Do you wish your body worked better?

What I learned by changing my diet

Trying to be healthy was not enough. I had to eat differently.

Photo by Jamie Matocinos in Unsplash

In 2017 I was 68 years old and realizing that things were not going all that well with my physical health. I had been doing all kinds of things to be healthy for years. I did strength training with a trainer, took yoga classes, tried to eat healthy, organic foods, most of which I cooked myself and allowed myself plenty of room for treats and favorite indulgences.

I had also specialized in treating eating disorders and leading groups for eating disordered folks for years. I had taught a course called Transforming Your Relationship To Food about non-dieting, mindful eating and all sorts of other techniques for becoming emotionally healthy around eating. Lots of these ideas had been helpful to me in many ways.

However,

my doctor would tell me year after year that I was borderline diabetic, had cholesterol levels a little too high, my blood pressure was elevated and I should lose weight. I had arthritis in lots of my joints and was having increasing difficulty walking due to my left knee and right ankle. Also, I had been diagnosed with a particularly nasty auto-immune disease…