Food For Thought — Fix Your Gut Fix Your Life

“Before you heal someone, ask him if he's willing to give up the things that make him sick.”Hippocrates

For many years, I'd read thousands of books that I had stacked by my bed - and thank goodness for Kindle!  I read books on what foods are best for you and tried gazillions of diets and still couldn’t figure it all out. What worked for another person didn’t always work for me and I wanted to know why! It drove me insane and it made me a crazy person. And then there was the media. Don’t eat this it will kill you, and then a few years later that same food was a super-food. I put myself on super strict diets and then they would work a little and stop working. I became really knowledgeable about the body and how it worked but still, something was missing.

And then just when I thought I had it figured out, I got pregnant and really sick. I wound up with a sick baby and my body was spinning in a downward spiral. I was so scared. I had a new 4-pound baby who was delivered early to save my life and I was a complete wreck. I was doing everything I could to get this baby to gain weight and that meant feeding her every two hours, and it took about an hour to get 2 ounces of milk in her. I did this around the clock for months obsessing about her weight and this left me with very little sleep and time. Everything I learned about food went out the window as I reached for convenience. I was just so tired. But when I got really really sick and desperate I cried out for help. I literally gave up. I was at a loss as nothing was working. I prayed for help and then I walked around repeating this phrase over and over several times a day like my life depended on it: "It's okay. I will find the answers. I wasn’t meant to live this way. Help is on the way. It's coming, it's coming."

You can control what you put in your mouth

We don’t always need pain to make us change, but I might be more stubborn than you so I needed discomfort to wake me up and make me change. So many circumstances in our life can seem out of our control, but you can control what you put in your mouth. This is where it all began for me.

And then lo and behold, a few weeks later I found cultured foods and my whole life turned around.

I took a few steps. Surrendered and trusted. it was so important for me to let go of all the false premises I had made because none of them were working, To trust that my cries were heard and that I was loved and nothing was going to be withheld from me. The more I said it, the more I believed it and then the greatest discovery of my life literally dropped in my life and step by step I started a new journey that changed my whole life.

Fixing my gut — fixed my life

As my next step, I had to act on what was given to me. If you are given guidance (and perhaps this is why you're reading this) you need to act and then you'll get more guidance. You'll get more of what you need the more you act. For me, this was finding cultured foods and I started drinking kefir and that mostly came in the form of a smoothie. That was my breakfast and that began to change me and my family. It made me want to learn more about these cultured foods because I felt better and then in turn it started to change our diets as a whole. It also changed the bacteria in my gut which changes what you crave and eat. I see this in my family today. If I eat certain foods I start craving them because the bacteria in my gut changes and makes more of those microbes and this changes my taste buds and chemical responses. When I eat better, I literally start craving the foods that love me back. I have certain foods I eat to change my moods and behaviors. It's exciting because I've gotten so sensitive to my body I get an immediate response back from what I’m eating.

Don’t eat foods you know and believe are bad for you. You cannot get a good result. Your belief systems will override the results you get from these foods. It took me years to learn this.

"You must master a new way to think before you can master a new way to be." Marianne Williamson

People in your life might start to put up resistance

Something may happen after you surrender, trust, and act. The people in your life might start to put up resistance as they see you change. Social behavior is hugely influenced by the people around you. Most people think eating healthy is hard and expensive, and that is a lie! It's not true and don’t believe it. This makes me crazy! Eating a banana is just as easy as eating a bag of potato chips. If everybody around you ate well you would too. If it was the cultural norm to eat real food you wouldn’t even give it a second thought. But since we all started going down the road of convenience food and fast food everybody started changing and now people think it is normal to run to a drive-through instead of eating real whole food. But here’s the deal! If you change, your family and the people around you will start to change too. Then you will have changed a portion of the universe just by changing you.  It's inevitable, changing yourself changes those around you. You can heal thousands of people by changing yourself and I'm living proof of that. Just wait - at first they may fight you, tempt you, coerce you but stand firm cause as Gandhi says, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. "

They usually join you. Its so fun to watch this.  If you really want change in your life, it’s just got to be you. You’re the magic because you’ve been given the desire to change. It wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t calling you.

Your body is going to help you

Here’s the cool part - your body is going to help you. It's designed this way.  It's all set up with the right equipment but it's up to you to give it the ingredients or food it needs and then just you watch. You're gonna shine and feel so good you're gonna drive everybody in your life crazy. When somebody's light starts to shine because they feel good and look good, everybody wants to know how they did it. It's your job to stand there and shine in front of them and call them with your own life example.

Your bacteria will make you crave good foods, your mind will seek out wellness like Sherlock Holmes, and you will start to learn things like never before. It makes life and adventure and food so fun. You have a contract with food in this life. It's how you stay alive and you might as well get the most bang for your buck and work not just with food but your trillions of unseen helpers who are placed inside of you to help you.

I Want To Enjoy Life Now

A common thing I heard from people who didn't want to change was: "I want to enjoy life now and eat what I want  because we’re all going to die of something.”

But they're telling themselves that eating healthy is not fun and that unhealthy food is more fun. They're feeling punished when they do eat healthily and overemphasize the joy they get out of unhealthy behaviors. People knock themselves out drinking and partying, and yea it's fun to party. It is fun to eat a rich 5-course dinner, but there are ways to help your body stay healthy and have fun too. I learned a few hacks that help me stay healthy and still enjoy holidays and times where I indulge. I know how to reset my gut quickly and get back on track and I also use a few foods that I know will help keep me in balance. Nothing is more powerful than food. Once you learn this, you're set free from all the crazy diets.

I used to complain because I ate too much, or ate something that made me feel bad. It was a constant struggle to deal with the fact that these foods made me feel like crap. And yet, I wanted to eat them. Once I started breaking my habits, changing the bacteria in my gut, my thought habits that eating healthy was a punishment,  then everything changed and I started liking and enjoying it better than my old diet. This is really just as fun without the side effects. I have so much energy from my way of living and it made me never want to go back to my old ways.

So let's recount:

Surrender and trust

Act and train your mind to look for the answers.

Eat the foods that will help you find wellness.