I work in the fitness industry and I see many people struggle with food. I've helped people try to understand the benefits of food and how to eat properly but there's always so much resistance and fear. While I did not grow up with a fear of food or negative body image perspective, I do have an understanding for why people struggle and why a mental shift can make all the difference. I want to be the positive shift that can help you because I've helped others and I see how life changing it can be! Doctors don't know everything. The latest diet fads just want your money. I want to help you appreciate food, love the image in the mirror, want to be in photos and not hide, want to eat with friends and enjoy the moment and not be caught up in the fear of eating and judgments, learn to stop comparing yourself against everyone else, know there's more to life than managing calories, and to learn to think confidently about your food decisions and not let our ridiculous society beat you down.
While I haven't had a struggle with food, I did need a major shift in the way I thought about food. For me, it was a friend that was able to help me see food differently when I started to have major reactions to every meal. At the time I didn't know food could cause me so many problems, but this friend knew food allergies well and was able to shift my thinking and solve my issues. Our fears, our struggles usually only remain problems if we don't choose to solve them. Food doesn't have to cause you problems, here's my story:
I grew up eating whatever I wanted; I was an active kid with no allergies. My mother made a huge effort to always provide healthy meals and teach us the importance of eating often and eating healthy. We had breakfast every day, usually healthy lunches packed and a family sit down dinner every night. We are a family of five and all three kids were active in sports, so of course as we grew up, every day wasn't perfectly balanced, but it didn't have to be. The important part is that there was always talk about making smart choices and making sure we were eating enough. Soda was a rare treat, sugar cereals were not in the house, fast food and eating out were limited and we had to have healthy snacks often since we were so active. We were limited to TV and computer time and usually busy playing outside or playing in our organized sports. There was never a negative attitude with food. My mom loves to cook and it was important to her to make as much as possible from scratch. We didn't buy processed foods- pie crusts, cookie dough, waffles, pizza, soups, and even breads and occasionally a summer ice cream were all made in the kitchen. That mentality showed me that it doesn't take much effort to make from scratch, it's cheaper and it's healthier, so do it as often as possible. It's so important to create a healthy environment around food, cooking, making decisions, and eating often because this creates habits later in life that just seem normal, rather than forced.
After college I moved to Florida, got an active job as a Sports Performance Coach and then everything started to change. After three years, this job I loved became extremely stressful. My living situation was not ideal, I was way overworked and not respected at work, my job was about done because the gym was going out of business, I didn't have any good friends, I was in the middle of a falling out with my college best friend, I was not making much money and lying to myself about how happy I was. I literally was working out all the time and not taking any time to process and emotionally heal. Well, stress can wreck havoc on your body and it did just that.
I ended up leaving that town and everything about it to start again in a new town in Florida with a new job, surrounded by great people and quickly made many great friends. With everything going so well, my body started to fall apart and I was very confused. Turns out all of that previous stress had already done it's damage and now the body was changing. My thyroid failed first- it became over-active (hyperthyroidism) which brought many side effects and three years of medicine daily to fix that. While that was a mess, my digestive system changed. I started to have irritations and pain. My good friend at the time was used to allergies in her family and she taught me what to look for and how to change my diet. My family had never had to think this way so it was foreign to me at first. This friend taught me what certain ingredients on labels really meant (ie- maltodextrin is a corn product). This changed everything for me. It took some time to accept and adjust; I was stubborn and in denial. I loved milk and wasn't giving it up easily, even though I had constant headaches whenever I had some. Then one evening while out eating some delicious Italian food covered in cheese, I wasn't able to drive home because the headaches had gotten too intense; I was light sensitive and the car headlights were too much. Still I was stubborn. The final straw was during a road trip by myself. There were constant billboards for Dairy Queen blizzards, which I love, so I finally stopped to get myself a treat. A few bites in my throat started to close. I had never felt that before and I was alone and a few hours from home. I freaked out, threw the whole thing away and gave up milk for good.
With the guidance of my friend, I was able to figure out what foods were triggering my symptoms and started to get things under control. For the record, I went to the family doctor, he brushed it off. I went to the allergy doctor, came back positive for corn but no other food allergies, no other answers. At my worst, I really couldn't eat anything but meat, beans, and rice. I completely cut out everything and added food back in carefully and tracked symptoms. Corn would make me tired and irritable, gluten/wheat products gave me terrible intestinal pain that would last for a couple days, dairy would give me migraine-like headaches. Nothing gave me a rash or anaphylaxis serious symptoms so it was difficult for doctors to give me answers- because they couldn't apply a medication to fix me.
