Health Independence Approach (Part 1 of 5) Cultivate Awareness of Your Bio Individuality

Feeling "off" but not sick? Figuring out what to do first?

Maybe feeling tired more often than you'd like, experiencing a bit of brain fog, having some mild recurring digestive issues or feeling stressed a lot? Worried about your risks for disease? Questioning if you are doing the right things for your health? You want to be at your best, to have enough energy to be able to keep up with all of life's demands and to fully enjoy life's experiences with your loved ones. It's just lately you are not feeling as energized.

With all of the conflicting information out there on health, diet, exercise, and lifestyle, you don't know where to start. Some approaches you've tried didn't work, because they were too cookie cutter. You want a personalized approach for wellness. 

Declare Health Independence!

Take steps to protect your health through ownership of lifestyle and food choices. Start the journey to change unconscious habits and address the lifestyle and food choices that could lead to disease. 

Cultivate Awareness of Your Bio Individuality

Body is Wonderfully Made

From the moment of your conception as a cell and with the spark of life from God, you have been unique - genetically and spiritually. As you grew and matured, your body also changed in unique ways based on your environment, experiences, and thoughts / feelings. 

As a simple example, your natural immune system has developed based on what you've been exposed to. If you've never had a malaria vaccine or been exposed to it, you may not have natural immunity.

As a more complex example, look at the number of microbial cells in our body (~39 trillion) versus human cells (~30 trillion). The health of our microbiome is just as important as the health of our human cells, because of the role they play in our survival and ability to adapt. Our microbiome changes on almost a daily basis according to how we are living and what we are exposed to. Our human cells can have a longer lifespan than a microbial cell, but they also react and respond to what they are exposed to. An example of this that most people are aware of is when cells become cancerous.

It is miraculous how our bodies work with all of this complexity! Just thinking about it I am filled with AWE at what God has accomplished!

Importance of Recognizing Our Uniqueness

As a result of how different each of us are, we each respond differently within our body, mind and spirit to food, stimulus and situations! It keeps changing a little bit each day as we age and changes can be significant over a long enough period of time.

Yes, biochemistry and biological systems work pretty similarly, but there is a wide range of variability even within healthy populations!  This is why some people get horrible side effects with certain food or pharmaceuticals and others don't.

As a result of this uniqueness it can be important to get to know how you are physically, emotionally and spiritually feeling. God designed us to have these cues to provide guidance, even if someone does not have the Holy Spirit acting within them. Often modern life creates a lot of noise to mask. Modern western cultural norms also train us from a young age to control, shut out or freeze what our body, mind or spirit is telling us. Cultivating awareness includes learning to identify if you are getting a signal from your innate wisdom, responding from an unconscious belief or habit or otherwise acting from external stimuli. Then identifying if it is a behavior that is helping or hurting, healing or injuring your body, mind, spirit.  We'll get more into the idea of innate wisdom in the article on Prayer & Intuition.

Unconscious Beliefs, Values, Habits & Knowledge Related to Food

Through our lifetime each of us have picked up a diverse array of beliefs, habits, and knowledge related to food. This makes food mean more than just the macro and micro nutrients that are it is made up of, more than just bio-chemical instructions and information that we are consuming. These beliefs and behaviors are quietly woven into our days, part of what we accept is normal. Usually this is not challenged. Yet, some of these beliefs, values and behaviors may no longer serve us for where we are today in life and what we really need. Some of the knowledge we acquired when we were younger may no longer be accurate. Everyone has had different experiences and reactions so these all play into defining your bio-individuality around food. Here are a few examples.

Personal

• We've been told our whole life what to do for our health, what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, etc. If your parents were like mine, I had to eat all of the veggies before I could eat dessert. If I did not eat everything on my plate, I had to save it for leftovers at the next snack time. There was no wasting food. The reward of an ice cream sundae for a perfect report card, influences desired recognition when there are major accomplishments. Foods can get associated with memories, where food becomes a connector or substitute when stress or certain emotions arise. These were so drilled in that they became unconscious beliefs and habits until I stepped back and looked at them from my current life perspective.

