When I was a young dancer, with thin, strong legs and arms my “ballet lines” were always thrown off by the roundness of my belly. For being such a tiny thing, I had quite a Buddha belly.
“You need to be able to balance a coffee cup on your hips. Do not sway your back. Just look at that belly! Pull in your belly! Tuck that bottom,” yelled a string of intimidating ballet matrons. My response was to visit Dunkin Donuts on the way to ballet class every other day, and to comfort myself with many other types of sweets in between.
Years later, making the switch to only eating organic food made me lose twenty pounds! I saw what a toll pesticides had been taking on my body. But I still had a belly. When I gave up gluten and the belly was reduced by half, I recognized, for the first time, what it felt like not to be bloated. I finally recognized that, in a lot of ways, I am what I choose to eat, and that it is possible to feel free of that bloat. It was still challenging to always make the right choices and I followed several trends in terms of what those ‘right choices’ might be.
It was only after going to IIN (Integrative Institute of Nutrition) that I realized that there is no one-size-fits-all “right” diet. We are bio-individual. What makes your body sing may put mine to sleep. I started noticing which foods made me feel more energetic and which created more bloat and/or even joint pain (something else I had always just taken for granted.) When I listened to energetic vegans about the virtues of vegetables, I found myself going a few weeks without meat. Then there were the weeks devoted to good fats, or less fats, or timed intake of fats. There were Ayurvedic principles from India and the Macrobiotic diet from Japan. There were experts like Dr. Oz, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra and a whole fascinating week with several neurologists on the brain (the brain-belly connection! … well that’s another post.) There was the guy who made me appreciate my O blood type’s need for good quality meat. I learned how de-stressing and sleeping are as important as exercise and what we eat. And So. Much. More!
But with all of this, what has helped me the most in terms of being a detective (about which foods best serve me) is the elimination diet. I have adapted it into what I offer as the Release and Reveal Cleanse.
This past week, for the first time in ages, my belly was uncomfortably bloated again. I know, from when I first did an elimination diet, that I can react to beans. I realized the other night that I had eaten a lot of take-out falafel (made with chick peas) and a zucchini pancake made with garbanzo bean flour. I’ve also eaten more grain lately which I learned last year doesn’t always serve me.
The Release and Reveal Cleanse is a short-cut to figuring out what makes you tick. It can solve some of your questions about rashes, cravings, headaches, digestive issues, and even depression. Not to mention the whole cleanse part, where you rid your body of toxins.
The next one starts on March 15. Those who are clients can join us for free and if you’ve joined before, you get to pay less than half.
With love for all the bellies,
Madeline
