This is for Luis.

*Ahem.*  Good evening.  Tap. Tap. Tap.  Here goes nothing.

So you want to make a dramatic change in your life and are feeling overwhelmed by the countless paths to take?  Welcome to a blog that will hopefully inspire you to make small changes in your habits and open the door to a healthier way of living.

Many of my friends and family have been encouraging me to start a blog.  I've been apprehensive.  Who would read it?  Why would you want to read about food when you can just look at the pictures on Facebook?  Isn't that easier?  Always trying to please others, I have accepted the challenge.  As I was setting up the blog and getting lost in all the wonderful background images and funky fonts, I realized I was personalizing it to my taste.  And that, folks, is what you need to do with your diet.  More on that later.  Starting a blog feels like a big step for me, I guess I'm kind of self-conscious about my writing... I have boxes of journals that have only been exposed to a select few that I love very much.  So let me tell you world, and readers, that I love you.  There.  Now it's personal and there's no need to worry.  Let's get going.

First of all, here's where I'm coming from.  I'm a 28 year old woman with a big heart and a lot of curiosity.  I work in schools as a Spiritual Community Animator which means I get to run activities and events that promote well-being.  But right now, in this moment, I am a totally inspired individual who wants to reach out and encourage people to try new foods and get creative with their way of living.

The title of this blog is a reminder to myself that if I listen carefully, and mindfully tune in to my body, it will tell me exactly what is happening and what I need to do in order to be well.  It came to me last summer when I opened a youtube account thinking I would videoblog a detox experience.  Well that didn't last as I didn't have the internet at home.  Now that I do, I've been spending a lot of time drowning in Facebook statuses so I've decided to be productive and take a quantum leap and start this blog already.

***The Heart of It***

I'd been dealing with some stress-related physical symptoms for a few years.  I kept telling myself they would go away if only I'd exercise or change my diet, etc.  The truth is, it took a long time for me to actually admit to myself that I was suffering from stress.  I looked at all other options that were beyond my inner self to quantify what was really going on.  I'd lost touch.  I had poured myself into getting a bachelor's degree, getting work experience and most significantly, I had poured myself into a relationship with someone who wasn't able to fill me back up.  So I was empty.  I was drained, and undone.  I thought I could fix things with this man if I did some soul-searching, to get to the core of my being and bring myself back out of it.  I thought I was the problem.  In the end, it just wasn't meant to be, but I'm grateful that I had that experience, because in retrospect, the end of that relationship was the beginning of a new relationship; with myself.

It started with a visit to my doctor to request an x-ray of my right hip.  I've had pain there for years, at least 5 that I can remember.  And that started the whole trip into temporary hypochondria, a symptom I would later find out exacerbated my stress levels.  I went for a lot of tests, which all came back perfectly normal, they all made me wonder what obscure life-threatening illness I really had.  I broke it down to Fibromyalgia, which my aunt suffers from, and celiac disease.  Fybro is a chronic pain disease that has a hard time getting diagnosed but is becoming more and more common, and celiac is basically where your body doesn't absorb nutrients, and is usually caused by a gluten intolerance.  Ps. Gluten is in EVERYTHING.  My doctor threw some anti-depressants and sleeping pills my way, which I foolishly took without considering the impact it could have on me.  I tried it out for a while until I forgot to take one one day and it totally fucked with my body and that scared me enough to try something else, I guess.

So I cut out gluten from my diet, and that opened the doorway to a holistic way of living.  Soon many of my symptoms, such as indigestion, muscle pain, and fatigue disappeared.  I did this for a month, and documented everything I ate, including what symptoms, if any, I had.  So when the month was over, I could see which foods affected me and how.  This gave me a great deal of awareness I'd never felt before.  I saw a naturopath who put me on some magnesium powder mix (for the muscles), flora for my belly, and a few other products too.  I bought myself a pillbox (at 26!!!) and tried it for a while.  I spent a lot of money for a few months, on trying to make myself feel better and once my mastercard was maxed out (no joke) I decided to try it on my own.  It was up and down for a while, but I treaded on, trying to stay positive, until things started getting murky again.   I went for more tests but same thing, nothing.

Finally one day, driving to yet another doctor's appointment, I was turning the corner of Jean-Talon and Cote-des-Neiges, contemplating illness, and it hit me, so clearly: "Nothing is wrong with you Katie.  Except with how you've been treating yourself."  I'd created an energy of stress so powerful that it took over my body and possessed it with doubt and fear and anxiety and pain.  And that's when things really started falling into place.  That moment of acceptance unlocked a world of discovery that had been waiting for me the whole time.

***Change of Perception***

I found out about raw foods while researching fibromyalgia and was intrigued by how many people seemed to have healed themselves.  I did one big-ass grocery shop and immediately fell in love with the idea that I was eating from the Earth, pure and true.  Exactly what Mother Nature intended.  I've been a vegetarian since the age of 13, but raw foods brought it to a whole new level.  I decided to share it with others, via an album on Facebook.  That's where the seed for this blog was planted, I suppose.

So here I am, with many more things to say, but I'll summarize with this piece of advice I gave my friend Luis, who is keen to start eating more whole foods:

The process needs to begin from within.  There needs to be the belief that you are the most important self you have.  You have to be #1 on your priority list.  I know, it's hard, especially when you have others who depend on you, but what can you offer of value to those around you if you're not in the best place, emotionally, physically and spiritually?  It's all superficial, or as my grampa famously says, "it's all bullshit."

I finally get it Grampa.  Thanks.

Accept that health is a journey.  Accept that there will be times when you feel lost, times that you just don't care, times when you're most human.  There will be more times that you feel energized by the thought of eating well, of treating yourself well, by consciously making choices that will benefit YOU, because you are the best thing you've got.  You'll find out what works for you, bit by bit.  To your own taste.  You'll open doors, and you'll learn.  After all, that's what living is all about.

This body is the only body I get in this life.  So I need to take care of it.  This is healthy living.

Wow.  Turns out I do have lots and lots to write about in this blog.  Thanks for reading.

Peace and love,

Katie