Marketing

• We get bombarded with marketing messages every day from companies trying to get us to spend money on their food products. During the soda or chicken sandwich marketing wars, people dug into their preferred brand or defended it even if they had not tried the competitive products. 
• Marketing can get into the psyche, and influence habit or underlying thought patterns. There are campaigns centered around not being able to control eating - remember Lay's Potato Chips "Betcha can't eat just one" or Pringles "Once you pop, you can't stop." 

Shopping habits

• Grocery store shopping becomes habitual - just keep putting the same products into your cart. It is worthwhile to double check on some of these products to make sure you still want to support the company or eat the food item.
• In a recent example, for years my husband and I enjoyed Marie Callendar's Pot Pie when the weather got cold and gloomy. When I recently looked at the label - I learned that they no longer put real pieces of chicken in. They put in chicken / soy isolate pieces. Exploring further I noticed this occurred in many ConAgra products. I don't support "fake" meat, particularly when they are being sneaky about the substitution, so we don't but this anymore. 

Out-of-date knowledge & conflicting information

• A lot of what we learned in school, on Main Stream Media and other marketing messages about health - is not necessarily the most current information. It may not be right for you as an individual. For example, many of us grew up with the USDA food pyramid that said grains and cereals were the most important food we should be consuming.
• I've come to realize that this was not scientifically supported back then, but a move by lobbyists to sell more cheap foods lacking in nutrient density. Even the USDA has changed the food pyramid and reduced the amount of grains and cereals they recommend.
• If you are still following this advice and have sensitivity to any of the ingredients or additives commonly used in grain and cereal products or any conditions / genetic factors that would recommend a low carb diet, this is likely contributing to low energy, brain fog, digestive upset, etc.

Food design

• The mega food companies design foods to crave! The combination Salt, Sugar & Fat and complex flavor combinations in ultra processed foods influence our bodies at a bio-chemical level. Certain foods and eating patterns can bypass our satiety signals. Others allow us to consume more sugar than if we just had a sugar bowl in front of us. Yet sugar can light up our brain as if we are addicted to cocaine or heroin, so we become like an addict.
• These symptoms may not impact everyone the same because of how different we all are. All of these factors unconsciously influence our food relationships.

As you can see habits that were picked up long ago, may no longer serve you. Food items that you consume may not be the most nourishing for you at this point in time. Cultivating awareness is about being curious and questioning. This allows you to begin to identify the best opportunities you have for change and better understanding where there can be major impact on your health. This is not about how these unconscious habits impact others, but how they impact you. It takes introspection, intuition and prayer to look at some of these from enough angles to objectively understand (without judgment!).

Beyond Food...

The same thing can happen as we look beyond food into other lifestyle dimensions. There are so many variations on this idea, I won't get into this today. I think you get the idea. Everything you do today and have experienced in the past makes you unique to who you are. Who you are into the future is just as unique, wonderful and beautiful as who you are now. 

Cultivating awareness of what brings joy, happiness, gratitude and sense of purpose are just as much of a compass for your health as energy and vitality. Or if it is easier to imagine - stress, fear, guilt, shame, pride, or loneliness are just as much of a compass for poor health as digestive issues, exhaustion, headaches, brain fog, moodiness, or pains.

In the article on Prayer & Intuition we'll get more into how God's love for you and desire for you to be more Christlike influences your health and the guidance you receive.

Internal vs External Awareness of What Factors Nourish You

 As you deepen your awareness of what drives your habits, behaviors and choices you can make decisions on whether they are supportive and nourishing for you today. The following are a few examples that I plan to share a lot of information about.

External

• Learn about the food companies that you currently purchase from. Identify their values or corporate culture to determine if they align with your beliefs and values. 
• Learn about the practices and processes used in industrial agriculture and the food industry. Identify within those processes if there are actions that DO NOT align with your beliefs and values. For example, many vegans have a moral issue with industrial animal husbandry.
• Societal norms can have a significant impact on beliefs, values and behaviors. Identify where societal or community concepts of work ethic, volunteering, body image, and personal value have influenced your actions. Determine if they are aligned with your Christian beliefs and values and are supporting what you need to be healthy.

