Living between Black and White

Yesterday, I commented on this post on Instagram:

My comment was about how BECAUSE of INTUITIVE EATING, I come back to Arbonne's protein, fizz, and detox tea, and the recipes I've learned through them after a few days of eating all the foods I wanted to eat. I was fully expecting the crowd to debate me a bit, but I actually had quite a few people like my comment and then reply in agreement.

Except then my comment and like 9 replies were deleted, so one other girls asked why. The owner of the account mentioned that there are people struggling with disordered thinking around food and that their account was a safe space free from people promoting their MLM products. I get that. Except we didn't promote them, instead, were just carrying on a debate about detox. Also want to point out that the owner of the account used #arbonne in her original post, so, that just felt a little confusing. I understand that she was definitely not promoting arbonne, but she obviously wanted us to see it, but why, if you're not going to hold a debate about it? Seemed unfair, but oh well.

One part of one of the comments I made was about black and white thinking - that we can believe in intuitive eating AND healthy habits that can be found elsewhere, even from a company that is MLM. Like everything else, there's a huge grey area!

One of my very good friends recently started following #intuitiveeating on Instagram. If I had to sum up what I have found this to mean is that food is not our enemy; we should follow our instincts with eating - like if we are hungry, or craving something specific we should just have it; and we should work to be body positive no matter where we are on our on our journey with our health. Intuitive eating also rallies against diet culture, detoxing, cleansing, and processes along those lines.

As many of you know, I am also a consultant with Arbonne, so I've been working on making all this fit together. I have been asking myself, "Is Arbonne intuitive eating? Do we promote diet culture?"  Our program, called 30 Days to Healthy Living (30DHL) is an elimination diet for 30 days... so maybe? I went on to ask myself, "Am I part of this problem?"

But the more I follow along, the more I am finding that Arbonne's goals are in line with #intuitiveeating. It just takes some work on the front end for each individual person to find the specific things that trigger their individual bodies.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is highly addictive, acidic, allergenic, and inflammatory. Foods that contain gluten, caffeine, alcohol, sugar, dairy, and soy may not be in our best interest to be eating ALL THE TIME. With Arbonne, we omit those ingredients for 30 days, and then add them back one at a time afterwards to find out what ingredients are particularly triggering for each individual person who tries our program out. It's not that you can't have foods with those ingredients after your 30 days, just that you will be able to notice how different ingredients trigger you. Case in point for me: eating a TON of my dad's pizza (it's sooo good!) and then having to lay down for like 3 hours because I totally overdid it and my stomach was telling me so. Those moments of noticing is intuitive eating.

The goals of 30DHL are to promote health in many ways: better sleep, clearer skin, no head fog, more energy, less headaches and migraines, better digestion, and supporting organs of elimination just to name a few. Weight loss is also an effect for many who complete our program. 30DHL is built for individuals to find healthy habits that work for them. Our program is about being nourished, it's not a quick-fix weight loss strategy that makes crazy promises and ends after 30 days.

I've read countless books that echo the goals of our program: Body Love (Leveque), How to Make Disease Disappear (Chattergee), Medical Medium (William), and It starts with Food (Hartwig) to name a few. Furthermore, Dr. Tanda Cook, Naturopathic Doctor, also recommends the habits our program teaches.

And that's just it: we are habits-based and our goals are to help individuals find habits to last a lifetime. Learn about probiotics and then take them daily to aid digestive processes. Take a shot of Greens Balance in the morning because most people do not have the time to get all the servings of veggies our microbiomes truly need. Add a detox tea that will deliver nutrition to your liver so it can function AT IT'S BEST rather than being bogged down trying to process an excess of  inflammatory ingredients that don't  serve us. Turns out that Cheryl from the meme above is  right - that the functionality of our liver can be enhanced by nourishing it in the proper way. (See Medical Medium's book for more on that.)

It was intuitive eating that led me back to supplements that add health to my body after all that pizza. It's intuitive eating that has my body craving our vegan protein shakes. It's intuitive eating that says, "Go ahead, and have that ice cream, because you're fully aware that dairy is a trigger for you, and you are in fact choosing it's effects." 

I'm really curious to know your thoughts. How am I doing with this intuitive eating thing? Am I getting close to understanding it? Can I live in the grey area between that and 30DHL? I've never felt better about my appearance and how I feel on the inside, so something's working here!

