Here is the thing. I love pasta. I love wonderful
sandwiches – grilled Brie and ham sandwiches with olives
and onions. Juicy hamburgers. Even the perfect pancake once
in awhile. And Mediterranean mushroom couscous. A hearty
turkey barley mushroom soup – so yummy and satisfying. I
love these tasty sensations.
When I tested positive - 4 times over 2 years - for
Gliadian antibodies (the antibodies your body forms when it
is reacting to gluten grains), my very first reaction was
"I DON'T THINK SO!" This is just not happening that I am
going to eliminate gluten grains from my diet.
(Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley, triticale, kamut,
and spelt. Oats are sometimes included in this group.)
I have been using functional health tests to help me
resolve the negative effects that accumulated over the
years of my life when I was not so kind to my body.
For instance, there was a period in my late 30s early 40s
when I thought I could get away with 2-3 hours of sleep a
night! Was that even me?
Then there were the times when I thought I would be OK
skipping breakfast and not eating until late afternoon. I
can see the brain cells sloughing off now.
Apparently, these kinds of behaviors put a bit of stress on
your body – who would have guessed! I know better, now.
The functional health tests are helping me discover these
imbalances and direct my attention to creating a healthier
and more balanced body functioning. But when it came to
eliminating gluten – here was a line that I wasn't going to
cross.
I've cleared up many of the stressed physical imbalances in
my body, yet I'm still testing positive to gliadian
antibodies. So, the time has come - the time is now - to
just get on with it and give up the wheat (my beloved
pasta) and the barley (good-bye mushroom barley soup that
feels so hearty and nourishing) – luckily I don't care that
much about the other gluten grains.
Giving up things that are showing themselves to not be so
good for you – it's not always that easy. We invest a lot
of ourselves in our habits and the way we always have done
things.
I heartily endorse the idea that eating should be an
emotionally satisfying experience. How boring it would be
if we just ate to consume nutrients. Eating should be
primarily an emotional and social experience – it should be
a healing and nurturing act that we invest with the power
to sustain and support us.
When we are eliminating our food allergies/ food
sensitivities/ gluten sensitivities/ lactose sensitivities,
etc – any of the foods that have been shown to be not
helpful for us in the moment – we are also eliminating all
the nurturing and power that we have invested in that food.
The first thing you do when you learn that some foods are
not a good fit for your body at the time - and that a step
toward healing is to eliminate these foods for awhile - is
to spend a little time "grieving" the loss of those foods.
You are not really grieving the loss of that particular
food – but you are grieving the loss of the nurturing that
you have invested in that food. Go ahead and feel sad,
angry, and upset. But then get over it, eliminate the foods
and find other ways – even other foods - to nurture,
support, and sustain you.
And if you find that, you "just can't face it". Go and do
something else healthy for yourself – knowing full well
that perhaps you won't benefit as much as you might if you
had eliminated the food that is causing stress in your body
right now. It's still better to keep moving along other
open paths than to bury yourself in what seems not possible
for you in the moment.
Eventually, if you keep your attention on health, wellness,
and well being, you will grace yourself with the follow
through you want and just do the thing that is in front of
you to do.
----------------------------------------------------
Mary Ann Copson is the founder of the Evenstar Mood &
Energy Wellness Center for Women. With Master's Degrees in
Human Development and Psychology and Counseling, Mary Ann
is a Certified Licensed Nutritionist; Certified Holistic
Health Practitioner; Brain Chemistry Profile Clinician; and
a Health, Wellness and Lifestyle Coach. Reconnect to your
physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual
natural rhythms at
http://evenstaronline.com
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