Emantable

This is not my attempt at sorting the labyrinth. It’s merely an expression of my frustration at all the mixed signals we get from seemingly everywhere on what the foods are ideal and what foods will bring down all of humanity. There are those who preach that we should be eating a diet rich in meats and limit or eliminate certain vegetables. Then there are those that proselytize on the benefits of eliminating meat all together. A glass of wine a day is considered safe, sometimes healthy, until it’s basically poison and you should swear off all alcohol completely. Animal products have essential proteins, but you’re responsible for climate change, inhumane practices, deforestation, and just generally unethical.

The only consistent advice I gather from all of these sources is that moderation is important. So for the time being I will continue to enjoy all the things I like while exercising moderation. One thing that no study or documentary can tell me is how my body feels, and this is something I believe is very important. Certain foods will send me running to the porcelain throne and others will sap all energy from me. These are not some studies done on a sample of the population, it is my body telling me what is immediately going on. It’s not just types of food, but the amounts consumed as well. I’ll devour foods I love for the simple reason that they taste good, but then later I feel so over stuffed that I sink into sort of temporary depression.

I’ve been making an effort of listening to my body these last several days and my mood has been much better. When a temptation makes itself onto my plate, I’ll dismiss the warnings from these scientific studies and tell myself it’s just this one time or that I don’t do this too often any way and I through all caution out the window. But if I’m looking at the temptation and think of how I will feel immediately after, then I tend to stay away or really limit myself.

So will I stop reading articles about health? Absolutely not. I want to educate myself about nutrition and let my body provide the immediate feedback. For example, I love milk even though I know there are some recommendations against it and it’s frankly a little weird to be drinking a liquid produced by another animal to raise its young. But with a little education and again paying attention to my body, I can see that the better option is milk from grass fed cows. These cows are healthier and the milk has a different and better taste to it. I was just researching salmon that is wild-caught versus the farmed one. I though farmed fish was better for the planet, but it turns out there are a lot of environmental issues associated with these farms and these fish are far less healthy than their wild-caught countertops. I now want to compare the two in terms of taste and see how I feel with both.

All this to say, I feel like I’m inside a labyrinth and all the shouting of different solutions makes me get stuck in one place and want to give up even trying. So I’m quieting my mind and proceeding at my own pace. My goal right now is not to lose weight, gain muscles, etc… I just want to explore and see what feels good…what feels healthy.