I am not sure if you noticed or not, but I added some things to my blog that you might find very interesting. I added tips for sleep, eating right, and detoxifying to the “Tips on How to Live Your Best Life” column on the right. Of these, the ones I have been working on lately are sleep and food because if I don’t get enough of either of those, this gentle lamb can turn into a bear…RAWRRRRR!
So as you know, I have been working on the sleep issue for quite some time now. Well, basically since I started this blog. It has been a progressive process, and I have successfully doubled my sleeping hours from 3hrs to 6hrs since I started two months ago. Lately I have even gotten either 7 or 8 hours a couple of times; however I still don’t feel rested. The good news is that I no longer suffer from fuzzy brain, which is fantastic, but oddly I feel more tired. As weird as this may sound, I feel my best after 3, 6 or 9hours of sleep…but nothing more and nothing less. Not only that, but I seem to be getting more tired a lot earlier. Instead of my previous bedtime between 1-3am (sometimes 4am), I now struggle to keep my lids open at 10pm! Is this normal? If anyone has a good explanation for it, I would love to know. Perhaps I am readjusting to “normal” people’s hours? Anyway, I shall keep you updated if anything new happens out of all of that.
What has really captured my attention lately though is food. It is no secret that I love it, and lots of it. So when I hired a personal trainer for a couple months late last year who put me on a strict raw vegetarian diet, I thought I would die. I tried it out for two months though, and I must say I am quite impressed with myself. I never strayed from it, not even once that whole time. Not only that, but I did the extreme diet shift during the Christmas holidays. THAT was tough…but I did it. I found out that dedication, commitment and perseverance can take you very far. I stopped for a couple of different reasons though, the main one being that it simply was not right for me. Our bodies are not all created equally, and I found myself getting very sluggish, very low energy, and had an appetite that would never satisfy itself. Not only that, but I craved meat like you wouldn’t believe, which is weird in itself because I typically don’t eat a whole lot anyway. However, when I finally broke down and ate a steak my energy seemed to return. Now I am not sure if it has to do with the iron content or not, but I did decide to get curious. And then I was introduced to the link http://www.drlam.com/blood_type_diet/index.asp which I found quite fascinating.
Now, before I continue, I just want to say one thing. I have to give props to my mom. Why? Because she has been right all along, my whole life, and for whatever reason I have ALWAYS resisted ANYTHING she has ever told me growing up. I used to tell her that I never wanted to be a massage therapist like her because touching people I did not know was weird…and here I am following in her footsteps. I also told her that I didn’t want to read the same “weird” books she reads, but guess what is in my library…the same books. And when she told me about eating healthy and this book called “Eat Right for Your Blood Type”, I didn’t listen to her about that either. And guess what…that link on the right of my blog page, is a link about exactly that. God bless her for putting up with such a stubborn independent daughter who had to find everything out MY OWN WAY…the hard way. Oh the irony!
So as it turns out I am a blood type “O”, which according to the book means that I am meant to be a meat eater. It also turns out that all the foods that I have been eating, including when I went raw vegetarian, are all the wrong foods for me. It makes sense though because my stomach usually hurt afterwards. So I am re-learning what it is that my body needs to function at its full capacity. I am also doing something different this time to make this a permanent lifestyle change that sticks…harm reduction.
What is that? Well, it is something I learned when I got my degree in Professional Counselling. In the counseling world, it is usually used when referring to substance abuse and means that instead of quitting “cold turkey”, try to slowly ease off of the substance so that your body can adjust more naturally instead of shocking it. So that is what I am doing with my food. Basically, I am weaning myself off from food that is not all that great for my blood type (although perfectly fine for other types). I am now choosing healthier choices from my “Type O” grocery list, and introducing them into my current diet. The more I get comfortable with these new foods, the easier it is to phase out the not so healthy choices one at a time so not to overwhelm myself with too many changes…and it seems to be working really well. Not only that, but I have found out that I am actually a pretty good cook. Who knew!
Let’s just hope that Mr. Right is a type O as well…that would make things a lot easier.
Not sure of your blood type? The best and cheapest (free) way to do it is to donate blood. Bonus part about that is, while helping yourself you are also helping someone else. Remember: “It’s in you to give”.
Good for you Nicole, I enjoy reading your blog posts, this one is funny and informative. I've been in Vancouver for more than 8 years now and since then, my diet has change so much from eating delicious sometimes unhealthy Mexican food to almost no meat, no re-fried, no white anything, sugar, flour, etc... oh and by the way, moms are usually right and there are tons of daughters, like us, we never want to listen and sometimes just like you I feel like I am living my moms life but most of the time, it is a good thing ;) Cheers!
ReplyDeletePS. My mother in law recommended this book to me about food combining. I am reading it and following some of the recommendations in it, I thought you may enjoy it - Back to the house of Health by Shelley Redford Young.
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