Natural Healing Guide - Kelly
Oct 29, 2022Picky Eater
As a young child I was tall and skinny. My mom worried that I was not getting enough to eat, I was a picky eater. She talked to the doctor about her concern, and he suggested she put a cold hot dog in my pocket and that I would eat it if I got hungry. I did not like to eat fruit and veggies. I only really liked sweet things and bread.
It wasn’t until I was a teenager and my parents divorced that I began having concern with my weight. My step-mother was health oriented. Her mother had a degree in Home Economics. My mother knew the importance of nutrition (good foods) and knew that scientific data should support a persons’ understanding of nutrition. Thus, she fully believed some of the trends or fads of nutrition, most recently, high protein, high fat, low carb. I remember that we always ate whole wheat bread, we drank raw milk, we had carob chips instead of chocolate chips, we did not have any soda or sugary treats from the store. I still was a picky eater and as a high school student I daily grabbed donuts from the donut store across the street from our high school. Since I had my own job, I was also able to buy candy bars, zingers were a favorite, etc.
Alternative Medicine
Back to my step-mother, she began to have some health problems with her digestion and sought help from doctors. One after another, without ability to resolve her issues. She became desperate and began looking outside of traditional medicine for help. Mom latched onto anything she thought would help. And this is where I was introduced to alternative medicine. She visited a chiropractor, who adjusted the spine and encouraged good nutrition. She saw a doctor that could look at your eyes and tell you where in the body you had health issues. She saw another doctor that used muscle testing to determine food allergies. She consulted with an herbalist and began including herbal supplements in our home diets. I think she even went to a Traditional Chinese Medicine specialist. Sometimes mom would take me to these visits. I was an avid reader, and I observed the books on the shelves at the many doctors’ offices. As a high school student, I read “Back to Eden” a book by Jethro Kloss, an early herbalist. These experiences and books gave me the introduction into alternatives. Not that I needed any of those, I was fine as long as I got my sugar fix.
Soft and Squishy
Fast forward many years. I married, had children, life was stressful and challenging and I gained more weight. I could deal with everything, if I had my daily doses of sugar, brownies, cookies, ice cream, candy bars, frosting, etc. There were many times that I started diets and lost weight. The one that seemed to work the best was the diet with high protein for every meal and then some starches and veggies. But I still had a free day to eat all the sugar sweets I wanted.
For a few years, I even started running and participating in races. I was slow and big. The people around me were supportive and encouraging. Usually, my division was “Athena” the equivalent of the men’s Clydesdale division, larger than everyone else.
But when life became challenging again, I went back to my old habits, I gained the weight back again. I got used to being “soft and squishy”, but it bothered me. Actually, I believed I knew what changes I needed to make to change my weight and be healthy, but it was too hard. I could not imagine ordering just a large salad for dinner at a restaurant. But I felt like I should. In the grocery store I knew I should be buying more fruit and vegetables, but when I did, it just went bad. I knew I should stop eating anything with sugar, but I couldn’t. I would describe my relationship with sugar as an addiction. I could not go a day without eating something that contained sugar.
Symptoms
Eventually, my children grew up and moved out of the house. I was teaching part time at a nearby university and we had recently moved to the country. I debated for months about taking a nutritional herbalist course, but I thought I already knew what I needed to do to be healthy, I just didn’t do those things. I finally decided to take this course with my sister. My paradigm changed completely. I had always looked at medicine and herbs in an allopathic way. What does this mean? It means that I just wanted to treat the symptom of extra weight. In reality the extra weight and other symptoms like inflammation, aching joints, headaches and more were signals from my body that something was wrong.
As I learned about my body and how wonderfully it works, I also learned about the foods that help it to function properly. I learned that it would take time for my body to heal itself and that I needed to provide the nutrients it so desperately needed. By the way, did you know that cravings are the body's way to signal that it needs something? And if you do not provide the body with what it needs you will develop cravings. More on that another time.
Looking & Feeling Healthy
As I approached my health, examining the "big" picture or looking at the whole situation, things began to change. Before I just wanted to lose weight. I now realized it wasn't about the weight. It was about feeling good and healthy. My job was to provide the assistance to my body with what it needed to heal. It took some time and effort, making small changes. Over time my health improved, I felt healthier and happier. I have lost some weight, many of my symptoms, like the inflammation, lessened, and the joint aches went away entirely. My eyes have been opened as I have embarked on this journey of health. I hope to share with you the things I have learned so that you can make positive changes in your lives too.
Kelly Summers, is a Master Herbalist & Natural Healing Guide®. She knows that knowledge is empowering and deeply desires to share the insights she has learned through her continued journey of learning.
