Even healthy foods can disagree with you! Developing awareness and a sixth sense can help you identify what works really well for your unique body. Healthy food can and should be delicious and it will make you feel great too!!!

     Hi there, it’s Elaine Gardner, the founder of DesignYourHealthyLife.com. The last video that I made talked about developing a sixth sense and getting to understand the deeper, not so obvious signals that your body is sending you when you’re eating food. And I’d like to dive deeper into that topic today because even if a food is really healthy, it may not be right for you. I learned this the hard way, and I’m going to share my story with you in hopes that this might save you from making a similar, painful mistake.

     Over the years I’ve done many different things with my diet; I’ve been wheat free at times, gluten free, dairy free, gluten and dairy free together for extended periods of time. I tried all different kinds of new things to see if I liked them, and particularly I was interested in taking grains out of my diet a few years ago because it’s something that I’ve really had an addiction to. For many years in my life, my diet was very wheat-based. I was eating pasta and crackers and granola bars and cookies and all of those kinds of things, many years ago before I made the commitment to get healthy.

     So a few years ago I decided to attempt a more paleo type of diet, which is more of a grain free and dairy free type of eating. And one of the things that they often recommend is lots of nuts. And nuts can be superbly healthy for you when they’re grown the right way and prepared the right way. They have a wonderful balance of fat, they’re high in protein, so I was eating a lot of almonds, which I had never eaten before in my life, and I had really taken a liking to. And I liked to make muffins on the weekends to have something quick and easy to eat during the week for breakfast, so I was making muffins with almond flour. And they were all healthy ingredients, from the almond flour and eggs and butter and natural sweeteners like raw honey and maple syrup. And all of it was organic. So they were delicious and I managed to learn how to do that quite successfully.

     I was also eating a lot of almonds just as snacks or in snack mixes that I was making at home; organic almonds that I had soaked and dehydrated. It’s one of the most nutritious ways to eat them. And also raw almond butter. So I was eating a good amount of almonds or almond products in some shape or another on a daily basis. And at some point I started having what I believe was esophageal spasms. So when I was eating at times, I would have this incredibly painful constriction in my upper chest where the food that I was eating would literally just stop, and I was having a hard time breathing. And I would have this pain that would radiate through my whole upper chest and I would just have to sit and breathe deeply. And sometimes I could get a sip of water down to make it pass more quickly. And it was very random so I had no idea where it was coming from.

     Over time I started to suspect that it was potentially related to the almonds. And I’m not even sure why I had that suspicion. But sure enough, as I took the almonds out of my diet, the esophageal spasms, or whatever that incredible chest pain was, completely went away. And I don’t have that problem anymore. I don’t eat almonds and I assume there’s probably other nuts that I’m highly intolerant to as well, so I don’t eat nuts on a day to day basis as a general rule. I can tolerate small amounts so I’m very fortunate because I’m not anaphylactic, it’s not life threatening for me, but I do much better when I avoid nuts. And if I’m out at a restaurant and I start to get that restrictive pain in my upper chest, I know there’s something in the food that I’m eating that is bothering me, and I typically stop eating whatever I’m eating.

     So I think it’s a really important lesson to remember, you know there’s a lot of people talking about super foods, and this is healthy and you should have this in your diet, but just because it’s a healthy food, doesn’t mean it’s healthy or right for you. And develop that sixth sense and that awareness about your body when you’re putting those foods into your mouth, again because the supposedly super or super healthy ones may not be right for you. And the more you pay attention and align with what your body is calling for, the better you’re going to feel.

     I was just thinking a few minutes ago while I was having an incredibly delicious lunch, that I know a lot of people struggle with what to eat, or they don’t like to cook. And I know there are so many challenges and so much misinformation, and it’s one of the things I’m really trying to help you with. So I encourage you to have  a love affair with food. Healthy food is not only healthy for your body , it tastes amazing and you should just be enjoying and relishing eating and planning and finding good and delicious foods. And of course this doesn’t happen to be at every meal that you’re just completely in love with everything that you’re eating, but healthy eating really should be a very, very pleasurable experience. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, if you have any similar types of situations, if there’s something in particular that you’re struggling with, I love helping you out. So scroll down, leave me a comment and I promise to get back to you. I appreciate hearing from you!