I get asked often what actual steps I took to change my health. The first thing I want everyone to know is that each of us is different and you need to become self-aware with your own body to know what is best for you.
The thing I see most often is that people try to change too much too fast. They fail and then don’t understand why. While there are those who can take on many challenges at once and succeed, others succeed by focusing on one goal at a time.
I like this method because it builds confidence. Nothing makes you feel more determined than when you reach a goal, no matter how big or small. This works for anything you want, not only your health.
I wasn’t going to fail, that wasn’t an option for me. I made a list of things I wanted to change and prioritized those.
The first thing I started with was my breakfast. I’m a huge fan of breakfast. You could say I’m an egg, bacon and biscuit kind of girl. When you add to gravy, hash browns, orange juice, and coffee to that, you’ve become the person of my dreams.
The cook at the cafeteria where I worked knew exactly what my favorites were and always had them ready for me. He was as surprised as I was when the day came and I told him I’d replace my delicious breakfast with a green smoothie.
I knew if I could conquer breakfast then everything else would come easily to me and except for my love of tacos, it did.
For over a year all I concentrated on was my breakfast. Replacing it with healthy food choices. I still had children at home and I always made home-cooked meals. Forcing only healthy foods on growing kids was not going to work. I had to change them over slowly.
During the next five years, I would continue to eat what I thought was healthy, practice yoga, meditate and quit smoking.
I did feel better, not like I did when I was twenty, but much better.
Then in 2013, I come across the book by Susan Blum, The Immune System Recovery Plan. Finally! Someone was making the connection between autoimmune diseases and nutrition. Like me, she was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease and wasn’t going to accept that this was her life sentence.
What I had never known until I read this book, was that even though I thought I was eating healthy I wasn’t. I followed her steps exactly as she instructed. For twenty-one days I ate seeds, nuts, vegetables, and fruit. Talk about a long twenty-one days! What I discovered when I started to reintroduce other foods back into my system, that dairy and gluten were what was making me sick. I also found out that I have a hard time digesting meat.
From that moment on it started to make sense.
I’ve gone through a lot of emotional stuff in the last five years. I did so without having one flare of my Lupus. That’s how I know I’m doing what is best for me.
The thing I learned about being healthy and staying successful at it, is to balance everything. Don’t deny yourself your favorites. I eat 90% of my meals according to what I’ve discovered is healthy for my body. That other 10% I use to reward myself. So yes, I eat tacos.
These are my steps for what I’ve done to make myself healthy.
- Eat healthy organic whole foods 90% of the time.
- Do a clean eating reset every six months. (21 days of eating seeds, nuts, vegetables and fruit)
- Meditate every day.
- Practice yoga.
- Let go of anything toxic.
Special Note: This is my journey of what I did to feel my best with Lupus. This is not intended to provide any medical advice or to ignore what your doctors tell you. You should do what you feel is best for you. I’ve learned that each person is different, what works for one of us may not work for everyone.
If you’d like to know how I started my journey with Lupus, read the article: How I Transformed My Health, My Journey with Lupus
I will continue sharing my tips, recipes and healthy ideas so check back often.
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