Chicken or Egg?

My food experiments have brought back congestion, and because I did not do one experiment a week, I have no idea what's causing what. There's a lesson.

I suspect my forays into dairy land have brought on the congestion. There's also been a tiny bit of gluten here and there. The immune system creates an antibody to the protein, prompting an immune response that can create congestion in those with a wheat allergy. 

Mainly, I'm waking up with it. Is it bothering me enough to make some adjustments to lifestyle and diet? I think so.

So today I'll have a few berries in the morning, a green smoothie, and then some soup when I get home from church, salad, some roasted vegetables. Maybe I'll thaw some shrimp and toss them on the pan with the veg for an easy dinner. 

Lots of water. Focus on the breath.

Sometimes I take for granted that I'm doing what's best for me, believing that the three months have made it habit. I think three months lay a groundwork for habit, that perhaps one stops resisting the new, but I'm not sure three months is long enough to have created new patterns that stick without some work. It's easy to fall back into old patterns without concentrated effort. 

So time to redouble my efforts. To think about the support I may want.

I may make a daily checklist for the week and hang it up. Just a little reminder. I no longer have the daily check-in with the WildFit platform. I could go back and re-listen to some of the videos and look at the checklists, but knowing the program is over has shifted my attention. It does make sense to print the week 13 food guidelines and the Living WildFit e-book. There are also memberships I can join for ongoing support and accountability, the WildFit membership and the membership with the coach we worked with during the program. I still need to look into that. Sounds like an action step for this week, to meet my ongoing goal of vibrant good health and weight release. Congestion is not part of that vibrant good health.

I notice that when I have congestion, there's also constriction in my thinking and emotions that I need to work to ease. It's interesting, the ways that the mental-emotional mirrors the physical. I'm curious which brings on the other. It feels like the proverbial chicken or egg question. But I suspect it's simpler than that. I suspect the physical leads and everything else follows.

 

The Green Wilderness is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience. Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life.