Internal

• Develop a deeper awareness of how current eating patterns, triggers and certain foods / ingredients impact you. Experiment to determine if you have any sensitivities or if certain foods energize you more than others.
• Develop a deeper awareness of current daily habits / routines. Assess if you are prioritizing activities that nourish you. Identify if there are activities that drain you and no longer support you.
• Understand how the different lifestyle dimensions nourish you. Assess if there are changes that you could make that will have an impact on your health and energy.
• Understand your system of food values - not the calories and macronutrients but the beliefs and emotions that the food evokes.
• Understand your food boundaries (or if you need to put some in place). 

Cultivating awareness internally and externally, sets you up with enough information to make effective decisions and take empowered actions. This phase is all about learning about yourself and identifying priorities.

Techniques / Tools To Help Cultivate Awareness

Read the labels 

• You may be surprised at what you learn about the ingredients and the company. Pick 3 foods that you and your family / loved ones eat regularly and go through each detail to see if it is something that you want to spend money on or eat. Look up every ingredient about what it is derived from and potential risk factors. Look up all the layers of corporate ownership and look at their website, particularly strategy, press releases, recent advertising and company culture on the hiring pages.

Childhood food memories

• Sort through your most significant food memories, how are they impacting your food choices and eating patterns. What patterns do you notice?

Food / mood diary

• Track your eating patterns and what impact highly consumed foods have on your body and mind. No need to start big - just pick 1 - 3 foods that you eat regularly to see what triggers your desire to eat it, how you physically and mentally feel before and after eating it for up to 4 hours. There's plenty of templates or tracking apps online to get you started. Try it for 3 work days and see what you learn. I also find work days are different from days off as it comes to food & drink, so that may also be an area to check into too.

Situational awareness diary

• Track the major points of stress or strong emotions in your day. What situations or feelings send you to food? Which create feelings of stress? Which make you turn away from your personal needs? Track for a couple of days to see where there may be an opportunity to build resilience and to grant yourself more grace. Are there times you turn to food when you really need something else to satisfy or fulfill you?

Compare priorities to realities

• Make a list of the priorities that energize you with feelings of joy, happiness or purpose. For example, it could be time in prayer to build relationship with God and spending time with family & loved ones. Go through your daily routines, how much of your time aligns with your priorities? How much of your time goes toward your purpose, joy or happiness? Are there changes you can make to maximize your joy or happiness? How much of your time goes to activities that drain your energy or make you feel anger, doubt, fear, guilt, or shame? Are there changes you can make here? How can God help you make the changes that best support you, so that you can better serve?

Food technology 

• When has science gone too far for your values? What is the line between a food that nourishes and edible industrially produced substance that you don't want to eat any more? For example: Are you okay with consuming artificial ingredients / chemicals that don't exist in nature or don't exist in that quantity in nature? Are you okay with bio-engineering to create plants and animals that couldn't exist without a laboratory intervention? Should stem cell technology using the cells from aborted fetuses be used in any development or testing of food ingredients? As you learn more, you can decide if there are certain processes, practices or ingredients that you don't want to support anymore.

Food values & boundaries 

• Through journaling work through what do you think is good vs bad, healthy vs unhealthy? What eating patterns reward or punish? There will be interesting patterns some you may be ready to work on and change and others, more resilience or inner work & healing with God is needed.

Final Thoughts

Cultivating awareness, being curious and experimenting are all great places to start your health journey. It is not about taking action, but helping you to understand your current reality so you can best prioritize what to address and take action on. You want to find techniques that work for you and develop the capability to keep learning and becoming aware. As you learn more or look at other aspects of your lifestyle and food choices, you'll continue to return to this element. 

As you understand how you feel and where you stand, you'll be able to make effective changes that have a real impact on your energy level and health. This really helps you identify what your priorities are. Many experts focus on diet and exercise as the place to start, but maybe for you it is food relationship or stress management.

The next article in the series focuses on taking empowered action, based on everything you learned, to nourish self and blossom grace & grit.

As you make changes, you will be able to accomplish all that you want (and need) to do in order to be your best self for God, Family & Country.

In the comments let me know how it goes if you try any of these techniques or have a favorite technique that works for you to cultivate awareness.