Leave a note in the comments, let's keep this conversation going. And EB, I'm most interested in hearing your thoughts on this one, friend!

Be well everyone!

overcommitted, but still finding the joy

Last week was rough for me. In particular last Friday was the worst. I was on exhaustion status which ran my patience thin. Then I reached out to a parent and had a response that I wasn't expecting. And so I cried. I got off the phone and went in the a quiet office to shake it off, and then went on about my day.

I haven't written since before then too, I have bitten off waaaay more than I can chew. I do this sometimes. Volleyball? Love it. Volunteering at church? Also love. Slicing in march with all my friends? Yes, please. But add that to all my other commitments and getting closer towards spring break and it's a recipe for disaster.

The last post I composed and connected with TWT was about a week ago, and around that time I had also read the post on TWT storytelling and band-aids. There's definitely moments when I'm writing on steam of consciousness and not doing the bit-by-bit storytelling. I think in the past week I  got in my head and was judging my work, and perhaps the past eight days when I haven't blogged, maybe I've given up a little.

But then I got an invitation to blog with friends. I was supposed to do this last Thursday, but then things were really hectic, and to be completely honest, I totally forgot.

But I've been remembering about this appointment ever since last Thursday at this time. Right now I'm visiting a fifth grade classroom and it's...peaceful. The room is lovingly managed by two teachers who hold very high expectations for the kids, and yet also find ways to joke and laugh with them in such a way that they kids can get right back to work shortly after. Their morning meeting was calming and full of smiles and now students are scattered around the room writing in flexible seating spots. A new friend came up and sat and chatted with me, and now we are sitting side by side, writing together.

What I love about this TWT community (and my local community here in Berwyn) is the connection it brings. To sit down with someone, and just be in the same space, even if that means you are sitting without talking, and writing instead, I honestly can't think of another place I'd rather be at this moment. Thank you KS and KVW for inviting me, and not being upset with me when I totally spaced last week. This moment has reinvigorated my writing life this month!

multi-tasking is b*ll$h*t

I bought this book awhile ago:

I tried it out and it was difficult, so I set it aside. Then I noticed Oprah was doing a book study with the author, Eckhart Tolle, on her podcast. This week she released the conversation about chapter 9, next week it will all conclude.

In chapter 9 book, Eckhart states:

I used to think multitasking was the thing. Like look at me, I'm getting all these things done all at once, woweeeee!

But in the past few years, I've reconsidered. You can't be doing all the things at once. Well, to rephrase, you can be, but you won't be doing them well.

I find myself sitting at my desk at work, focused on one task. Then my email will ping, and I USED to just stop my work flow and go over to my email. At times now, I still do that, but now I catch myself. And I stop myself. And I go back to the first thing I was doing until it's complete. Then I will probably check my to do list before I go to the email, because people do not need a reply within 1 or 10 or even 60 minutes. Things can wait.

Our phones cause the same problem. We are doing something - making lunch or washing dishes, or folding laundry, or even at dinner with a friend or family member. The phone pings, and you interrupt what you're doing and give your attention that that.

Now that I've been more reflective of this fact, I've gotten so much more mindful of my phone. If I'm out with a friend, the phone is out of sight. I want the people I'm with to know that they are what's most important. I want my full attention to be on them.

If I'm home working on something, like right now, I'm writing this blog. My phone is on silent. It's still within arm's reach, but it's turned over and on silent. I want to finish one thing at a time.

When I'm at work in planning meetings of any sort, my phone is usually right there, but it's on silent and turned over. I'm not responding to email and I even try super hard to keep head space fully engaged with what I'm working on with people. It's important to me to be fully present for the 40-45 minutes we are working together.

And when I'm alone, I am tired of being anxious about the future or stressed about something I said earlier in the day. So now I just try and catch myself when I'm in anything but the present moment. It takes time, but it's making a difference to be fully present at each moment. And it helps.

Anyways, I guess I used to think multitasking was the shit, but now I think it's bullshit. So let's spend some time together so I can get fully present to you and I and the work or fun we will find ourselves in.

Sidenote #1: I do like taking pics, so I may grab my phone for that. But the posting of said pics, later on :-)

Sidenote #2: I highly recommend you listen to Oprah's series on this book. Chapters 1 and 2 are tough, but starting on 3, it's amazing, and I think about as life-changing as Brené Brown's work!

Who's with me on this?