Making it move

Last year I focused on a Year of Creating, trying new things and trying to keep some of the benefits that came with lock down life - less commuting time, more family time, more time for fresh air, more time spent at home. This year I thought I would focus on my body. Not a lose weight, get toned kinda focus (I really couldn’t give a stuff 93.2% of the time what size/firmness I am - within context I do have ego and pride!) but more of a movement focus. A focus on improving the types of movement and activities my body can achieve.

Why - well one of my “goals” is to live to at least 106 - and by live I mean I can still dance, laugh without needing to change diapers and enjoy a wee tipple. If I am going to achieve that I’m going to need to be able to move without falling over and literally killing myself. This is no joke - falls are the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths worldwide and the older we get the bigger the risk - if you’re an info nerd like me check out more details from the WHO here.

So as one part of the ‘live to at least 106” goal, this week I signed up to Dr Libby’s Detox 28 day challenge. This is the first time in my life, that I can recall, where I am paying someone to tell me what to do. What prompted me is my far too regular “suffering” of bloating. The kind of “I look 8 months pregnant” kinda bloating. That and other shite but I don’t want to write shite, and no one wants to read shite, so I’ll assume you get what I mean and dump this part right here.

I am writing this on day four of the challenge. Today I woke up and could feel a dull ache in my legs. But as for day three of the challenge - holy shite balls I felt like I’d been hit by a bus - how’s that for a raving review of a product!

This detox requires me to remove alcohol, caffeine, diary and gluten from the diet. Piece of piss I thought, I can do that for 28 days easy and as far as missing any of them goes, it has been, though I did feel a bit glum that I couldn’t enjoy my Dark Horse coffee each morning. It’s the reaction my body has had, and apparently it’s quite common, which has completely shocked me.

So just three days in my knees and ankles felt like they have been beaten with a hammer while I’ve slept. My back was aching and for the previous two nights a front of head headache had descended. I had to put myself to bed in the afternoon for an hour - hmmm felt like I was a bad 106 already! With what I was feeling on day three there is no doubt I will never be going near hard drugs if this is what detox of legal substance is like!

But I’ve also noticed some positive changes too and I'm only at day four. For at least the last year and probably longer, my eyes at some stage would itch like hell and I'd nearly rub them raw. I’d want to scrap them with my nails and it would drive me crazy. Since day two - I haven't had itchy eyes. This morning I woke up, and again, no morning itch and destroy session. My tummy has also “flattened” and my gravitational pull according to the scales has dropped about 2kg. (My ego as noted above was curious!)

I’m super curious by the impact this has had ditching just four things from my diet. Four things that I didn’t consider I was over indulging in. It’s a reminder for me how bloody amazing our bodies are. And how, that if I have any chance of reaching 106, then I’m going to have to get a whole lot better at listening to it.

Keeping to the basics seems a great place to start - move, nourish, hydrate, sleep and repeat.

All these simple things fall under the physical pillar within the 8 pillars of wellness framework relates to. I’ll keep coming back to these pillars throughout this blog as I’ve found it such a simple and great way to keep checking in with myself. When I’m not feeling the joy I can nearly always guarantee that one of the pillars has been neglected.

The remaining 24 days of this detox aren’t going to tell me everything about my body - that’s something I’m going to have to keep paying attention to. But I’m going to find joy in the knowledge that I do gain thanks in a big part, to Dr Libby’s explanation of why and what our bodies are doing in the daily check in’s and like everything - we are all different. #youdoyou

Nadine xx