This post was originally written & published on May 17/17. Unfortunately, that post was lost in an overnight server crash that took place prior to my daily back-up. I’ve recreated it as close to the original as possible, but there will undoubtedly be some differences in content.
Hi friends! It’s been a while since my last post because last week I was a sickie. I got hit with problem after problem all week-long, and I think managed to fit in 4 months worth of weird illnesses in a 7 day period. I started off with two days of awful vertigo which I’ve never had before (and hopefully won’t have again), then moved into horrible cramps when my period started, then consumed something I had never had before Monday night and was super sick from it (I still don’t really know why I must have had a bad reaction to one of the ingredients) and spent most of Monday night in the bathroom. By Wednesday I was starting to feel better when I got hit with the first migraine I’ve had in years. Luckily the pain subsided overnight but I was left with a migraine hangover for a couple more days. It wasn’t until Sunday morning that I was really feeling like myself again.
The photo I sent Cat on Thursday afternoon when she texted to see if I was still alive…
Even though I’m a nutrition and weight loss coach, I have my own coach because who wants to be their own coach? Nobody, that’s who. Anyway, I am an Elite lifetime member of Eat to Perform (ETP), and as part of my membership, I get a review of my nutrition & macros every two weeks. This past Monday was my scheduled two-week check-up and I knew I hadn’t logged a single thing in my food diary in over a week. Prior to that, there had been some updates to the application we use to record our data that had taken me a few days to do so basically I had 1 day of data logged from the past two weeks.
This is unlike me, and I know that if gone unused, they will remove you from the auto-reviews until you request to be re-added. After two weeks of not logging, following two weeks of crazy data (between travelling, courses, my husband having day surgery and other nonsense I hadn’t fully tracked in about a month) I knew I was on the cusp of being taken off my reviews. But I didn’t want that. So I left a message for my coach to let her know that last week was a write-off due to illness but that I am back 100%. She replied that she was going to push my review ahead a week so that I would have time to get some data entered before she made any adjustments.
Here’s the thing. It would have been super easy for me to say, “Screw it.” To allow myself to get removed from the auto-review system. To just do my own thing for a few weeks, or months – or forever without having someone to be accountable to. I’m a healthy person. I don’t eat loads of junk – but I also know that when I don’t track I undereat. Not on purpose, but because I’m a tall girl who exercises a lot, I need to eat a lot of food. When I don’t track, I gain weight. From under eating. When I don’t track, I lose muscle – because I’m not eating enough protein. When I don’t track, I don’t feel great.
So even though it was tempting to just let it go, I took the initiative to say, “Hey – things haven’t gone well, but I’m not giving up or running away. I’m re-focusing on my health now that I’m feeling better. Don’t write me off!”
I made the choice to do what I knew was best for me, even though it’s a lot less fun than just randomly filling my face with food without considering what is in it.
In late March and into April my nutrition wasn’t the greatest. This time it was thanks to my annual spring IBS flare-up, where I exist largely on pasta and protein shakes. During those times I’m generally able to hit my macro goals, but not in an ideal way. No fresh fruits or veggies (during a flare up I can’t handle either), and lots of Vega One protein shakes (thank goodness for Vega. Without the greens in Vega One I’d be totally without any type of greens in my diet during those times).
It’s sort of a farce because I’m able to eat appropriate amounts of protein/carbs/fat without eating overly healthfully. Sure it’s sort of fun to eat pasta every day (who doesn’t love pasta?) it also gets boring really quickly. So every week or so I would try out some of the foods that upset my digestion to see if I was safe to add them back in.
Fresh salad? Yes please! I’m so happy I can once again enjoy salads! Litehouse sent me a selection of their dips and dressings a few weeks back and it’s such a delight to be able to use them!. Ranch dressing is life.
Once again, it would have been easy for me to keep eating pasta and protein shakes (and I do still have protein shakes, but not as many!) and to just say, “Yeah, I have IBS so this is all I can eat.” But that isn’t really the case. It’s the case *sometimes* but not all the time. But many people do just that. They choose to continue down the path they are on even though they know that an alternate path is now available and will make them feel better.
That’s the thing about life. We always have a choice in life, but sometimes the choice we most want to make is closed off. For a time. For me, I know that every spring, and sometimes in the fall, there will be a period of time where fresh produce and nuts and seeds aren’t going to work for me. A time where my IBS is doing it’s annoying IBS things so I have to forgo those items. That doesn’t mean that the other 8 months of the year I get to do that. Those other 8 months I can choose the path that includes nuts and seeds and tasty fruit and veggies.
How happy am I to finally be able to enjoy all the snacks Handfuel sent me last month? Answer – very happy!
But how often do we stop doing something for a time, and then never start-up again?
How often do we start a new workout regime and then something happens and we miss a few days and declare, “Well, I guess that’s, that!” It doesn’t have to be.
Every day you choose to become healthier or to become less healthy.
Sometimes the choice to be healthier means staying in bed when you are sick to allow your body to heal.
Sometimes it means drinking a bit more water than you normally do.
Sometimes that means going for a walk, bike ride or to a fitness class.
Sometimes it means taking some time for yourself and having a bath or reading a book.
There is always a choice somewhere in your day where you can choose to do something that will help you live a healthier life.
But how often are you choosing it?
What can you do today to help you be a little bit healthier tomorrow?
Because being healthy, achieving wellness – that’s not something that happens by mistake. That’s a choice made day after day after day. Probably not
Probably not every day. Most of us have days or weeks or months when our health isn’t the number one priority for whatever reason. And that’s ok, what’s not ok, is letting that detour become your new normal.
Most of us have days or weeks or months when our health isn’t the number one priority for whatever reason. And that’s ok, what’s not ok, is letting that detour become your new normal. Noticing that road that was blocked off for a few weeks is now open again but choosing not to take it. Choosing to stay on our path because we are now used to it and change is uncomfortable.
I urge you to choose that less walked path today. Somehow. In some way.
And each day you wake up and choose to do something that will be beneficial to your health it’ll become a little bit easier until that path is the one you naturally take. You’ll still wander off of it from time to time. But it’ll be broken in enough that you will more easily fall back into it when you can.
It’s a choice.
Wellness doesn’t just happen.
Disclosure: Litehouse and Handfuel sent me free samples of their products to try. All opinions expressed are my own.