looking back and reassessing the situation
*This post is one of those random, carthartic, rambling numbers… so I apologise if you were expecting pretty photos and a yummy recipe… sometimes I just need to write*
I can’t remember who said it, but whoever it was, they had a point – ‘The only two constant things in life are time and change.’ Very true.
When you look back over a period of time, say 10 years for example, it’s incredible how much happens. Friends come and go, living circumstances change, different jobs, different countries, cities, disasters, celebrations, travel, deaths, births. Argh; it’s crazy.
Setting up a new kitchen in a new house, I started thinking about the other houses I have lived in, my previous pantry-shelves, and what was on them. That started a whole new train of thought… what was I putting in and on my body back then? How was I feeling? How does it differ to now? I thought it was an interesting little tangent, so to give you an idea…. (and you can play spot the things that don’t change too)
10 Years ago (moving out of home… independence ahoy!)
- Diet Coke.
- Diet energy drinks.
- Coffee.
- Carrots and apples.
- Salt.
- Easy, cheap food… jars of sugary stir fry sauce in big bowls of vegetables because it seemed ‘healthy.’
- Packaged muesli bars because they seemed ‘healthy.’
- Too many sugary pre-mixed vodka based drinks, or “candy-water” as we called them.
- Sugary fruit flavoured yoghurt by the ton.
- Cheap and nasty wine.
Too much fun on the weekends, too much alcohol, not enough sleep, not enough nutritious food. Living off caffeine and adrenalin… pretty normal teenage behaviour, really. Not in tune with my feelings, not listening to my body/mind… doing not thinking. Again, pretty normal teenage behaviour. Looking back at photos, I looked sick… pale, really bad skin – just plain unhealthy. Burning the candle at both ends for sure.
5 Years ago – Have moved to Australia, working in kitchens – think to myself I am pretty “healthy”
- Diet Coke.
- Diet energy drinks.
- Coffee.
- Salt.
- Carrots and apples.
- Oats oats and more oats.
- Quinoa, brown rice.
- Tahini.
- Anything labelled “Organic” – it’s got to be good for you, right?
- Coffee.
- Vodka.
- Slightly more expensive wine.
- Any kind of alcohol really. Any.
- Lazy “healthy” food (spending most of my waking hours in a kitchen, cooking was the last thing I wanted to do)… pre packaged, deep fried, flavoured tofu nuggets, rice noodles, lots of vegetables… muesli bars (home made).
- OK, I hate to admit this one, BUT… pouches of tobacco, papers and filters. Switching to rollies (roll your own ciggies) was my way of “quitting” – I couldn’t roll to save my life. I figured if I couldn’t roll them, I couldn’t smoke them… guess what? I learnt to roll. Ha.
- Water.
- Kombucha.
- Coffee.
- Salt.
- Carrot and apples…. plus any kind of fruit and vegetable… GREENS.
- Oats, buckwheat, quinoa, millet, brown rice, wild rice, spelt, amaranth
- ANY kind of nut butter, tahini etc.
- Coconut oil/butter/milk/cream/water
- Sprouted foods.
- Fermented foods (tempeh, sauerkraut etc).
- Seitan, tofu.
- RAW foods.
- Dark Chocolate/Cacao.
- Chia seed, flax seed.
- Spirilina, lucuma, maca, mesquite, nopal.
- Red wine (some things never change, but it’s all about balance, and drinking to enjoy not drinking to drown out the way you are feeling).
- Vodka (same goes).
I’m likening it back to another saying… you really ARE what you eat – or it can reflect what kind of head space you are in. When I look back at the way I used to fuel myself, I feel sad and a little sick which is exactly the way I felt back then.
Nowadays, looking at all the delicious, nurturing foods I create for myself and my family, I feel excited, vibrant and comforted. Food is not just fuel to me any more; food is a way to show a bit of self love.
Learning to appreciate oneself, inspires the desire to nurture body and mind by being conscious about what goes in.
26 Responses to “looking back and reassessing the situation”
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- - October 18, 2012
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Vegan. Stay at home Mum of Misty. Yoga teacher in training. Passionate about REAL food - creating it, eating it, sharing it. I can never stick to a recipe.
Just one more reason why I Luhhhvee you. I have similar past eating habits. I am so very thankful for the day I opened my eyes to what I was doing and eating. Your wine and vodka is my cake and cookies though…somethings indeed never change..I just learn to make my own now and eliminate the artificial shit.
It’s amazing the difference in how I feel these days – most noticeably my emotional state – I feel so happy and balanced…. no more crazy mood swings! Artificial = most evil, seriously those artificial sweeteners made me feel WHACK
beautiful changes and beautiful creations! i love you LOU! Thank you for this.
Thank YOU for reading… and understanding…. and just being the lovely lady you are – love you and your shining light x
My eating/kitchen patterns have been very similar through the years, and in turn so has the way I felt/lived. You are absolutely right about “you are what you eat” being very real. Pretty amazing stuff I say
Totally! Oh that makes me feel good that others have gone down similar paths and found health + happiness just like me
Your skin is looking beautiful these days Lou. Must be all those homemade coconut concoctions you’re using. Love that you make your own beauty products, even if you do smell like a hippie.
Beautiful and insightful post. Isn’t it crazy to look back and reflect on how much we’ve changed? I’m with you though – coffee will always be a staple!
