbows were so painful I could hardly hold a cup of tea, and my feet really hurt when I got up in the morning. I thought I was just getting older and starting to get arthritis, along with the onset of middle-age spread. It was exhausting to walk up a flight of stairs.
After a marvellous trip to Italy, where I suffered in the heat and cured it with gelato, I determined to get to the root of my discomfort (and rotundity) and made a life-changing appointment with a health coach/nutritionist, who remains in charge of my wellbeing some 13 years later. Well, okay, I’m in charge, but she puts me back on track when I wander. Yes, I am entirely in charge of what I eat and responsible for my own decisions in that regard. We all are. And so we are what we eat. The only way to go was cold turkey – adhering strictly to the list of ‘eat’ and ‘don’t eat’ meant no cheating in any way. It was a controlled experiment with the best possible result. Within two weeks I no longer had a pain in my body (so much for imagined arthritis) and had started to lose the first of many kilograms. Within months I was feeling 20 years younger!
So began a journey of discovery as to what foods I should eat to maintain an optimally functioning body with the minimum of pharmaceutical interference. The alternative medicine route has proved tremendously beneficial, and if combined with mainstream treatment in specific instances, one can live a transformed life. I will be sharing what I have learned and encourage you to do your own in-depth investigation on the pros and cons of both worlds so that you can form your own conclusions.
