If you’re anything like me then you’ve probably done a fair bit of experimenting with your health.
You’ve cut this out, you’ve added that in. You’ve tried this diet, you’ve followed that workout plan – all in the hope that the changes would make you look and feel your best. And if you’re anything like me, then you’ve probably made mistakes… a lot of mistakes. You’ve cut out things that you need…
… and added in things that don’t serve you so well…
You’ve fallen victim to ridiculous diet trends…
… and worked your body far past the point of exhaustion…
But your intentions were good, right? Even if the results might not have been. The problem is that deciphering the signals that our bodies send us can end up being a task and a half. An upset stomach, a headache, fatigue, a rash… what does it mean!? Wouldn’t it be great if we could just ask our bodies what the heck the problem was and get a straight answer? No more wandering around the kitchen trying to figure out exactly what it is that we’re craving. No more worrying about whether we’re eating too much or not enough. No more strange stomach problems, confusing conditions, or unanswered questions. No more guesswork. Mmm. I could definitely live with that. It beats wondering why I can eat the same meal on two different occasions and get away unscathed one time while suffering debilitating stomach problems the other…
Or wondering whether the re-introduction of apples into my diet is responsible for my increased stomach woes…
Or wondering if I’m ever going to be able to eat my beloved oats again…
The prompt for Day 3 of NHBPM was: “I don’t know about this, but I’d like to,” and as I was sitting there this afternoon trying to figure out what on earth I ate that made my stomach feel like it was full of tiny somersaulting gnomes, I couldn’t help but think “Man, I really wish my body just spoke plain English…” Unfortunately, it doesn’t – and it’s highly unlikely that it’ll try to pick it up anytime soon – so all that’s left to do is listen to the signals that it sends us, and do our best to decipher them… even if things often end up getting lost in translation.
. – . – . – .
If you could ask your body one thing (and get a definitive answer) what would it be?
And wouldn’t it be freakin’ great?
Great post! Sure wished my stomach talked yesterday….. I think all day what did I eat or drink different to cause my discomfort? (or having a 22 yr old daughter in college trying figure out her life or my husband working all weekend on a very important report lol). My Mom always said it our water we drink (different every day coming out of the faucet) even our bottled water Ugh who knows. Have a great Sunday Amanda, off to Church I go.
Such an interesting question! Hmm I would ask my body what it feels like it’s missing. I suspect my bad skin, hangry-ness, and occasional extreme cravings are tied to some sort of imbalance in my body. Gahhh just tell me what you need, body!!! I will give you anything and everything.
Could not agree more on this!!! Sometimes I too can eat the exact same meal and one time feel great, the next feel like I’m being stabbed in the small intestine or something. UGH. I was actually realizing recently, I think I may have started to find my nutrition “sweet spot” and I kinda did it without even thinking about it – I had to make a couple “mistakes”, like discovering food allergies the hard way (peanut butter and oats…urrgh they were my favorites too!), but on the whole I’ve felt better than I have in awhile….hopefully it stays that way, ya never know!
Peanut butter and oats?! Oh girl I’m feeling you on those. Peanuts I’ve always known about, but the oats were definitely a hard one… I still miss them 🙁
I have totally done all of the trends, even the ridiculous ones I see on blogs every day. Now I just do my own thing and I love it!
Wouldn’t that be so awesome if our bodies could talk! I would know so much and I would have stopped abusing my body long ago! I’m always trying different things with foods because of my stomach pain and just wish I could know what is really causing the problems. Bodies are such interesting things! We try and manipulate them, force them to do things, when we should really “listen”. Sometimes it’s hard because our minds get in the way so we just need to do the best with not listening to our minds. I really enjoyed this post Amanda! You are such an awesome writer!!
Hmmmm, I think I’d ask my body how much sleep does it really need? Because honestly I have no idea. Sometimes I’m perfectly fine with 6 hours and sometimes I’m dead on my feet. Your post is an interesting idea. You’d think we’d know by now having lived in them for a fair number of years but we’re all clueless. Our bodies probably just think we’re incredibly stupid hehe.
AMEN!!! I wish I could ask my body what foods it likes and it doesn’t. I get this terrible scraping pain after eating sometimes. It is terrible! We need to chat sometime!!
