I had an amazing mom's night out celebrating the Women's Collabrative's One Year Anniversary on Saturday night and got into some pretty important conversations with some fellow autoimmune warriors at the party.
On the way home, I pulled out my phone and opened my voice notes and recorded some thoughts I had racing through my mind after.
This voice memo turned into the first episode of my new podcast, "Edible Rx" - available in audio and video. If you prefer to consume your content in blog form - I got you!
Thought #1
If you are willing to label yourself as a “Spoonie” but you’re not willing to label yourself as a “Warrior” - then you’re just simply not ready to heal through food yet.
You’re not.
You’re more comfortable embracing the victim mentality than the warrior mentality.
And that’s okay. I don’t say that with any judgment or bias what-so-ever. It’s just a fact.
Warriors fight for a better hand and spoonies make the best of the hand they've been dealt.
Just because your friends are talking about the gains they’re getting from the Flare Free Cooking Academy and raving about how amazing the recipes are, doesn’t mean that they will be amazing and perfect for you right now. Your friends may be Warriors while you're still a Spoonie.
And that's okay!
I’m in the business of meeting folks where they are. I don't want to change you or convince you to try and take charge of your condition.
I can not make you use food as medicine.
And no medicine works until you use it.
So until you’re ready to get off the rollercoaster ride of autoimmune flare-ups and start putting in the work, stay a Spoonie.
Acknowledge that you may never come around to embracing the Warrior mentality and may have to deal with chronic pain and fatigue forever.
Most people have to hit rock bottom to be motivated to start taking control of their condition. If your pain isn’t stronger than your desire to eat whatever you want, you haven’t hit your rock bottom yet.
But when you do, the Flare Free Cooking Academy and this community of autoimmune warriors will be here for you. No judgment. No labels. No explanations. Just us.
Thought #2
Our minds are VERY powerful. There are things that we can tell ourselves and believe - knowing darn well that science and reason proves otherwise.
For example, I have a severe allergy to penicillin. Which is an antibiotic derived from mold. When I was a kid, I suffered from horrible allergies and asthma and mold was one of the 21 different allergies that came back positive on my skin prick test.
Years ago when I lived in South Korea, there was some black mold growing in my apartment that made me very sick. And I used to get an itchy throat anytime I ate blue cheese.
So I know I am sensitive to mold.
Yet for 2 ½ years, I worked in a building that had flooded a couple times and had obvious signs of mold and I was able to, through the power of my mind, continue working in that environment and completely disregard the obvious health issues I was experiencing as a result of the mold I was being exposed to.
Now I know it was the mold that was contributing to all of my digestive issues, chronic fatigue and inflammation that I had in my feet because within a few weeks of leaving that job, my pain went away and I was able to stand barefoot in my kitchen and garden again.
This is after 2 ½ years of not being able to walk without being in constant pain. I had chairs to sit in all around the kitchen so I didn’t have to stand while cooking; and I had seen three different foot doctors that all treated me for Plantar Fasciitis without success. I wore the custom orthotic shoes that were prescribed to me 24/7 and I still had pain.
Pain that somehow disappeared when I left the mold infested building.
So all of this to say…
Our minds are very powerful. We can tell ourselves ANYTHING.
If we can tell ourselves we're not sick from mold that's obviously growing inside the building we're working in all day...
We can tell ourselves that vegan cheese, gluten free bread, grain-free grains are the same as their counterparts.
You HAVE to be able to open your mind and tell it something different. Rewrite the story.
Is eating real butter on real bread more important than being able to WALK?! Without expensive custom orthotic shoes on all the time?!
We give food so much power. When it doesn’t need that much power.
You know what needs power?
Me.
I need the power to have energy to get through the day.
I need the power to be able to sleep 8 hours uninterrupted every night.
I need the power to be able to walk barefoot in the garden.
The power to walk along the beach without shoes on.
I need the power to be able to eat food without experiencing bloating, gas and heartburn afterwards.
How about that?
That’s the kind of power I need in my life.
So think about that the next time you tell yourself, “No” or “I can’t” or “It won’t” or “It doesn’t” about food.
It is.
It can.
I will.
It’s all in the power of your mind. You can do anything you set your mind to.
You deserve to live a life that’s pain free. You are worthy of a long, healthy, vibrant life. Free of digestion problems, free of chronic fatigue.
I was in the grocery store the other day and overheard an older gentleman say, “I’m 65. I can’t be walking all around this grocery store!”
I want to be walking. At the bare minimum. When I’m 65. I’m not saying I want to be climbing mountains and running marathons - I don’t do that now.
But I stand on my feet for hours everyday. I live a very active lifestyle. I’m constantly cleaning my house; constantly gardening; constantly working; constantly cooking. I don’t really sit down. I don’t live a sedentary lifestyle.
But I also don’t run marathons.
But I do want to be able to do the things that I love to do - hiking, climbing waterfalls, camping with my family, walking barefoot on the beach, gardening barefoot, cooking barefoot in my kitchen all day long. When I’m 65. When I’m 75. Heck, when I’m 85.
I want to be able to do what I want to do, when I want to do it! I’m not going to let any food or any disease tell me I can’t.
I hope you enjoyed this post. If you like podcasts, head over to hear the audio version on Anchor or Spotify or watch it on YouTube. Have an amazing day!
xo,
Laura
Well said. It's a message I needed to hear.