CSI Lifestyle

Several months ago, I went to a yoga class where the theme was “CSI Yoga.” The whole point of the class was to discover what body parts, joints, and muscles were tight and/or had other challenges.  We slowly made our way through the body, putting ourselves in different poses and testing things out. The instructor would tell us If X is feeling Y, then your ABC is tight.

The point?  After you’ve identified your “weaknesses,” you can then tailor every yoga class to your own needs. You know how you need to modify poses or what movements you need to emphasize to maximize your strengths and accommodate your weaknesses.

Shouldn’t diet be the same way?  In our culture, is it possible for us to change our mentality of trying to fit ourselves to the diet we hear about (or someone recommends) to one of adjusting dietary habits to fit our own personal needs?

We’re used to hearing on TV what the new hot diet is. Then, we try it. It doesn’t work, and we beat ourselves up over it—we FAILED. We are FLAWED. Because we didn’t fit the mold of the diet that someone else told us would work.

Does this make any sense logically?  Not really. If you take your car to get fixed and it breaks again when you leave the parking lot, do you blame the car?  No. You blame the mechanic because he either didn’t have the knowledge or the tools to fix the problem.

In the end, it’s not even about blame. It’s about getting to know ourselves in a way that helps us to make more informed decisions about our health. It might be easier to just glom onto the newest diet…for now. But when it doesn’t work, we then have to find a new one to try (and we already feel badly about ourselves)…and then another, and another.

I can talk about this with personal experience, both for myself and for some of my clients. I’ve seen people struggle with dieting, and then finally find an approach that fits their body and their needs….and it works!  They feel good. They’re happy. They’re not starving, and they’re totally physiologically satisfied.

My personal story is not so much about weight loss, but about finding foods that promote well-being. Maybe I didn’t want to admit it before, but simple carbs and grains really do not agree with me.  They are very satisfying initially. But they wreak havoc on my body.  I can’t think clearly, I have joint pain, and I have other ailments too.  It has taken me 31 years (I’ve really only tried for about 4), but over the last year, I’ve found many things that work for me. I’m really happy about this, and I know I’ve found my niche in food because I feel better than I’ve ever felt in my life—and I’m also busier than I’ve ever been, but it feels like no big deal.

My suggestion is not that you should stop eating the things I stopped eating to feel better. Rather, you can do your own investigation for yourself on yourself. Take a few days or months to really take note of what you eat, how you feel when you eat different types of foods, and then try new things!  Keep reading about new ideas—take note of any symptoms you have and then google those symptoms.  Who knows, maybe you can fix yourself with food!

Try new approaches to food, but look at it like an interview and trial process—you’re testing them out to see if they fit you, not to see if you can force yourself to be successful.

What foods do you thrive on?