Most of us have a love/hate relationship with our bodies. If you don’t, then I salute you; you’re doing something right. Today we’re looking at your body image vs your body reality. We should not hate our bodies. Your body takes you places, helps you feel joy and excitement and love. Your body houses that perfect and wonderful soul that is you. That is something to be grateful for. How do you perceive your body image vs your body reality? How to be grateful for your body.
Don’t Worry About How You Look~ How Do You Feel?
Okay, so let’s say you’re not exactly happy with how your body looks, your body image. What if you put that aside; try to feel grateful for the body that you have and just concentrate on how you feel in your body; your body reality? Maybe if you focus on repairing your health with really good and proper food, the weight will take care of itself.
Start to pay attention to how you feel in the morning. Does your energy fall in the afternoon? Conversely, does it take you until the afternoon to really wake up? Do you feel pain in your body, either in certain spots or just all over? What about skin issues like eczema and psoriasis? Look it up; inflammation.
Stop Wasting Time
Do you sleep well, 8-9 hours per night and wake up rested? I have to admit, for most of my life I have not felt refreshed upon waking up. Not at all. Most of it due to my own bad habits such as staying up too late, past the point of that first inkling that I’m tired- yawning. Watching the damn t.v. or doing stupid shit on my phone. What a complete and utter waste of precious time.
As I started this blog post, I decided to take a vacation from my personal social media for 30 days. Seriously; life is short. You have to ask yourself why you’re wasting precious time looking at dumb shit on your phone when you could be doing something positive and productive or regenerating your cells, preparing for an energetic next day.
DIG DEEP~
If You Don’t Like It, Change It
What should you do to feel better in your body? You can improve the body image vs body reality outcome. First, cut out as much processed food as you possibly can. It isn’t food. Don’t believe me? Research each ingredient of your favourite processed foods to see what they are and what their purpose is. Then research what those ingredients do in your body. Buon appetito!
While you’re at it, think about your bottled water. In Dr. William W. Li’s book Eat to Beat Disease- The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself, he says this; “Even BPA free plastic sheds microplastic particles. As many as 2,400 pieces of microplastic can be in one 8oz/250ml bottle. You’re ingesting that. I’m not surprised by what I read about a woman whose placenta was full of microplastics. Now, let’s add in more fruits and veggies, organic if you can. Do you know why organic is preferred? Yes, it’s to reduce/remove pesticides and herbicides, but the bigger reason is because the more stress the plant is under while growing, the more polyphenols there are in the fruit and leaves. Polyphenols are good for you!
Some Healthy Foods May Not Be Good For You
We all know we should eat lots of fruits and veggies. However, there are scientific facts proving that many so-called healthy foods may NOT be good for us, or we may need to prepare them differently in order to make them healthy by removing toxins. What do the experts say? Prepare to be confused. For instance, some experts say to eat soy. Others say to stay away from soy at all costs. How do you decide what to do and why? Well, Google it! Also do some kind of research into nightshade veggies which can cause a whole lot of inflammation, wreaking havoc on everything from hormone interruption to cell damage. This article by Lori Smith, BSN, MSN, CRNP, on Medical News Today, explains the possibility that nightshades may cause issues with some people, not necessarily everyone. Here are some foods that Cardiac Specialist and author of the book Plant Paradox- The Hidden Dangers in “Healthy” Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain, Dr. Steven R. Gundry, M.D. says to stay away from.
Wheatgrass- it’s touted as a healthy food, used in shakes and other recipes. Apparently it’s full of gluten. Wheatgrass is grass, afterall, and humans can’t digest grass. Cows need four stomachs to digest grass. Dogs puke it up. Why would you eat it?
Goji Berries- these babies have a very high lectin content. Lectins are poison. They don’t hit us as hard as they hit an insect trying to eat the plant, but they affect us. They cause leaky gut, allowing bacteria to leak into the rest of your body, causing inflammation. That inflammation weakens blood vessels and causes endothelial dysfuncion. For more information on goji berries, see Dr. Gundry’s website.
Soy- See why Dr. Gundry avoids soy.
Now For An Opposing View…
My head spins when I read about food because here is an equally credible doctor, telling us just the opposite about soy. Dr. William W. Li, also a scientist, speaker and author, tells us that eating soy is an excellent way for us to ward off cancer. Who do you believe? Is there a happy medium? Is it a fresh soybean vs soy “product” argument? Here is Dr. Li’s argument on the benefits of eating soy. My guess is that somewhere in the details, you’ll find your answers.
Eat Fresh!
No matter what you eat, it should be fresh, whole food, not processed. And certain foods need to be prepared and cooked in a specific way to remove or reduce natural toxins, such as with beans, tomatoes and bell peppers. Tomatoes are good for you. Tomatoes are bad for you…which do you believe? Apparently it’s all in the way you prepare them. Tomatoes should be peeled and seeded before you eat them because the seeds and skin contain lectins which cause inflammation. But the skin also has some good properties. Is your head spinning too?
On the subject of goji berries; Dr. Gundry does not dispute that they have some fantastic antioxidant properties. However they are extremely high in lectins. So you see, while many fruits and veggies have vitamins and polyphenols, and antioxidant properties, he tells us to weigh that against the possible toxic effects of the ones containing a high concentration of lectins. There are many foods that do not contain lectins, but that do have antioxidants and vitamins. Dr. William Li tells us that a kiwi a day can prevent damage to your DNA, by up to 60 percent! I now add one each day into my breakfast shake. Do your research. Stick to scientific facts.