Oh thank you, Heather – all those delicious nutty fats do wonders for the skin, no?
Coffee and SALT…. they are my “vices” these days, a whole lot more excusable than alcohol and ciggies
isnt it amazing? i sometimes wonder how my body isnt a toxic waste zone after my freshman year of college alone. after my moms healthy cooking i felt the need to embark on a tater tot and french fry binge for a year straight…oh and lots of cheap booze for sure. thank goodness i made it out of that phase relatively unscathed. anyway. its nice knowing others go through the same “health” evolutions. i love these posts so thanks for sharing.
I hear ya – it’s like the teenage mission to destroy yourself with too much alcohol, shit food and not enough sleep.
It’s fascinating reading other ‘road to health’ stories, no? The nice thing is, each story is constantly evolving as we slowly learn what works for us and our bodies. You can totally understand with your GI-experiments I’m sure.
i completely agree that we should listen to the reasons we imbibe (or eat, for that matter). i will stop myself before i reach for a drink and ask whether i’m doing it for the right reason. if i’d like to have a drink with dinner, that’s find. if i NEED a drink b/c of a bad day, that’s not. the same with food – it’s got to be for hunger/nourishment and not for comfort/boredom.
love the personal rambles (even without the yummy recipe!)
Totally! Intuition comes into play here – listening to our bodies, and trying to tap into the reasoning behind our actions. If you simply plod along ignorantly you can do a lot of damage (drowning your sorrows with either food/drink or both!) Bad habits can become ‘normal’ over a period of time if you forget to acknowledge/question your actions, no?
Hurrah for journeys to health and strength and vibrantness! And saying goodbye to nasty diet drinks
Total hurrah! Evil evil artificial sweeteners – be gone!
Hey. You’re living life. You’ve gotten to highs and you’ve gotten to lows- how can anyone wish for more? Who wants a medium life that teaches you no single damn thing?
Raaaah and that’s me for today… I’m still being unhealthy at the moment. All I want to eat is beetroot broth, vege soup, variously spiced chicken drumsticks, rye bread and potato chips. I’ll improve, I swear!
Did some interesting research in the area of crystal deodorants. Alum? Aluminium? Aluminium…whatphate? Did you ever do chemistry?
(R)
I hear ya Andrea… life is all about learning – the good with the bad
Eat what ya want to eat, eat what makes you happy – beetroot broth sounds yum! Do you grow beetroot?
Chemistry + me were never friends… science only amused me when we had that poor man of a teacher…. Mr Mcfarlane? We made his life HELL!
I grow beetroot! I grow soooooo much beetroot. The beetroot has gone insane at the moment so it is mmmm beetroot for me. Delicious it is, and useful in pickles. I’m borrowing the parental kitchen to make my pickles in… and broths/soups! it is especially great with potato & added to a blender.
Oh poor Angus. However- I can’t but feel that he gave himself over to our tyranny. He couldn’t quite manage to be an arsehole- which is what all teachers need to be. Remember him making that awful experiment with iodine gas? that purple stuff that made us all feel ill? I’m sure that was his revenge : P.
(R)
Oh I LOVE beetroot, such a vibrant colour, beautiful. Beetroot and ginger juice is a favourite – beetroot hummus is great too.
I remember Angus giving us chocolate chip cookies for some “experiment” which ended in us just scoffing all the cookies. Yeah, he totally just gave in to us – didn’t he become a minister or something? Ha
Angus made a BIG mistake. Never give your class chocolate and expect them to behave about it. Poor man would have gotten eaten for breakfast if he ever had a “bad” class!
(R)
So very true.
It seems like learning to do all the things I pooh poohed as ‘Girly’ when I was younger have left me playing catch up. Learning how to cook, about skin care and cleaning. I love the natural from scratch recipes. Reading your blog is helping me catch up so much quicker and keeping up my motivation to do so. Thanks Lou.
Oh, my pleasure, Heidi! I’m at a place now (especially after having a baby) where I want to treat my body (and mind) with as much respect and love as possible… the body is such an incredible machine, and I’ve not treated it so kindly over the years! Keeping things as close to nature as possible seems to work for me
This is such a wonderful, insightful, truthful post Lou – I love it so much! I really do. It is incredbiy inspiring…you can just feel your sense of peace and contentment and health and stability oozing off the screen, in your photos and in your words. So lovely to read. And I love reading all about your evolution interms of physical and emotional health. Such a fantastic post, thank you so much for sharing and writing this.
Can I just say that you look GROGEOUS in the last two photos!<3 xyx
Oh shucks, thanks so much, Yolie….. stories about people’s experiments with diet/wellness are fascinating aren’t they? The exciting thing is they are constantly evolving and changing as we work work towards GREAT health! Seriously, I have never felt as good as the way I do today… I think having Misty has shown me just how powerful and incredible the female bodi is, and now I really want to show it some love and respect
Aww wonderful post! as you know we have both had simlar journeys in some ways (even if our current goal points are a bit different…
) loved reading this and getting to know you a bit more! xox
I always feel nervous posting this kind of stuff, but it is really nice just to WRITE sometimes, no? Reflecting is nice. Especially when I can see my journey is a positive one, with many lessons learnt.
That’s why I love reading your blog – I think we are on similar paths in our food-outlook (health intention wise… to eat well but still have FUN) I love how we are all so different… life would be so blah and boring if we were all the same!
Life would be so boring without WINE