Learning to embrace the animal I am

I have no official affiliation with Dr. James Chestnut or his Eat Well, Move Well, Think Well protocol. But it speaks to me. I’m a smart girl and I like science. And he’s done the science. I’m not saying I “get it” all yet. It’s a work in progress - I’m a work in progress but here is the concept as I understand it in a nutshell.

It’s not about dieting it’s about wellness. So what is wellness? It’s a living thing being in balance or homeostasis for an extended period of time. We are a living organism, an ecosystem unto ourselves. If we are out of balance it is for one of two reasons - either a deficiency in something our body needs, or a toxicity - too much of something that either our body needs or is toxic to our body.

If we are not well in whatever way, it is for one of these 2 reasons and we need to figure out which thing or things are causing the problem and fix them.

If we can get back to basics, let ourselves fulfill our needs as an animal, as an ecosystem we will get much closer to balance. But we are domesticated animals. Just like the bear who has once gotten a taste of human food will go seeking out garbage, we fill our bodies and our lives with garbage because that’s what we know. It’s up to use to change it.

But change is hard. And we don’t like hard things. So we need to not do it all at once and we to not deprive ourselves. It’s all about adding things and making slow and meaningful changes. One choice at a time. Celebrate the healthier choices. Recognize that you are not ready to let go of some of the unhealthy choices yet. But keep moving forward. Keep moving toward balance.

And it’s not enough to just change the way you eat and to change the way you move. Mental wellness is just as important. If you don’t think you deserve to be healthy, if you don’t change the definition of healthy for yourself, if you don’t learn to associate healthy choices with comfort and rewarding and good feelings, if you don’t learn how to be happy, how to manage stress, you won’t truly be well. And you will be less likely to be able to sustain the eat well and move well because they won’t have become an integral part of your belief system.

So that in my words what his protocol is all about. And this blog will be about my attempts to make the changes in my own life, in my own wellness.