It seems that getting healthy is a never ending journey. A really rocky never ending journey. I have recently had an unhealthy relapse into junk food and high stress and am suffering the consequences. Back to reading other blogs on the subject, back to Pinterest and their endless supply of (delicious!) healthy recipes and self help. Through all this I was recently thinking that getting healthy should come with a warning label like any medication, do not discontinue use when feeling better, complete the prescribed dose to the end. This is easier said than done when the prescribed dose is for the future, the rest of your life. I know, I know this sounds really bleak and depressing and some days it is. It feels like there is this long dark tunnel of getting healthy and at the end of it there are still no holiday goods, “cheat days” or going back to the way things were.
It’s hard to admit that sugar is an addiction when other addictions seem so terrible and life destroying, but this is only because we can physically see how hard drugs/ alcohol/ etc can damage lives, sugars the invisible addiction. The joke is if you say you have a sugar addiction it is often followed by a chorus of “me too!” and “who doesn’t?!”. In a sense we all are, but only some of us are affected to such a state that it is damaging our health, our relationships and our lives.
Even knowing this, and fighting to get healthier I relapse. I have pizza movie night with my guy, I go out for ice cream with my brother or impulse buy the chocolate bar at work in a desperate attempt not to scream.
Getting healthy isn’t easy, and anyone who says otherwise is lying! You might think that those who have it figured out have it easy, that it came easily to them, but it really doesn’t and it didn’t. I’m sure if you asked how it was in the beginning they would tell you, its tough. Believe them, because believe me most days it feels impossible.
However I am no quitter and I know that the best things in life are hard. Here I am making a trip to the store for Turkey (a whole turkey for the meat and bones for bone broth), for 95% dark chocolate, for whole veggies, low sugar fruit and kefir yogurt. There is a whole lot more to the shopping list but these make up the main things I eat to continue to get healthy, the foods I enjoy through this process and that makes things a little easier.
Stick with me as I try again, because progress is not linear, it’s a messy graph of ups and downs, sometimes it spirals but we learn and never give up. This journey is my life now and one that I am throwing myself into to the best of my ability, because lets be honest, I’m only human.
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