Healing your Relationship with Wellness

I didn’t know that after Nutrition School, I would have to heal my relationship with wellness as a result of becoming a Nutritionist. You see a large majority of Nutritionists go to school to learn how to heal themselves or someone close to them. I went to heal myself. But instead, I started down a path of fearing everything that I put into my body. I was worried about the ‘dangerous’ ingredients…canola oil, not organic, ohhhh hell noooo!, high fructose corn syrup, not on your life sucka!!

I started to feel even worse than I already did! I was so restrictive, moody and depressed. I was doing what I thought was healthy and I was miserable!

We are taught that we should be eating kale, only organic, Dear God, do not drink the tap water…or die. I mean that’s really how it felt at times. Dare I say WELLNESS has become cultish?? We have become so ingrained into believing that there is only one way of eating healthy, that greens are gold and supplements are saviours. But what we don’t realize is that we have stopped listening to our actual bodies. I’m not saying that what we’ve learned about nourishing our bodies is all wrong, but when we give our power away and take everything as fact, we have become disconnected from our own voice and our own body.

I’ve come across a lot of people in my practice that follow each trend that comes out. Keto, sure, why not? Fasting - yes, sounds good, mainly because then I don’t have to eat breakfast. We think that the next trend is going to make us even healthier, it’s going to heal us. And then, once again we are let down when we start feeling worse. Has this happened to you? I know it has to me!

It took me approximately 8 years to heal my relationship with wellness. To learn that putting my body through diets and trends was unhealthy. I started to realize what I was actually putting my body through. I saw the illusion. I was moving further away from my body’s own wisdom. I took the vitamin D supplement even though my intuition said that I didn’t need it. I supplemented with iron because I thought it would help with coldness and weakness, only to find out that it would make me feel like I was going to pass out. I could barely get home one day because my body rejected it so much. But I thought I was doing the right thing for my body. I didn’t listen, I commanded my body, I listened to experts, I thought they were right! My body knew better.

If I had just listened to my body, I could have saved myself from a lot of unneeded suffering!

So, how do we heal our relationship with wellness?

We have to stop listening to others about what’s right for our bodies. You can heal with a Nutritionist, Naturopath or Doctor, but when you’ve reached the end of the line and you are still sick, then it’s time to tune into your body. If you don’t like salads (like me) then don’t eat them. If you feel better eating more carbohydrates then eat more carbs. Most people think that if you eat all the things that you want to eat, then you will go HAM on all the bad foods. But I’ll let you in on a little secret, you could for a week, but then after that, you naturally equalize your eating habits because when you are truly listening to your body you naturally choose better foods.

The most important thing is to start listening to your body and stop listening to others' opinions.

You get to choose what’s right for you and your body!

Marina,

From Made to be Wild