Saturday, August 7, 2010

Health. Have we gone too far?

The world around me is changing and I don't know where I'll be living and where I'll be working. But I haven't been giving it much thought because, once again, I don't feel well. This time my kidneys are really hurting me and I suspect it's all the healthy stuff I've been trying to do:
  • I've been having a smoothie every morning, made with coconut milk, strawberries (organic of course) and a chocolate protein powder (recommended by my nutritionist). But I've had kidney stones in the past, and read that nuts, chocolate and strawberries are among the worst foods to eat as they have the most oxylate. Is coconut a nut? Yes, kind of. Whoops. Maybe that smoothie wasn't the best thing for me.
  • I've been trying to not have dairy, so in addition to smoothies made with coconut milk, I've been eating ice cream made with coconut milk. I looked at the frozen desserts section in Whole Foods today, and there were more "ice creams" made with coconut milk than with milk. Yep, too much coconut for my own good.
  • Oh, wait. I've been trying to not eat gluten (I don't know why, it seems to be the thing to do) and so most of the cookies and crackers I've been eating are made with almond flour and/or coconut flour. Yep, there's my friend the coconut again. Do you think we were made to eat so much coconut? Especially if we don't come from the tropics? Not to mention that besides the kidney issue, I think I'm allergic to nuts. Not to mention that most almonds are irradiated.
  • I'm also thinking that my kidneys can't process the 27 or so pills I've been taking a day--all really good supplements but way more than anything I've taken in the past.

It seems to me the more I try to improve my health, the worst I feel:

  • I tried taking zeolite to detoxify, after a friend told me what a wonderful product it was. I only took one drop, even though the bottle said to take 7, and was vomiting for a day.
  • I tried going on a vegetarian raw food diet--a diet that the same friend is following and discusses with the same passion that I discuss spirituality. I tried the raw food diet for four days, and started feeling weaker and weaker. By the fourth day I couldn't walk well and wound up falling on the sidewalk. I also couldn't think well. I stared at an excel spreadsheet that I normally could work on with my eyes closed, and couldn't figure out what I was suppose to do, as my brain seemed to be in a fog. Finally I went to a nearby Thai restaurant, had salmon and rice, and came home feeling stronger and able to complete the excel spreadsheet.
  • I tried not eating red meat for a couple of years. Soon after I lost a lot of my hair and was told by another friend that she started losing hair when she stopped eating red meat. Is there a connection? I don't know but it wasn't just the hair loss, I didn't feel as strong and was told that I was protein deficient. I started eating steak again and feel much better now.

As I was standing in Whole Foods today, in front of the frozen desserts section, a woman standing next to me told me that she liked to have a sweet a day. That was her one vice. She ate well (lots of fruits and veggies), she exercised, and she would start working on cutting out sugar from her diet. Oh, have the ice cream, I thought to myself. Geesh, we've gone too far.

I think I'll start paying more attention to what comes out of my mouth, rather than what goes into it. I think I'll just let my poor body be, and not try to impose on it my ideas of what it should or shouldn't have. I think I'll just lighten up as the more I focus on "doing the right thing" the worst I feel.

Yesterday I went to a nice Italian restaurant with a friend. We both had the steak which was delicious. We had some wine and split a dessert that was out of this world. We enjoyed everything, laughed, and then went to the movies. I didn't think about being healthy once. And I wound up feeling much better than I have felt in weeks.