I can order food at the click of a button, shop for anything from the comforts of my home and if I don't know something, google to the rescue. We don't have time to waste, we need it now! What are we all so busy doing? We are plugged into social media, binging on Netflix, and work, work, work, work, work.
The modern world is a gift and a curse. We have access to anything instantaneously and we've grown impatient with anything but. We don't enjoy the journey, we just want to cross the finish line and post about it on Instagram.
I think this is a serious issue, particularly when it comes to our bodies. So many people struggle with weight management, food and mental health issues and we're constantly bombarded with bandaids to put over the real issues. Don't like something about yourself? We have an answer for that - Extensions, Implants, Botox, liposuction. Don't like how you feel? We have something for that - Xanax, Ativan, Prozac, Demerol, Tylenol.
Going to the gym, eating healthy, natural supplements and herbs, meditation, acupuncture, and therapy are all great answers but when taking the natural route you have to be patient. It's a bunch of trial and error and it takes a lot longer to see improvements and it's not a 1 stop shop either, it's usually a combination of alternative methods that give the best results.
I met a woman who had been obese her entire life. She always had issues with food cravings and binge eating and ate very unhealthy food. In her 40's she decided she had had enough and decided to get her stomach stapled. It shrank her stomach so she could only eat extremely small portions of food a couple of times a day and she was thrilled when she had lost 90 pounds within a couple of months. She couldn't eat or drink anything outside of her 3 small meals a day. In fact, If she over ate, snacked or drank to much liquid she would suffer excruciating pain and sometimes vomit. But that seemed to be very inconsequential next too being skinny. She relished in the fact that she could never give in to her cravings again without causing herself excruciating pain.
As a nutritionist this story turned me inside out. It's not always about going on a new diet or exercise program, your mental state is just as important. Food is an emotional activity for 90% of us and we need strategies in place to help bring consciousness to our habits and patterns. Habits and patterns are neuro-pathways that we're using consistently and in order to change a pathway we have to create a new one. By addressing our emotional patterns and habits we bring awareness to those pathways and can begin the process of creating new habits, therefor rendering the old pathways closed for business. It's about addressing the BIG picture and if we can take the time to experiment and find a balance we can live a healthier and hopefully happier life, sans drastic surgery.
Quite often we want to have more energy, be happier, be stronger, slimmer, sleep better, but we want the results now. If we don't see improvement right away we think it's not working. We don't spend enough time practicing longterm methods of health and happiness. We're not in tune with the body's experience, instead we're constantly trying to understand, change or fix it. But there's so much growth that happens on the journey to being healthy. We discover so many things about ourselves like the why behind our habits and thoughts, how to cope with the lows and pain, how to ask for help and create a support network. These are the gifts that you receive when you slow down. You become more present, you find more joy and you learn to accept where you are right now. This person you are right now is incredible and they deserve to be loved and praised. You can be happy with everything as it is right now if you choose too. Your jiggly underarms, the frown lines on your forehead, the 6 pack you dream of but never seem to look down and find. You are beautiful and you are the one that has to believe it. We need to make a choice to be happy with what we have now and take our time learning about our bodies and experiment with new healthy ways of living. There's no rush. Life is not as short as we think it is. So sit back, accept where you are and enjoy the ride!