Happy New Year!
2015 feels like it came out of nowhere. Last I checked it was December and there was a blur of birthdays, travel and the Christmas holidays - and then the clock struck 12 and now here we are.
I love making resolutions, and trying to stick to them is both inspiring and incredibly painful. Most fall by the wayside, while one or two actually stick and become life changing.
One such resolution is a change in my approach to health. Not many of you might know this, but I'm a total bubble kid. I am asthmatic and atopic. Basically I belong in a similar contraption to Jake Gyllenhaal in Bubble Boy because I'm allergic to everything and can't breathe a lot. Just about every form of dust, hair, bug, and polluted air sets me off - either allergies fire up or my lungs start doing their own version of "the twist". Luckily my clever parents were never big into paranoia or mollycoddling, and booted me outside to play anyway. And hence I've always played sport and pretended my asthma wasn't there. Until it was. Then its two weeks of fun.
The thing about growing up and getting older is that you move less and poison yourself more. As a kid, your mom worries about how many veggies you're eating and packs you a balanced lunch. You then go to a lovely clean school and spend hours playing sport afterwards. So you're more or less set for tip-top health.
Then you turn 18, head off to varsity and replace your packed lunches with two-minute noodles and cheap booze. You also don't really play sport because you have a busy time of it juggling hangovers and class.
Then you start work and you are dead tired all the time. You also earn your own money now and start to appreciate good wine. You drink a lot of that too (but hey, its better than those R2 shooters right?). You start winding down the big nights out of clubbing and dancing - which was at least some form of exercise - and replace them with dinners and drinks out and about with friends. The exercise thing is now something you have to make time for, and its often in the gym, and with no friends to play with, and you hate it.
Finally, you hit 28 and realise you've stopped growing taller and are getting wider and floppier and you really need to start eating better and you also decide that running will answer all your problems. So you buy expensive shoes and enter a half marathon. You run for a few weeks, suffer through the half marathon and then your running shoes collect dust. You then start bouncing between eating plans and workout fads, and you even start believing that carb-free pizzas and full fat milkshakes will solve your problems. Meanwhile, you're not only picking up weight, but your insides are crying, and you're getting sicker.
Does any of this sound familiar?
I know this post is somewhat out of character for this blog - and I promise to get back to the fun stuff and shopping, but just read on a little further.
Last year I saw one of the country's top pulmonologists (fancy shmancy lung doc) and thats when I found out my allergies were a big fat hairball covered joke. I found out I was allergic to just about everything outside. I changed medication and now use an asthma pump daily. This was a step in the right direction but throughout 2014, I still got ill. And even though I was healthier and fitter than I'd ever been, my body wasn't happy. So it had to be something I was doing wrong that had to do with what was happening inside my body, not outside.
So toward the end of 2014 I saw a homeopath. I did a battery of tests on which of my body's systems were unhappy, and we then followed with another battery of tests to see which foods were the culprits.
I cannot tell you how shellshocked I was after leaving. She told me some things I already knew, but then so many I didn't. She explained that an unhappy body, and the gut and pancreas can cause a myriad of problems, not least of all, allergies and inflammation (and asthmatics nemesis). And this was the root of the evil as it applies to me. I then got a list of foods I can and
cannot should not eat in order to heal my gut and rebalance the acidity levels in my body. Incidentally, some of the foods that are no longer on the menu include eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and coffee - so I'm a little heartsore over the death of brunch in my life. But I'll treat myself once a month or so.
Now this is not something I am doing to lose weight, or to join some vegan/banting/paleo movement. This is for my health. The proof of its efficacy only being revealed once I manage at least 6 months with no allergies/asthma related problems such as bronchitis. If I drop a kilo or 2, then great, but its a side effect of being in good health.
What fascinated me most was watching Dave do the tests as well and get a completely different set of results - which has made grocery shopping and cooking nightmare but we're finding a good balance and getting used to it. It also brings me to such an important point. Everyone is completely different No "one size fits all" diet is going to work for you. Ever. You can buy the book, follow whatever diet, but you are not consulting your own body and listening to it's individual needs. Longterm health requires a shift in lifestyle.
So I'll get off my soapbox now and let you carry on with your day. But tI just wanted to share my number one resolution for 2015, to keep up with my new lifestyle and to focus on my health.
And for my readers, I hope its your most beautiful year yet.
Good things take time. Keep at it.
xx
L