Omg, that would ROCK! I have so many questions, but I think the biggest one would be the same as yours…why the HECK do I get horrible stomach aches after eating something one time, but not all the time? I haven’t had broccoli in MONTHS because the last few times I had it, I thought I was going to die for like 6 hours afterward…I know, a bit ironic given my blog name, right? Ugh!
Bodies are curious things. What I’ve always wondered is why you can wake up one day and have a mild (or worse) intolerance to food. I know there’s the debate of eating too much of something can cause it but I’ve known people who just ate a peanut and had a huge allergic reaction even though they’ve eaten them ‘normally’ without problem before. It’s weird.
As for chopping, changing, dropping, adding and all the smorgsboard of things we do to our bodies, unfortunately I think we always want something different for our bodies. It seem so much easier to try and change what we have than accept it and love it.
I’d probably ask why I can’t I sleep through for eight hours? Or even seven? Just unbroken sleep! 🙂
That happened to me with pineapple. I ate it normally for the first 22 years of my life, then one random day I had a piece and broke out in a huge rash and got a bad stomach ache. Since then I haven’t been able to eat it. No idea why…
I can relate to this way too much, I wish my body would speak to me directly. Tell me what works and what doesn’t. I felt like I have spent so long trying to figure out how to make it work well and it is not a big help. I hate my stomach woes so feel you on that. Great prompt, oh no apples! If I had to give up apples I would be fruitless, really the only fruit I can afford.
yes, it would be so much easier if our bodies simply told us what they needed! But I guess in a way they kinda do..with all the pain/uncomfortableness/weird feelings we get. I guess those are just the signals we have to learn to decipher. Frustrating as heck unfortunetly!
AAAAAA freakin MEN! AMEN! This would be the most amazinggggg thing EVER! I wish I could not only ask my body what it needs or doesn’t need, but I wish I could SEE inside my body..I want to see exactly how everything works and is broken down. The anatomy text books aren’t enough! I NEED MORE!
I’m sorry about your tummy gnomes (hehe) that is never fun! I hope they leave soon, because apples are so good!
OMG! yes yes yes! I am always wondering why one meal (dates for instance) can make me feel great one day and the next time I have them I am kneeling over in pain all day! and as for cravings! So annoying, I never no if its real or just me thinking I should have it! I hope you get to have your oats again one day girl! I remember when I first started reading your blog last year, those pictures and your love of them were adorable!
I still can’t look at them without getting a bit sentimental either 🙁
This is my favorite post title ever! I saw it and immediately knew it would resonate with me! I have battled my body for years trying all the latest diets, assuming I knew what was good for it, when in reality if I just listen really closely to my body and pay attention to how it feels and what I’m eating, it becomes so much easier to know what works for me!
I’ve been dealing with SO many stomach issues over the past few years. Whether it’s bloating, pain, or constipation, something ALWAYS seems to be wrong. I would want my body to give me advice as to what foods and how MUCH I need to eat in order to avoid these symptoms (especially constipation!)
Oh my, words can’t describe the awesomeness of this post! I badly wish we would all be able to communicate with out bodies and follow their lead – this would surely change a lot in the world because we’d be more content with our bodies. Or is that hoping for too much?
Anyway, there are many questions I’d like to ask my body some of them being: How do you want me to treat you? What do you want me to eat/get you? Are you okay with the way I’m living my life? I’ve read a great quote somewhere: You don’t have a body, you ARE a body. That’s why I’m striving to be in tune with m body: It’s no more or less than me as a person.
Man oh man! You literally just spoke my EXACT thoughts at the moment.
I’ve been adding more calories into my diet in different forms, but somehow when I decide to add them in certain food groups, my stomach becomes SO much more uncomfortable than it does when I do others! I wish I could literally just ask my stomach– “Okay, so WHY are you mad now?!”– but unfortunately it’s just not that easy peasy 🙁
i wish my body spoke sign language. That way no one else really knew what it was saying, because i think at times, it would curse me.
😉
p.s.
apples are a no no for me right now. The fructose makes me hurl. No joke. cooked apples are another story.
