Food For Thought: Making it your own

Dear Friends,
Without going into arduous detail, suffice it to say that buying and moving into my new house (new to me anyway) was a small act of God. The obstacles, delays, and endless frustration started in December and finally ended in April with a triumphant closing. It almost felt like giving birth.
And today, almost 2 months later, I’m still getting used to the new house! Trying to figure out which light switch works what lights, how to turn up the water heater (previous owners had little kids and the hottest hot isn’t hot enough for me), and doing overdue maintenance things like regrouting the shower, power washing sidewalks, and pruning the roses, I’m working hard to make this house my home.
And of course, if I’m going to bare my soul here, there is still (!) unpacking to do (tragic, I know). Add to all of this, there is painting on my agenda too (I’m not in love with chocolate brown walls), more planting and yard clean up, beekeeping (so cool!), and more. Every time I turn around, I add something else to the ever-expanding list of house stuff.
Moving into a new house is a lot like starting a new diet or taking on a healthier lifestyle. At first, it seems foreign and clumsy. Later on down the road, it becomes a lot easier, but it’s those little things that you do to really own it and make it your own.
I’ve adapted a mostly paleo food plan for myself based on a lot of research, reading, and trial and error. I’ve found that while it was clumsy and odd at first, it has become a lot easier as I’ve gone along. The payoff has been easy weight loss (without trying), feeling much better (goodbye joint pain), and no more bloating. Like buying my house, I had up-leveled.
One of the biggest encouragements in really staying this course for me has been Dr. Terry Wahls. If you don’t know her story, Dr. Wahls developed secondary progressive MS, and found herself in a wheelchair without much hope. The medical treatment she was getting did nothing, so she took her health into her own hands, she did her research, radically changed her diet, and is now telling the world how to get well with food. She is literally up and out of that wheelchair!
And while I was able to move out of one house and into another, we don’t have that option with our bodies. Just like Terry Wahls, MD, we are bound to the body we were given at birth. There’s no moving out (unless you’re moving on!), only redesigning and remodeling can be done.
If you’re in the place of precarious health right now or you just don’t feel as well as you know you could, you really do need to watch and listen to Dr. Wahls’s TED talk (just google it). 17 minutes of perhaps, life-changing information.
Bottom line is this: we all have the ability to remodel our lives from the inside out, but we have to take this project upon ourselves. We cannot expect anyone (doctor, nutritionist, children, spouse, friends) to do it for us. The encouraging part is that it’s never too late!
Life is full of choices and choosing to live without doing your own research is just another choice. A tragic one; but a choice nonetheless.
Love,
Leanne Ely, Your Dinner Diva
Saving Your Dinner since 2001

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