You are what you eat
During my pregnancy with my son, I became hypersensitive to all smells. Like ALL. I remember being told that some women can be sensitive to smells, but it was ridiculous! It was so bad that I could smell things from afar and got nauseous before anyone even caught a whiff of what I was smelling.
One time my husband and I went out to eat. When we drove into the parking lot, I could smell the meat being cooked inside the building before we even opened the car door. My husband couldn’t smell anything. When he came out of the car and opened my door, the smell of fish and chicken flooded my nose immediately making me feel sick. I got up out of the car and was going to attempt to brave it. But almost started gagging before we could reach the front door! Little did I know that this was the beginning of my body rejecting certain foods.
During both pregnancies with my now 11 and 10 yr olds, I could not stomach certain foods. I thought that when the the 9 months were up, I could go back to what I wanted to eat. That never happened. By this time my body had rejected both chicken and fish.
As we raised our children, I noticed certain foods made my mouth numb, or my stomach upset. I didn’t think it was something to pay much attention to though, until a couple years ago.
I sat down to eat, took a couple bites and my mouth broke out! Painful sore spots appeared out of nowhere! My stomach burned and ached. What in the whole world?? At that moment life changed. I went to a nutritionist who ran a test and told me that my body was not digesting certain foods and that I would need to start a food journal and make some changes.
From then I learned, in addition to meat, I cannot eat certain oils, and gluten. As you can imagine, this changed the whole scope of what I could eat. Gluten is in EVERYTHING. At least in everything I was eating at the time. At first I didn’t take it too seriously, believing my body would eventually fix itself and we could get back to normal. I was wrong.
My diet is totally different now, and I am FINALLY feeling better. Its not easy to change the way you’ve been eating all your life. But I have no choice. My body actively rejects any food it does not like. Some of my friends think it’s a blessing and wish the same would happen to them. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone though. The consequences of eating things that bother me are not easy. And while I do my best to stay away from them, sometimes I don’t see it on the ingredients list, and slip up.
The thing that gets me though, is that my body was telling me all along what it didn’t like. I just didn’t listen soon enough and now I am living with the consequences, and beginning to see some rewards!
What is YOUR body telling you? Are you listening to it, or just living life hoping things will figure themselves out? Maybe there are some foods that make you break out. Some that bother your tummy or give you headaches.
God made the temple that you live in. Pay attention to it. Hear what it has to say. It may not be able to speak audibly, but it does show signs of what it can and cannot handle. It’s an important part of self care that gets neglected. I guarantee you though, when you eat what your body needs and give it what it wants, not what YOU want, but what your body wants, you will live better.
The discipline of it isn’t easy, but it comes with it’s own rewards. You really are what you eat. I’m a living witness.