😉
I would ask my body why it doesn’t like to sleep and what exactly I could do to make it sleep better! I rarely sleep in past 6:30, even more rarely sleep in past 7, and pretty much NEVER sleep in past 7:30. For once I would just love to be one of those people who can sleep in until 9 am!
This. Very much this. It seems like no matter how late I go to sleep, I’m always up at 6 or 6:30 at the latest. If I ever saw 9 AM, I’d probably be freaking out.
I’ve always wondered if it’s somehow connected to my ED past – because that’s when my sleeping trouble started – but if that’s the case, then why haven’t our sleeping habits improved since then!?
i totally relate to this! i have given up so many foods for the sake of my stupid tummy…it is all guess work and certainly gets frustrating after a while!
I completely agree that knowing what our body wants would take out a lot of guess work. I do know that with apples, I am allergic to the peel. I have to peel every single apple I eat. Not super appetizing. Maybe you have the same issue?
I’ve actually heard other people mention the peel too! I’m definitely going to give it a shot and see if it helps. Thanks 🙂
Another post I love! Oh wow….in all the past years I did not ask my body anything. My mind did all the decisions so now I am trying to figger out what the signals mean and even realize that there IS a signal! I would ask my body if it wants to workout or not. I am still too obsessed with exercising and my mind takes over in this subject way too many times. I am not there yet to feel okay by lying around lazy. But I think my body wants it.
If only, if only, if only! I have a thousand and one food intolerances and some of them had been flying under the radar for some time. I recently discovered that whilst I can eat green apples, red apples make me seriously sick – so odd!
My problem is that my doesn’t speak my language, the doctors language or any translatable language whatsoever – it has everyone stumped!
Ugh the worst ones are the ones that stay under the radar… or the ones that sneakily disguise themselves as something else. I definitely feel you there, girl.
This may be the greatest post I’ve ever read ((okay it’s up there with your other AWESOME posts)). Seriously though, such a great question. Oh how I wish I had the answers to it as well. I often find myself wondering the exact same thing. What foods will fuel me better, what foods will make me sluggish, what foods will cause stomach pains. Unfortunately though, we’ll never know 🙁 🙁
It would be so great if we knew exactly what our bodies want and need! I would really just like to apologize to my body for putting it through so much pain and restriction, but I’d also ask what it really wants from me. Like, I am giving it what it needs or not? And am I giving it enough fuel, even on the days when I feel like I’ve eaten too much but probably haven’t? I feel like I’m satisfying my cravings and nutritional needs most of the time, but I don’t really know what’s going on under the surface which is scary. Who knows what my body might decide to do in the future based on my actions in the past. I wish bodies weren’t so darn confusing!
Apologizing – that’s such a great thing to do 🙂
Oh boy I don’t even need my body to speak eloquently…broken English would do if it meant getting some answers. Like you I have tried a number of things to improve my health and it really is a case of trial and error. It’s frustrating to say the least because as soon as I think I’m getting answers, something new comes up. I’d love to ask my body what kinda workouts it likes best- ie which will keep me in shape and boost my energy levels. For now, it seems like my body still wants to plead the fifth *sigh*
Love this post! My oh my…. I would ask my body if it would be okay if I just ate fruit and nuts, cause honesty, they’re easy to grab, ready to eat, and I don’t have to use any kitchen utensils or gadgets before eating them. Hey, body, can I be lazy and just eat a bunch of bananas instead of roasting a pumpkin, mixing cinnamon, raisins and nutmeg with oats into a bowl, adding some sort of liquid, contemplating a nut butter or some seeds, then eyeing the shredded coconut and some frozen berries…., and microwaving it for 3 minutes? (Ahh my gosh now I want oatmeal. Shoot son!)
Now -I- want oatmeal! And I still can’t have it! 😡
I kinda have a round about way of answering this question, mainly because it’s something I’ve been thinking about myself for a while now (your posts have a funny way of doing that btw). I wish there were this body scanner thing where in one ‘reading’ it measured things like, your vitamin/nutrient levels, heart rate, metabolic rate, muscle mass-fat ratio, which muscles are most primed for exercise and which ones need rest…and then took all that information to calculate things that I’m sure ED makes us all wish we knew instead of playing mad scientist with our bodies: 1. What’s the best workout for me today? 2. What food is my body crying out for? 3.Exactly how many calories did that workout burn? 4.How long should I sleep tonight? I don’t know about anyone else. but I’ve certainly wished there was a machine like this. But there isn’t, and there may be a good reason for it.
