Health and Wellness
Anyone who has ever been sick, or had a broken bone, or had any type of ailment knows what it means to be unhealthy. What most people do not realize is that most of us are unhealthy, even when we do not realize it! I have come to find that the majority of people will come to the conclusion that someone is healthy based on how they look, but some of the healthiest people may look ordinary, and some of the unhealthiest people may look healthy.
When I was younger I was very skinny, but I was sick all the time. I had ear infections, sinus infections, and at one point rheumatoid arthritis in both my legs ( which I grew out of over time THANK GOD). As I aged, it seemed like I was getting healthier. My illnesses were not nearly as often, or as bad, as when I was a child, and I was still very skinny all the time, no matter what I ate or the lack of exercise I had. At age 23, I had 2 children, had lost so much weight since my second child had been born (2 years prior) that I was under the weight I started before my first, and was having a difficult time gaining weight. I decided it was time to do something!!!! So I got a gym membership and asked for some advice from friends and family on what types of food could help me. I got some great work out and food advice and began my journey. 😊
Within one month, I gained thirty pounds! I began to feel fatigued, lazy, and unmotivated. I wanted so badly to get in shape now that I had the weight, but I could not stay awake long enough to get myself to the gym once the kids went to school. I knew something was wrong. After seeing a doctor I found that I had hypothyroidism. They believe I most likely had a hyperthyroid issue growing up causing the lack of weight gain, and my diet and exercise change caused my thyroid to begin working in reverse.
I have always looked very healthy. I have had many people say things to me such as "What do you need the gym for? You are so skinny," or "You just need to eat more meat". So, because I looked healthy, everyone assumed I must not need to work out or eat healthy. I cannot say it enough... It takes a lot more than looking healthy, to be healthy.
Everyone's Healthy Diet is Different
I recently started going to a Health and Wellness Center. During my first session with the doctor, I explained to her that I eat very healthy. "I do not eat things that are made with a lot of sugar, I like grains, I love rice, I eat pasta, and I eat a lot of red meat. I recently became a lover of milk, which worked out great because I have a Vitamin D deficiency, and I eat a lot of yogurt because Probiotics are great for you! I try to work out as often as possible and I drink a lot of water and tea, and try to avoid soda because caffeine gives me anxiety. I am doing everything I can to be healthy, but I had developed a cough, that I have now had for almost a year! "
One of the very first things Dr. Sara said to me was "What is healthy for others, may not be healthy for you." It was at that moment I realized, I was eating healthy for everyone else!!! I was taking advice from friends, family, Pinterest, Internet Articles, and anyone else I could find to give me "HEALTHY"recipes and ideas. It never occurred to me that these "healthy" foods, may not be healthy for me!!! Turns out, I have a sensitivity to rice. ONE OF MY FAVORITE SIDE DISHES!!!! I was not happy about it, but I said "I can stop eating rice TODAY!". ......... Do you know how many foods have some kind of rice product in them?!?!??!! A LOT! It has definitely not been easy, but I have managed to eliminate every rice product from every meal I eat. It has only been two weeks, but I can already feel a difference. Another food she told me to avoid was dairy. That's right! I just started loving the taste of milk and I needed that vitamin D, and she said dairy was a factor in this cough I have, because it is caused by acid reflux and dairy makes that worse. So I also had to buy dairy free milk and yogurt.
Over the course of the past few weeks I have come up with some pretty creative recipes and ideas for meals that are healthy, for ME. Some of them are not the best tasting, but they are not horrible either. My kids like some of them, mostly the fruity desserts.😉
Is It Possibly to Eat Healthy on a Budget???
One of the biggest problems I am finding with my new healthy lifestyle, is that eating healthy foods can be VERY expensive. I am sure most of you have noticed that you can get ten unhealthy items from the dollar menu at Mcdonalds, for the same as it would cost for one healthy sub from subway. It also depends on what food is healthy for YOU. As I said above, I had to stop eating anything with rice products. So, I took the kids to Giant Eagle (our local grocery store) to get some breakfast foods for the week. I do not force my children to eat as healthy as I do, so my daughter bought a box of fruit loops with mini marshmellows (around $3, for a large box), and my son bought a box of cookies 'n creme poptarts (16 count for $4). I usually eat oatmeal for breakfast but I was wanting something a little easier for the week as we have a hectic week ahead. Turns out, most cereals have rice product in them. Who knew??? After searching through the ingredients of every box of what appeared to be some type of healthy cereal, I came to a box called "Ezekial 4:9 sprouted grains cereal", and to my surprise there were absolutely NO rice products!!! To sweeten the pot a little, there was also NO added sugar!!!! I thought I had hit the jackpot....... That was, until I looked at the size of the box, and the price. This box of, healthy for ME, cereal, was a quarter of the size of a normal box of cereal, and it was $8!!!! 😂 I was far from surprised, but unhappy about the outcome nonetheless.
