Food is fuel… we hear that all the time but do we really take the time to think about what it means?

To me it means that everything I eat should be feeding my body with all the nutrients it needs to be able to function at it’s best. It’s about choosing premium nutrition over processed rubbish. It’s about focusing on your long term wellness over that short term satisfaction you get from eating something full of all the wrong stuff. It’s about getting your endorphins from a workout, not from chocolate cake.

Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate as much as the next person and cake…well don’t even get me started… it’s delicious! I still eat these things but I don’t eat them as part of my daily diet. They are treats and I treat them as such. I eat well during the week and then at the weekend, I can have a slice of cake (or 2) and not feel guilty for putting rubbish into my body.

 I still go out during the week, have dinner with friends and live my life but 9.5 times out of 10 I choose the healthy nutritious food on the menu, yes I am that person and I am proud to be! I don’t have a dessert unless I really, really want it, but if I really, really want it, I will have it.

It’s not about deprivation for me, it’s about creating and keeping healthy habits that make you think twice before diving headfirst into a tiramisu 😉

I don’t believe in restricting diets, quick fixes and miracle pills. I believe being healthy and leading a healthy life is hard work, perseverance, will power and above all else…loving yourself enough to want to nourish every single cell within your amazing body every single darn day. Saying that, it is also important to allow yourself the unhealthy stuff once in a while…we can’t all live clean and healthy lives constantly…that would be very boring!

Learn to listen to your body!

Your body is so finely tuned, it will tell you what it doesn’t like. Whether you are getting a bad tummy, feeling sluggish, getting headaches, etc. it is your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right.

A few months ago, I went to see an Acupuncturist and during my first consultation she asked me about my gut health and bowel movements.

Well, ignoring my natural instinct to be embarrassed to be talking about poop, I explained that no matter how healthy I was eating, I always had either a runny tummy or didn’t go at all and rarely had a ‘normal’ experience in that department.

She asked me what I typically drink in a day and I answered that I drink at least 2 litres of pure water a day, 1 cup of coffee in the morning, green tea throughout the day and occasionally a smoothie for breakfast. She then asked what temperature the water I drink throughout the day is usually at. I replied “freezing cold” – I like my water refrigerated! She told me that was my problem and if I could drink my water and the majority of my drinks at a minimum of room temperature, I would see a huge difference in my tummy health almost immediately. She was right!

It turns out that every time you drink freezing cold water, your body rushes lots of blood away from your vital organs and intestines to your stomach to warm it up so that your body can process it and use it…leaving your organs without the precious blood it needs to function properly. Well, it sounds obvious now doesn’t it but for years I was completely oblivious to this!

Now I add boiling water to the water from the refrigerated tap in the office and use tap water at home and let it warm slightly before drinking it instead of keeping a bottle of tap water in the fridge and I can say it has made such a huge difference.

I now have a very happy healthy tummy!

My body reacts very badly to sugar. If I eat something with refined sugar, I get a huge sugar rush sending me sky high where I get giggly and act delirious and then crash to the floor with an almighty thud. It’s become something of an amusement to all my colleagues at work if I ever decide to eat some of the office sweets (which is not very often). 😉

I can’t eat donuts anymore. The way I feel after eating one is not worth the few minutes of pleasure at all. Not even at the weekend. I hardly even get the sugar rush, I just get the slump! 😦

People that eat bad things regularly are less likely to notice how it makes them feel because feeling like that is just part of every day life for them.

Once you start to clean out all the rubbish from your system, you will notice the adverse reaction your body has to all the bad stuff and this will help you learn to eat the right things. After all, why would you want to make yourself feel sluggish?

You tune yourself into the hum of your own body and I can tell you… you become your own little miracle.

Look after yourselves – there’s only one of you.

With love, Tash ❤ x