The more I’ve thought about and made myself more and more ready to take serious steps to recovery from ED, the more I’m realizing that our bodies, in their natural, healthy state are really the best machines that we have to judge all of that. I’m starting to accept that since my body isn’t good at relaying information to me anymore, it’s not in a healthy state, and I definitely need to change that. The brain is full of sensors that for years, told me everything about my body I needed to know. ED is the one who silenced them and trained them into thinking I don’t need to listen to them (like when I’m hungry, or craving things like pancakes, red meat or anything sweet that isn’t a piece of fruit). Now, it’s up to me to let those sensors in my body know that it’s okay to come back on and do their job.
….But all the same, rather than pose a specific question, I think I’d ask my body to create a meal/exercise/sleep schedule that was especially tailored not only for my health, but for my cravings and pleasure so that rather than doing the VERY hard job of finding a delicate balance on my way to recovery from ED, my body could do it all for me and all I had to do was sit back and live free again.
Great post. 🙂
You raised so many great points! Our bodies are definitely the best sources of information that we have when it comes to diet and exercise, but our minds get in the way big time, especially when they’re constantly being bombarded by all of the most current ‘research’ out there.
Now THAT is a million dollar question!
I would just want my body to tell me EVERYTHING about it! The main question though: am I treating it alright as it is right now? I do worry that I eat too much, or maybe I still don’t eat enough, or I’m not enough protein to see the muscle gains I want, or exercise too little/not enough…and of course, I’m terrified that I caused permanent (or semi-permanent) damage to my body with the ED and I have no idea. So am I reversing whatever I damage I caused during that point? How would it like to be treated now? Am I doing it right? More sugar because I like it? Less sugar because apparently it’s not “good for you?” Really, what would make it happy?
Pretty sure that’s like 12 questions. I would have a looooong conversation with my body, that’s for sure.
You and me both! You may have done some damage as a result of restriction, but the body is a pretty amazing thing that has the ability to heal as long as you give it the resources. But then wondering if you’re giving it the resources is a whole other story. Sigh. All we can do is try our best.
Great post! I would ask my body–how much and what exactly can I eat and how much should I exercise–and what type of exercise should I do to achieve the body that I want staring back at me in the mirror and where I’m comfortable in my skin–both naked and with clothes; and where I like what the number reads on the scale? Oh how I wish my body could answer!
I’m really glad someone else replied with this kind of response. I wanted to say the same thing, but everything I wrote came out very angsty and over-emotive. I want my body to tell me exactly how much I should eat and what I should eat so that it looks the way *I* want it to, not it’s ‘natural’ weight or whatever because I am not okay with that ‘set point’ being 20x higher than everyone else’s. It’s easy to embrace a body that is on the lighter side, but I’m not going to settle for being one of the unlucky ones that has to be bigger. I want to ask my body why it does not behave the way everyone else’s does, why I can burn off everything I eat just through exercise without even taking into account BMR calories and still gain weight most weeks. I want to interrogate the thing as to why, if I up calories as suggested to avoid ‘starvation mode’ I just gain even more. I want to know why it is punishing me this way.
Do you ever post something I’m not interested in? No. Anyways, what a great question. I don’t even know-I would ask what foods to eat when. Is that two questions, I don’t know. Being diabetic, it’s hard for me to get a good balance most of the time!
Wow. SERIOUSLY!!! WOW!! Holy question of the day, Batman!!
If I could ask my body one thing … hm. It would probably be what it’s idea of a perfect day would be — food, exercise, and sleep-wise. I think that would take me pretty far with just one question …
I sometimes wish my body could tell me what it’s thinking/what it needs, but sometimes I think I would be afraid of what it would say. I would be SO afraid to let it down … I think it would be harder to cope with disappointing my body than anyone else in my life — which is comforting in a way! It means that I’m putting my body’s priorities first. Aka Making myself the most important feature in my own life. Hm. Cool!
If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think you could let it down as long as you did whatever it asked… And it would never ask for anything it didn’t need, so that’s a comforting thought 🙂