
Michael and I have come to a realization over the years, the older you get, the more things you eat because they are good for you, not necessarily because you "like" them. The great thing is, sometimes if you just accept that and stick to it, usually your body and your taste buds change, and you end up liking the things that actually make you feel better instead of worse.
Our kids' food allergies ended up teaching this in a huge way. We had to keep "food diaries" and note what happened to them not only physically but emotionally after eating foods. One big "a-ha" was that it was not always an immediate reaction, but rather a cumulative one. Days of high grains and high sweets (even fruit and dried fruit) would present major concentration loss, irrational behavior, irritability, congestion.
Seeing these patterns on paper, started causing me to think about and notice what had been happening in me, to a much lesser degree over the years. The bigger key is that sometimes they are more of a cumulative thing. One shot of most things aren't going to hurt most folks, but daily, but couple times a week, or even weekly in some cases can really add up to symptoms.
What really caused me to "blog" on this particular topic was a weekend with a niece and nephew. By the end of three days, if I heard the phrase "But I don't like that" used as a validating reason for why they would not eat a food put in front of them, I thought I was going to hurt myself with a kitchen appliance.
At first I got defensive (my natural instinct of course...) then I got frustrated and authoritarian, then I tried covert operations and bribery....finally, I resorted to just plain honesty from my heart.
It went like this:
Well, why don't you eat any vegetables and fruit? Don't you know you have to give your body and brain the tools (nutrients) they need to get the job done? If you never give it what It needs, it won't be able to do a good job for you.
It felt like I was in the old Far Side Comic where the person is talking to the dog and all the dog really hears is "Blah, blah, Fluffy, blah, blah, blah, fluffy...." But you know what? When you least expect it kids do hear you, and in some way they may choose to take that advice.
You know, for me, I had to see my unhealthy eating habits, allergies, sensitivities through my kids first, before I really stepped it up a notch.
TIP: Notice how you feel after eating foods that give you a "high" and then drop you low and add to your list of symptoms. Create a Physical/Visceral anchor in yourself that this "Indulgence = X Symptom" ie:
When I eat sugar, my face breaks out or I become very irritable with my family. It's like Pavlov's Dog... when you equate a negative over and over to something you've previously deemed positive, it can cause a much greater impetus for change.
So in a very big nutshell, the "But I don't like it." response goes like this...
Sometimes liking it is not what it is about. Sometimes we eat it just because our bodies need it to grow healthy. And you know, many times we even grow to like those other things too.
Peace & Be Well,
Tara Rayburn