DAIRY
If you must drink milk, why not try sheep or goat’s milk, buffalo milk, A-2 milk (the most inflammatory protein has been removed) or coconut milk.
ANIMAL MEAT
Remember, you are eating what the animal ate. Get your beef and chicken from a farm where the animal eats a natural diet of grass. Free range is different from pasture raised. You want pasture raised and finished. Chicken thighs and drumsticks are better for you than chicken breasts because the dark meat contains vitamin K2.
Why Are We So Unhealthy?
In a nutshell, we’re unhealthy because we fill our bodies with so much crap, so many chemicals/additives that cause inflammation, that our bodies can’t do what they are intended to do. The body is well equipped to kill cancer cells for instance, as long as we don’t damage our cells with processed food, saturated fats, high alcohol consumption, long-term stress and lack of sleep. I read that anyone who has an autoimmune disease has leaky gut. Hippocrates said that “all disease begins in the gut.” Have a look at this simple straightforward information on the truth about cancer.
Canva
FOCUS ON THE FUTURE~
ABOUT INFLAMMATION
Skin problems can also be from inflammation. You’ll notice the reference to inflammation of the skin in this very short Harvard Medical School article. On the subject of eczema and psoriasis; please dig a little deeper. Fine, take the cream the doctor prescribes, but also reduce certain foods that may be triggering the condition. Then stop the cream and see what happens. All three of these doctors have done their research:
- Dr. Stephen R. Gundry, MD
- Dr. William W. Li, MD,
- Dr. Cynthia Li
Dr. Cynthia Li wrote a book about her journey through autoimmune disease, titled Brave New Medicine, A Doctor’s Unconventional Path To Healing Her Autoimmune Illness. Watch this 2 minute video on her website.
Body Reality vs Body Image~ Reality first
Have I convinced you to look a little deeper into your body image vs body reality? Do you believe that your body image may be as a result of your body reality? Inflammatory molecules cross the blood/brain barrier and can be the root cause of depression and anxiety. They also affect your immunity big time! In his book, Dr. William Li says “instead of chasing sickness, why don’t we look at what “health” is; what are the common denominators of health?” He tells us that there are some foods that contain compounds that shrink tumors; peaches, tomatoes and broccoli are just a few of the anti-angiogenics that starve tumors, and that dark berries, black kale and cloudy apple cider can be more potent than some medicine. I didn’t make this up. Buy his book and see for yourself.
Dr. Li says that “processed foods are highly inflammatory. If your body is constantly inflamed, fat, tumors and other disease-causing tissue can expand rapidly.” In his book, he lists a bunch of foods that can shrink fat cells by up to 50 percent. No, I’m not being paid to advertise for this man; I’m simply sharing the exciting things that I’ve recently learned and what I’ve experienced personally.
Weight Loss And A Better Body Image
I believe that if you introduce or increase your whole foods, fruits and veggies, while reducing or completely removing simple carbs, sugar etc, that you really won’t have room for the fake processed food. In a previous post called Are You Eating Healthy?, I discussed what I learned from exploring the whole food way of eating. Weight loss will be a natural result of eating real food. You’ll feel better. And you’ll notice that you have a better body image.
My Appearance On The Mel Robbins Show
One year ago, I started my journey with whole foods out of desperation to feel better. I felt awful; overweight, stiff, sore muscles and joints, and I felt much older than my age. I lost 20 pounds thanks to the personal help I received from Dr. Mark Hyman, while on a trip to New York. Then in May, my 91 year old father went to hospital. He was in his last days, and as such, my daughter and I were able to stay with him for almost two weeks. Hospital cafeteria food is not what I needed. It created a slippery slope back to carbs and wheat based products that caused me so much aggravation. Problem is, they are also addictive.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I’ve got a new problem, skin inflammation. Again, I felt desperate to feel better and started back on my whole food diet and dug yet a little deeper. I am determined to rid myself of as much inflammation as possible, and to lose excess weight. Between January 6, 2021 and today, I’ve lost 10 pounds. That gives me hope. In six months I’ll post an update. I’ll share before and after pictures with my meal plan. I want to encourage you to make changes in your diet that could alter your health, your body reality and your body image. Changes that could very well save your life.
Thanks for reading. Check back next Sunday for another post on Parts of Ourselves~ Carol Paino
Diet culture LOVES to fill us with guilt and anxiety around our food choices.
As people we come in all different skin colours, heights, eye/hair colours so why do we ignore the fact we all come in different shapes and sizes.
A more accurate topic would be health at every size and/or and intuitive eating. However, both topics should come from a Registered Dietitian. An amazing RD who frequently discusses these topics and is creating a movement against diet culture is Abbey Sharp. I encourage you to read some of her articles, which have research evaluated by a nutrition expert vs a health professional based in diet culture with no degree in dietetics.
https://www.abbeyskitchen.com/
All foods are worthy and can be part of a balanced diet. Diet culture teaches us to demonize cetrain foods and avoid whole food groups which is actually detrimental to our health.
You are doing an amazing job, love it.