You are what you eat… and then some.
Gregg Russell, a children's entertainer and musician native to Hilton Head Island SC where my family would vacation in the summer when I was younger, use to sing a song to his young audience beneath a 300+ year old oak tree. The song was entitled "Inside", and the lyrics stressed how looking inside helped us to understand and appreciate the worth of a thing, whether it was a book or a sandwich or whatever. "It's the most important part - It's the place you've got to start - it's where you'll find the heart of the matter", he used to sing.
He was right. It's a fairly common adage: you are what you eat. And it's true. Just as much as a car is only as useful as its gas, or a sandwich is only as delicious as its filling, you and I are only as useful and only as good as the things we put into ourselves, whether that be food or positive thinking or time spent bettering ourselves. All that exists on this earth is only as much/good/great as its foundation from which it grows, creates, and expands. In terms of human beings that act of creation is happening at all moments of every day; your cells are constantly regenerating and giving way to a "new you" that you never even realize is there because you are in this constant state of creating yourself.
Well, as I myself sang TO Gregg Russell for my 8 or 9th birthday when I jumped up on stage at one of his concerts...:
"Don't build your house on sandy land, don't build it too near the shore - though it might be kind of nice, you'll have to build it twice, you'll have to build your house once more"
So in the end, both Gregg and I are getting at the same thing with regards to my LYME topic today: nutrition, and the WILD importance of it both to a CLD patient like me and all you ordinary human beings out there.
For those with Chronic Lyme Disease, or CLD, diet is a crucial part of your treatment. For many with CLD, their bodies get to the point where they can no longer consume entire types of food due to the inflammation it causes. Most common among these "types of food" is gluten (or grains of any kind, for some more intense cases) dairy, and sugar. ESPECIALLY sugar. Sugar in and of itself is the energy source by which Lyme Bacteria thrive (many with CLD, yours truly included, have some of the most intense sweet tooth's you can imagine because of the Lyme in their body constantly craving it in order to spread).
So, as a result, the "Lyme Diet" as many have come to know it, is very very simplified: meat, veg, some low sugar fruits, and that's it. THAT'S. IT. Desserts, sodas, pastas, breads, most snack foods, condiments, most fruits, milk, cream, cheese, chocolate, butter, etc. are all OFF THE TABLE. And restaurants? Yeah - going out to eat gets pretty pointless after awhile, especially when all you can order is a plain garden salad with no dressings or berries or anything. It's kind of like that scene from Spongebob Squarepants when Pearl takes over the Krusty Krab and reduces the menu to "Salads... and Tea". But way worse.
Luckily for me, my nutritionist has introduced me to a new way of eating that has made my treatment and battle against CLD manageable. It's called Keto. A ketogenic diet, or keto diet, is a very low-carb diet, which turns the body into a fat-burning machine. After 7-9 days of working off of a high healthy-fats diet, the human body reorganizes its priorities for energy from carbs to fat, and therefore when the body is not burning off food, it burns off fat stores.
Now, while - like most - I tend to look in the mirror and think to myself "hmm... I could always afford to lose a few pounds", going on a keto diet has not been done for vain reasons. Quite simply, the Lyme bacteria shelter themselves in the fat stores in my body, sticking themselves in like a garden stake, and then solidifying that fat into a cocoon to protect itself. Hence why CLD individuals like myself who've had the disease for 10+ years have fat stores on their body that refuse to budge or even reduce a little, no matter how much exercise or dieting we do. So, since the keto diet puts fat as the priority for energy burning, these fat stores that house the Lyme bacteria can FINALLY be broken down, allowing the Lyme to be exposed and killed, thereby healing me!
Lemme tell you though. Going keto is hard. it is HARD. Even now as I write this I'm feasting on a big bag of mesquite barbecue potato chips that are 100% NOT keeping me on my low-carb diet. I've been rather naughty lately since I have friends visiting and use that as an excuse to take a break from my Lyme Diet parameters. I find myself craving not only sweets and Oreos (my kryptonite) and such, but breads and pastas too. So, obviously, that's the Lyme' craving. And at one point I consciously could feel my body in a keto state; I no longer craved sweets or breads or any of it. But food and nutrition is certainly my Achilles heel when it comes to treating my CLD.
