You Are A Unicorn (So Start Living Like One)

Let’s turn the clock back a few months, and imagine back in time for a moment.

I was winding down for the evening, letting my mind wander.

I was thinking about how well I had been doing with adapting some diet advice I’d been hearing everywhere: “eat more flax seeds. They’re high in Omega 3s, fiber, and all sorts of vitamins!”

So I did. I started putting them into our smoothies every morning. In fact, I’d been doing it for months by that point, and I was so proud of myself.

Until in my daydreaming I remembered the list I made of foods I should avoid or eliminate from my diet.

And when I checked that list I realized…

Not everything is good for everyone

It turns out that flax seed is among a number of questionable foodstuffs that may or may not cause issues for me.

(Science note: there’s research showing both positive health benefits and negative impacts, as is the case with a lot of things these days. I made the decision to get my Omega 3s from something that doesn’t come with a big list of questions.)

And here I was, thinking that I was doing such a great thing by getting more of it into my diet!

The thing is, every body is very different.

We’re all made up of the same general stardust (as Joni Mitchell would say), but how we’re configured as individuals is varied and unique, and we might as well all be… well… unicorns.

So what’s a unicorn to do?

With all the differing opinions, fad diets, and exercise crazes, it’s enough to make a person a little bit crazy trying to keep up.

It seems like every day there’s a new claim.

But let’s give ourselves some context around health claims.

Remember when doctors used to recommend smoking cigarettes?!

So if you can’t really trust what anyone else is telling you, who can you trust?

The answer might surprise you.

You are your own best teacher

Listen to your gut. Your heart. Your body.

Science is starting to figure out more and more how interconnected all of our body systems are.

And let me tell you, if you can really tune in to what your whole body is telling you, you are going to get some good wisdom out of the conversation. Your body is smart!

Eat something your body doesn’t like— it will tell you.

Go too hard into a new exercise series or a whole new type of exercise— it will tell you.

Make some other type of questionable decision — the list goes on and on.

You are a unicorn…

So start living like one.

Figure out what feels good for you, what makes you feel healthy, what gives you energy and makes you happy.

I’ll be back later this month with 2 more posts in this series, digging into both nutrition and exercise.

But in the meantime, start listening to what your body has to say.

Take whatever popular fad is going around with a grain of salt, and tune in to your innate wisdom.

Your body will be glad you did!

 

(Read more in this series: Eat like a unicorn. Move like a unicorn. Sleep like a unicorn.)