I had to take matters into my own hands and find a solution. I cleaned up my diet, I tracked symptoms, I got my stress levels in check (I have done a lot of soul searching meditation), and slowly over a few years things improved. I can now eat with more flexibility, but choose to stay on a clean diet because a few bites of trigger food is usually not worth the pain and suffering.
I had to change the way I thought about food. I'm thankful for the guidance I had and I hope this blog gives you guidance and courage to find your solutions.
While I haven't had a struggle with food, I did need a major shift in the way I thought about food. For me, it was a friend that was able to help me see food differently when I started to have major reactions to every meal. At the time I didn't know food could cause me so many problems, but this friend knew food allergies well and was able to shift my thinking and solve my issues. Our fears, our struggles usually only remain problems if we don't choose to solve them. Food doesn't have to cause you problems, here's my story:
I grew up eating whatever I wanted; I was an active kid with no allergies. My mother made a huge effort to always provide healthy meals and teach us the importance of eating often and eating healthy. We had breakfast every day, usually healthy lunches packed and a family sit down dinner every night. We are a family of five and all three kids were active in sports, so of course as we grew up, every day wasn't perfectly balanced, but it didn't have to be. The important part is that there was always talk about making smart choices and making sure we were eating enough. Soda was a rare treat, sugar cereals were not in the house, fast food and eating out were limited and we had to have healthy snacks often since we were so active. We were limited to TV and computer time and usually busy playing outside or playing in our organized sports. There was never a negative attitude with food. My mom loves to cook and it was important to her to make as much as possible from scratch. We didn't buy processed foods- pie crusts, cookie dough, waffles, pizza, soups, and even breads and occasionally a summer ice cream were all made in the kitchen. That mentality showed me that it doesn't take much effort to make from scratch, it's cheaper and it's healthier, so do it as often as possible. It's so important to create a healthy environment around food, cooking, making decisions, and eating often because this creates habits later in life that just seem normal, rather than forced.
After college I moved to Florida, got an active job as a Sports Performance Coach and then everything started to change. After three years, this job I loved became extremely stressful. My living situation was not ideal, I was way overworked and not respected at work, my job was about done because the gym was going out of business, I didn't have any good friends, I was in the middle of a falling out with my college best friend, I was not making much money and lying to myself about how happy I was. I literally was working out all the time and not taking any time to process and emotionally heal. Well, stress can wreck havoc on your body and it did just that.
I ended up leaving that town and everything about it to start again in a new town in Florida with a new job, surrounded by great people and quickly made many great friends. With everything going so well, my body started to fall apart and I was very confused. Turns out all of that previous stress had already done it's damage and now the body was changing. My thyroid failed first- it became over-active (hyperthyroidism) which brought many side effects and three years of medicine daily to fix that. While that was a mess, my digestive system changed. I started to have irritations and pain. My good friend at the time was used to allergies in her family and she taught me what to look for and how to change my diet. My family had never had to think this way so it was foreign to me at first. This friend taught me what certain ingredients on labels really meant (ie- maltodextrin is a corn product). This changed everything for me. It took some time to accept and adjust; I was stubborn and in denial. I loved milk and wasn't giving it up easily, even though I had constant headaches whenever I had some. Then one evening while out eating some delicious Italian food covered in cheese, I wasn't able to drive home because the headaches had gotten too intense; I was light sensitive and the car headlights were too much. Still I was stubborn. The final straw was during a road trip by myself. There were constant billboards for Dairy Queen blizzards, which I love, so I finally stopped to get myself a treat. A few bites in my throat started to close. I had never felt that before and I was alone and a few hours from home. I freaked out, threw the whole thing away and gave up milk for good.
With the guidance of my friend, I was able to figure out what foods were triggering my symptoms and started to get things under control. For the record, I went to the family doctor, he brushed it off. I went to the allergy doctor, came back positive for corn but no other food allergies, no other answers. At my worst, I really couldn't eat anything but meat, beans, and rice. I completely cut out everything and added food back in carefully and tracked symptoms. Corn would make me tired and irritable, gluten/wheat products gave me terrible intestinal pain that would last for a couple days, dairy would give me migraine-like headaches. Nothing gave me a rash or anaphylaxis serious symptoms so it was difficult for doctors to give me answers- because they couldn't apply a medication to fix me.
I had to take matters into my own hands and find a solution. I cleaned up my diet, I tracked symptoms, I got my stress levels in check (I have done a lot of soul searching meditation), and slowly over a few years things improved. I can now eat with more flexibility, but choose to stay on a clean diet because a few bites of trigger food is usually not worth the pain and suffering.
I had to change the way I thought about food. I'm thankful for the guidance I had and I hope this blog gives you guidance and courage to find your solutions.
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