Improve Your Wellbeing with Fewer Carbs and More Super Foods
Low Carbs and More super foods
A few weeks ago I wrote about my new easy low carbohydrate diet plan packed with more health enhancing super foods off my list of alkaline foods. One of the most important lessons that I have learned is that as we become healthier and treat ourselves with more TLC, we begin to develop a deeper relationship with our bodies and become more aware of the subtle messages that it has to tell us.
I didn’t mind cutting down on carbs such as bread, pasta, rice and potato in exchange for a range of colorful fruits, vegetables and seeds. I relished in the psychological knowledge that my body was being pumped full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fats, and superfoods without the erratic blood sugar levels…
No Changes with more super foods?
However, I did not notice a particular physical effect. I couldn’t really notice that I felt any better. I even discussed with several of my friends about how changing my diet just doesn’t make me feel any better.
I put this down to the fact that my diet was already relatively healthy, so I assumed that although it was a change, this new way of eating just didn’t affect me. After all, I feel healthy anyway.
Aye Karumba!!!
On Thursday night I decided to break this way of eating and have Mexican food…A burrito with beans and vegetables stuffed in an organic flour tortilla with some rice and guacamole.
It was absolutely delicious…I must admit. However, I felt so full afterwards, full in a way that I hadn’t experienced in ages. I wasn’t bloated, just really stuffed.
But here is the funny thing. 20 minutes later I was in the kitchen eating some more. I actually had another half burrito! What???
Then about an hour later, when I was watching an episode of Heroes season two, I noticed myself dreaming of something sweet. Now the two weeks I had been on the low carbohydrate diet with loads of raw vegetables, my sweet tooth would have easily been satisfied with some figs, apricots or dates.
Not this night. I really noticed that it was starchy sugar food that I craved. Fruit just wasn’t going to cut it! I gave into temptation and a few squares of dark chocolate.
As discussed in my first blog, I did have these sensations over Christmas when my diet was at the mercy of other people and heavier than normal on the carbohydrates.
But usually I would not have noticed my sugar craving after this vegetarian Mexican meal. In my previous life (only a few months ago) I would have considered this a pretty healthy dinner. Now I noticed that I was having a reaction to it. It was making my blood sugar levels go out of control…or maybe I was just more aware of how it made me feel. It was if the goal post had changed.
Getting Tuned In
For me it so goes to show that when we make positive changes in our lives, we become more sensitive and able to notice subtleties that wouldn’t have seemed so profound before. Maybe my blood sugar would have been imbalanced but I wouldn’t have noticed it so accutely. Or perhaps I would have grabbed the chocolate without thinking.
In essence, we are like frogs. Apparently, if you place a frog in a frying pan (I haven’t personally tried this out…although I did try frog legs once about 15 years ago…can’t recommend it), they will jump out. However, if they are on a cold frying pan and you slowly heat it up, they will just carry on frying until they die.
In this way, when we are eating junk, the body adapts as much as it can (until it goes into overload and becomes exhausted, overweight, ill). I am often shocked at how some people cope at all with the outrageously toxic diets of fast food and literally no nutrients…Okay, they aren’t coping well, but they are getting by. I can’t imagine!
As we become healthier and more in tuned with our bodies, we are more able to discover subtle changes and sensations. We can notice our bodies reacting in ways that might have seemed normal before, and we are more in tuned with the signs and messages that our bodies give us.
Just yesterday I heard a story about a woman who ate a completely raw food diet. One day she ate a pizza and she immediately lost her voice. I am sure that if she were on a normal diet, she would not have such a reaction (there are quite a few pizza restaurants here in Brighton where I live…and I haven’t heard of anyone losing their voices yet). You might say that it was coincidence, and maybe it was. But it is interesting that she lost her voice randomly that day…and that is what she put it down to.
My friend Dom who has recently transformed into super health eating man told me that when he eats suboptimal food, he breaks out into a rash. Curiously, six months ago he would have never had this reaction.
So What Does All This Mean to ME?
I can’t say that I am never going to eat Mexican food again (especially as I am going to California next week and already have a date booked at a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco….Hmmm, I could always go for a taco salad?) But I do know that a diet of few high glycemic foods and an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables is best, and one that I will stick to 98% of the time…because it does make me feel much better after all.
I find this fascinating. It’s all part of a process that I am sure will continue throughout my life. As I treat my body and mind with more care and consideration, I will become increasingly in tuned with its truest desires and needs.
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