What I Notice When I Stop Eating Well | Wellness with Wisdom
WHAT I ACTUALLY NOTICE WHEN I STOP EATING WELL (AND HOW FAST IT CATCHES UP WITH ME)
Most people think about food in terms of weight.
Calories in, calories out. How their jeans fit. Whether they were "good" or "bad" this week.
I used to think about it that way too. And then I spent 8 years working with an ND and experimenting with my body and that changed how I understood what was actually happening inside my body, and I have never looked at a rough eating week the same way since.
Here is what I actually notice when my eating slides.
The first thing to go is my protein. Not dramatically, just quietly. Breakfast becomes toast or nothing. Lunch is whatever is fastest. By mid-afternoon I am flat and reaching for caffeine or something sweet to get through the next few hours. It is not hunger exactly. It is my body asking for something it did not get earlier in the day.
The second thing is vegetables, specifically cruciferous ones. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale. I know they matter for me in a way that goes well beyond nutrition basics, because through testing I found out that I do not detoxify well. My body does not clear estrogen efficiently on its own. Cruciferous vegetables support that process. Water does too. And when both are low for a stretch of days, I feel it in a very specific place.
My next menstrual cycle.
More symptoms. More heaviness. More of the things that I know, from experience, are my body's way of telling me it has been storing too much estrogen and not getting it out.
Most women have never been told that what they eat affects their hormones in this way. We talk about food and weight constantly. We talk about food and energy occasionally. But the connection between what is on your plate and how your cycle feels, how your mood shifts, how your body handles the hormones it is already producing? That conversation is almost never happening.
And yet for so many women I work with, it is one of the most clarifying pieces of information they have ever received about their own body.
I am celiac, which means I already pay close attention to what goes into my body. But even within that, there are weeks where protein slips, vegetables disappear, and water becomes an afterthought. And I feel every single one of those weeks. Not immediately. But faster than I ever expect.
The three things I come back to when I notice things slipping are not complicated. Protein at every meal. Cruciferous vegetables most days. Water before anything else in the morning. They are not glamorous. They are not a program. They are just what I know my body actually needs to do its job.
If you want to understand what your body might be asking for when cravings or energy crashes show up, my Cravings Decoder is a good place to start. It breaks down what different cravings are often signalling underneath and what your body might actually need instead.
Cheers, Alison