So of course, as soon as I got home I got online and started searching the web for anyway to help me! Pinterest is my biggest helper for these thing!!! If you would like to take a look at what I found, you can follow me on Pinterest and check out my Clean Eating Board HERE👇
If you do not have Pinterest, I suggest you sign up!! It is the best place to find great ideas about ANYTHING!!!!! In the mean time, according to an article on MoneyCrashers.com, some great healthy foods that you can buy on a budget are fruits, vegetables, whole grains, proteins, popcorn, and dairy products. These things all together can make a great meal! However, it is always best to make sure you do not have any allergies or food intolerance's before buying any of these foods.
The best way to ensure you are eating healthy FOR YOU, is to make most of your meals at home. It may seem a little more expensive at the beginning, but in the long run you will save a ton of money! The nice thing about making food at home is that you can not only know for sure everything you are putting into your body, but you can take unhealthy meals that you love, and make them healthy.
My daughter LOVES biscuits and gravy. So when she asked me to make it for dinner one night, I thought not being able to eat dairy was going to make this very difficult and expensive. Boy was I WRONG! I will admit it was a little more time consuming than I had thought it would be, but we had a great dinner. I found a great recipe for biscuits, sausage gravy, and home fries, and I just replaced all of the dairy products with non-dairy substitutes, all of which I found on Pinterest! I took an already seemingly healthy meal, and changed it to be healthy for me. There are so many foods that people think they cannot have because of an allergy to an ingredient, but there are substitutes for so many ingredients that you could find a healthy way to make just about any food you want, and make it healthy FOR YOU.
Food is Medicine
Dr. Cullyn, from the Health and Wellness Center, said something that really stuck with me the first time I met him. When he first said it I thought "well that is odd", but the more I thought about it, and the more he explained everything to us, the more it made sense. He said "If everyone ate healthy foods all the time, and stopped eating processed and GMO food, they would never get sick." So think about this......
How often do you go to the doctor because you have a cold, the flu, strep throat, a cough, or some other symptom? When you go to the doctor because your sick, they usually do whatever test needs done to determine what is wrong, and then they prescribe you a medicine, and that medicine usually makes you better after you finish taking it, Right???? However, when was the last time your doctor told you what was wrong..... and then..... told you WHY it was wrong???? Never? ..... Yeah, me too. Until now.......
You would never think to relate a cold or flu symptom to something you ate, but our bodies do not get sick without reason. Unnatural foods contain unnatural products that our bodies do not know how to process. Sometimes our bodies even have a tendency of rejecting foods that ARE natural ( like rice hahaha....). So here is how it works, when you eat something, your body breaks it down and sends each nutrient or chemical to where it needs to be. If it cannot be sent to where it is supposed to be, it goes to the next best place.... some other organ. In my case, the rice was not being processed into waist like it was supposed to be, so it was going to the next best organ to get it out of my body.... my lungs.... causing an annoying cough that felt like it would NEVER go away!!! Once we found out what was causing the problem, we were able to find a natural way to fix the problem. After almost a year of doctor after doctor, specialist after specialist, all doing trial and error, giving me different medicines for different diagnosis', I finally found someone who could just tell me where my problem stems from, and how to fix it ... NATURALLY! What a relief! So the next time you decide to go out to eat, or even make a meal at home, pay attention to what you are eating.
Health and Wellness Centers
There is so much more to learn about being healthy!!!! Tips and tricks on how to find out what the best exercise is for you (and there is one... 💪everyone needs fitness!!! Even the healthy people!). What foods you should or should not eat. What chemicals are in the foods you are currently eating.....
The best way to find out what is best for you is to talk to someone who knows how to help you find out. Not many people believe in Health and Wellness Doctors, but if you want to be healthy, and you would like to do it in a natural way, they may be your best bet! We found a health and wellness center near me by searching the internet. I called a few different places and spoke with the doctors at each one, and decided which one I thought would be best for me. There are also health and wellness coaches, online or in person, that can help you outside of a health and wellness center. The best part of it all, is that they just want to help you be your best! They are probably the only doctors you will ever meet that will help you never have to come back after you finish your course!
