When the shoe fits. . .

It started when you were very little. Someone slipped a shoe on your pudgy foot to see if it fit.
And maybe it did, and maybe it didn’t.

Depending on the fit (and your temperament), you may have ended up screaming and crying with the constrained and disappointing feeling of the miss-match.

Thus started a journey through life…of finding the right shoes,

the right jeans,

the right partner,

the right mentor

the right diet,

the right foods.

Life has become a never-ending process of “trying on” one thing, then another, like Goldilocks wandering through the bears’ house while they’re out picking berries for their porridge. (And maybe porridge doesn’t fit with your dietary and digestive parameters, and maybe it does…)

Throughout the month of May I’ve been thinking about when the shoe fits (and when it doesn’t), quite a bit. Earlier in the month, I tried, once again, to fit eggs back into my diet.

Eggs…the near perfect food. (swoon!)

An ancient food.

A great source of protein and beneficial fats, including the fat soluble vitamins A and D, as well as folate and the adrenal building minerals choline, potassium, sulfur, and phosphorous.

Good for the brain and the hormones and the eyes.

All the better to see that the reactivity to eggs on my IgG food sensitivity testing had come down to next-to-nothing!

I was so excited that I spent a month baking (with coconut flour), scrambling and soft-boiling.

I so badly wanted the eggs to fit.

But like a tight fitting pair of shoes with a ridiculously pointy toe, the truth is, the eggs do not fit.

Pastured. Worm-fed. Soy-free. Chicken. Duck.

Yuck.

As we end of the busy month of May—perhaps due to the extra busy-ness this month and perhaps due to the ill fit of the eggs in my own delicate system—I find myself in a bit of an immune flare. No matter what the clucking chickens in the neighbors’ yards or the test results says, my body says “no”.

No. No. No.

Consider for yourself where the shoe may or may not fit in your life. Not just in relation to eggs of course, but in relation to whatever you ingest.

Are there “perfect foods” in your diet that may not fit your unique needs?

Are you wearing them over and over, hoping that your body will adjust?

Are there practices (instead) that help you feel on top of the world?

As we move into spring and toward a new month, I’m going with my own interpretation of “when the shoe fits”. Bye-bye to the ill-fitting eggs and hello to the cilantro laden spring smoothies.
It’s not the food that’s bad, but the inflammation sure is.
What do you know that does and does not work for you in your diet and what are the signs and symptoms that tell you so?
[Hint: In our Clinic we call these your Non-Negotiables.]
Do you listen?
Hop on over to the FxNA Facebook Pageand let’s chat about making peace with our unique offenders. We’ve all got them—and sometimes we all play with fire. I sure did!
Tomorrow is World Thyroid Day! Grab my Girl’s Guide to Hashimoto’s: Hashi Companion to decode your Hashimoto’s so you can end the war with your body and live symptom-free.

By: Andrea Nakayama, FxNA Founder & Functional Medicine Nutritionist

Functional Nutrition Alliance provides the comprehensive online Functional Nutrition training in the Science & Art of the Functional Nutrition practice. Learn to address the roots of your clients’ suffering with client education, diet & lifestyle modifications.