In my nine-year journey to better holistic health, I have seen and tried almost everything.
I have explored acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, osteopathy, homeopathy, chelation, structural integration, neuro-emotional technique, emotional freedom technique and energetic medicine. My health has improved dramatically over the past nine years, and I have gone from suffering daily headaches and upset stomachs to feeling energized, vibrant and youthful.
When people come to me for advice on improving their own health, they always ask me what helped me the most (because I’ll tell you, all those therapies did NOT come cheap.) My two cents: if you’re open-minded, committed to improving your health, and partnered with a good practitioner, there are many things that can work for you – but the price of entry to superior health will ALWAYS start with nutrition.
Think of it this way – if you were throwing gravel into your washing machine everyday and your machine started smoking… no repair man could fix it permanently until you stopped throwing crap in it after he left. But, easier said than done.
I’ve seen many moms (and dads) who tried to eliminate foods from their diets or their children’s diets in hopes of improving symptoms related to autism, learning disorders, fatigue and illness. (And to all those mommies-to-be, Celiac disease has been linked to infertility.) The story of almost every mom I know personally did not end in bubbly success. Not because she didn’t want to help – but because she felt she couldn’t.
You see, where each of them failed was in trying to accommodate too many different needs with an old way of thinking. Mom had to accommodate a vegetarian daughter, a gluten-free son and a meat-loving husband by cooking three separate meals… PER MEAL! No wonder these mommies failed! How could anyone sustain cooking nine meals (plus snacks) a day when most of us can barely manage three?
If you need to eliminate any food from your diet, be it wheat, gluten, dairy, sugar, yeast, soy or whatever, you have to learn how to make successful substitutions to your recipes if you ever want to succeed and feel self-sufficient and satisfied – affordably. Once you can master substitutions, your diet will just be a new way of life.
And yes, the day can soon come where your man will not be able to tell the difference between his regular and his gluten-free scone; your kids will be munching happily away at their gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free lunches at school; and best of all, you’ll keep your sanity, and still have enough free time to soak in your candle-lit tub!
Easy substitutions to get you started:
1 cup of wheat flour = 3/4 cup brown rice flour + 1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 cup of milk = 1 cup of milk alternative (soy, brown rice, hemp or almond)
1 cup of sugar = 3/4 cup honey
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