Which brings me to the heart of my sermon for today: we all need to do better when it comes to nutrition. We can always - ALWAYS - be eating healthier.
And let me clarify: I don't mean "eat less" or "starve yourself" or "never again eat foods that you love". The key to any successful nutrition plan - and I prefer to use that terminology as opposed to "diet" because "diet" sounds like you're punishing your body when you eat properly - is portion control. For example, my keto/Lyme nutrition plan tells me that the food I eat each day should be:
65% fats from healthy sources, like avocados, meats, and nuts
25% proteins from meats, fish, nuts, and dark veggies, and
10% carbohydrates from healthy sources, like potatoes and low sugar fruits (berries)
And I - for sure - break from this nutrition plan. Hell, this big bag of potato chips is nearly empty and I ate the whole thing myself (in my mind, because it's from Whole Foods Market it's still somehow healthy? the lies we tell ourselves...). But I know I can do better, and I strive to do better. Especially since my physical, cognitive, mental, and psychological well being depend on me beating this CLD.
BUT WAIT! Here's the kicker: YOUR physicality, cognitive ability, and mental/psychological stability rely on YOUR diet too! You don't have to have a debilitating disease for your existence and well being and, yes, even happiness to depend on what you consume! I can't even begin to tell you how many times a friend or coworker has complained about how tired they are, or sluggish, or anxious, or just awful overall. When I ask them what their diet consists of, they list off all manner of high carbs/sugars, take out/microwave meals, and junk foods - not a leafy green, healthy fat, or fresh fruit in sight. And then as soon as I suggest they change what they eat for a few days, just to get their bodies back on track, they look at me as if I've just asked them to jump the Grand Canyon; as if NOT eating high carb, low health, sugary, junk foods wasn't an option.
If this sounds familiar to you, if you find yourself to be in the same situation as my friends and coworkers with all their health problems + their poor nutrition, let me go ahead and take you off to the side and give you a little advice: You are henceforth no longer allowed to complain about how shit you feel. As someone with a chronic illness who has had to study and research and understand phenomenologically the importance of nutrition, you - a person without a debilitating illness - don't get to complain and moan and groan about how awful you feel and then scoff at the idea of eating healthier. That's like punching a brick wall over and over, breaking your hand, complaining about how much pain you're in, scoffing at the idea of NOT punching the wall, and then going right back to hitting the damn thing without giving your hand time to heal. I'm sorry but I just don't have patience for people like that anymore. Indulging in a sweets and carbs diet may have adverse affects on your body, but it ESPECIALLY has adverse affects on folks like me. Mistreating the one body you've got in this life and filling it non-stop with sticky, clogging, oozing, processed crap food is, in my mind, the worst form of self harm - especially when you realize just how reliant your ENTIRE existence, physically and mentally, is on your choice of nutrition. You and I both have the tools to our own remedies; there's no mystical, unknown solution out in space that will solve everything for you while allowing you to continue your bad habits. When they say "it's a lifestyle choice", it really is. Again, this doesn't mean that you can't tap the wall and indulge every now and then. But: You HAVE to stop incessantly punching the wall if you want the pain to cease. You HAVE to.
So, to recap: bad foods are delicious. DUH. There's no denying it. But bad foods are the sandy land that we as a people all too often build our "houses" upon. And when push comes to shove and the storms blow in, our houses fall because of their lack of a solid foundation. In no way am saying we can NEVER indulge in these delicious treats, after all what's life without a little flavor? But think of them more LIKE treats - something to be enjoyed every now and then - and you'll be able to appreciate the zest and flavor and joy they bring more, while having a healthy, thriving physicality and psyche.
It's as simple as the 3 Little Pigs: say no to hay and sticks. Choose bricks, and no matter what Big Bad Wolf comes your way in life - whether it's a chronic illness like Lyme Disease, or old age, or day to day life's stressors - you'll be ready for him.