Many years ago I was diagnosed with IBS, gluten intolerance and in 2016 I had my gallbladder removed. As you can see, my digestive system and I were not very good buddies for a long time.
Removing my gallbladder was a sign that I needed to nurture and heal my relationship with my digestive system. Not a very sexy topic to speak about but if you have IBS, suffer from bloating and digestive discomfort you know how uncomfortable the pain can become.
Here are the steps I followed to healing my digestive system with food (Please take note that you need to see a specialist and dietician to support your road to recovery if medical treatment is required, these are foods that help me sustain a healthy digestive system after I seeked medical help).
My emotions drive my eating, I eat when stressed, sad or overwhelmed. It took me many years to admit that I have a not so desired habit of reaching for “comfort food” when I am feeling down.
Through my journey of discovering I am an emotional eater, I realised that I have an emotional relationship with food. It’s part of my culture and how I was raised. Every life event, food was involved. If it’s a birthday, we celebrate with cake.If someone is sick, we nurse them with food, if someone passes away, we take food to their home. If we are celebrating a promotion, we go out to a restaurant, if anyone is having a bad day at work, we give them a chocolate and it goes on and on!
Life has been a blessing for me; I have an amazing 2-year-old daughter, supportive family and friends; launched my blog this year and get to work with good people in my team.
It was all not an easy journey where opportunities presented itself on a silver platter and I had to meet some frogs before I met my prince. I have learned some invaluable life lessons along the path of adulthood that I thought might help my fellow sisters with achieving GIRLPOWER:
-Don’t let your biological clock decide when you need to get married. Follow your instincts.
-Kids are not for everyone, if you don’t want any, don’t feel pressured into it.
-If you have a kid, its ok to be selfish and want some alone time, hell…its ok to be a little selfish in general.
-Do not get married because you feel like everyone else is doing it and you are getting older…NEVER EVER SETTLE!!!
-NEVER allow a person to abuse you, physically or emotionally. The biggest gifts my parents could have given me was sending me for martial arts classes for 11 years…I can confidentially say that it has helped me identify a dangerous situation and equipped me to have a chance to defend myself if I ever have to. Every female should have some form of self-defence training.
-Be confident and tell your partner what you want out of the relationship. Stand by your believes and values.
-Spirituality is important, it helped me find myself. Understand yourself and your needs.
– Become independent and self-sufficient.
-Don’t be with a partner that does not support your dreams, does not push you to be better or sits on their ass dishing out commands.
-Respect your body. Treat it like a temple..took me a long time to realise I was abusing my body with processed foods and sugar but I am in a better space.Reduce the junk food and increase clean eating.
-Wear sunscreen and moisturize….DAILY!
-Do something new or travel somewhere new every year.
-Remove toxic people from your life…they suck the life out of you.
-Save money.
-Be kind and live wisely.
P.S. Be glamorous!!!