I had a conversation with a dear friend yesterday who is trying to figure out which direction to go with feeding her family. As she spoke, I found myself thinking back to my beginnings. There was definitely a lot of uncertainty for me in those days.
In a world of information, it is definitely confusing to determine what to believe about food anymore. One nutrition expert tells us that legumes are bad for us, another has them at the center of their diet. Another one tells us that we should eat no red meat, while yet another says eat more red meat. Who are we to believe? More importantly, what are we going to feed our family?!
The trouble also is that no matter what we choose for our family, it means eliminating something that the rest of society doesn’t agree with. We definitely don’t want to isolate ourselves and make life difficult for our kids, but we know we need to do something.
So we read about Paleo, Autoimmune Protocol, Anti-inflammatory, Vegan, Keto, and so many more, wondering which way to go? Over time I have learned that we don’t need to know exactly where we are going, but we simply need to know where we are going to start, and for what reason or with what goal in mind.
As we make our decision about where to start, we may need to do some research. There is a ton of it out there, so be careful, research can be skewed to bend toward our desired outcomes. Even reading the “research” can be a bit of a minefield. You definitely have to keep your eyes and ears open to making sure the research is well supported.
So you did all this research, made good, informed decisions, and still don’t find that you’re any better than when you started. If you’ve already started and are confused about where you are in the midst of diet change, don’t give up on yourself. Remember that all you had to do in the beginning was to start. Start with a goal and as you move toward that goal, clarity will come. If your goal is wellness, don’t give up. You can find wellness, but every person’s definition of and the ability to achieve wellness will vary. Some might find the answers easily, others it seems to take an eternity, and some never seem to find it at all. Not everyone will find complete wellness, so maybe, just maybe, we need to hold wellness with an open hand and just keep moving forward. I don’t know about you, but I simply want to be and feel the best I can, on the inside and the outside. My best isn’t the same as the person over there. We are all unique and created differently. Embrace the differences between us, but don’t give up on yourself.
So today, simply start. Have one goal in mind. Maybe the goal is for you personally, maybe it’s for your kids, or maybe it’s for your whole family. Keep it simple and make a move. Don’t let the fear of making the “wrong” decision cripple you into staying where you are today. You can move forward just making one simple decision for today. Change one thing in your diet that will bring you one step closer to healing.
So what is that one step? You decide, but a good one to start with is to eliminate dairy. That is one food group that almost everyone agrees on eliminating and will help you take a strong step forward to a better body. Why do so many people agree on dairy? In a word, bacteria. I’ll write again about why dairy, but trust me, you won’t regret it! And you might even find that someday you can add some back in to your diet once you find that better place. The key thing is to just start.