I recently did a 3-day nutritionally-supplemented fast….and my body had issues with it! My insides went crazy yesterday, and by lunch today I had an insane migraine and severe nausea!

I think it is always good to try something that could be healthy as a rule….but is not necessarily healthy for you! You don’t have to make yourself a failure for it not working for you. Learning to listen to your body, when it has reached its limit, is actually a valuable skill as well. And I am not just saying this to justify my not being a purist with my recent fast!

What if we learned to listen to our body when we are full. Or listen to our body when we need more water instead of a snack. Or listen to our body when we have pushed the dairy thresh-hold and might need to cut back on the sugar. We tend to be an all or nothing type of society…to the point that you either eat all the sugar and carbs or none of the sugar and carbs.

However, every body is unique. Thank you to a brilliant creator God, you are the only version of your body! Sure, there are some over-arching things that are beneficial for everyone. Every body responds to food and nutrition differently. For instance, I had food allergy testing twice and it came back as highly reactive to avocado and pineapple. Both of which are considered extremely healthy. Both are readily available for reasonable prices in the cold tundra of MN winter. But one small bite of avocado could send me into a 2-day gallbladder attack. Just even licking the spoon. Also pineapple could upset my stomach for days and make my lips burn like they had a sunburn.

I also realized recently that my body can’t tolerate high amounts of protein. Which is funny, because that is what you hear everywhere in the health world right now…more protein…100 grams of protein…150 grams of protein….can’t eat too much protein. For me, it was way too much!

Depending on your body and your gut, you can eat too much protein. After doing a carnivore diet for three weeks this fall, I found that out the hard way by having an outbreak of shingles on my forehead. My body and amino acid balance was off due to my gut not being able to break-down or process the protein I was eating. It then basically “dumped” that around my body making my joints hurt and breaking out in rashes. I found out as well that my “monthly hormonal” cold sores were also related to this amino acid processing problem.

So after 18 months of pushing protein, my integrative medicine doctor is actually asking me to limit to 60 grams of protein a day. I am supposed to limit my protein (for the person in the back)!

So, please, learn to listen to your body…introduce things slowly….check in every couple of days to see if you feel worse or better. There is always room for detox symptoms, but maybe you need to detox slower. Maybe eggs don’t sit well in your stomach in the morning…so eat eggs for lunch and try that. Maybe your body actually likes ground beef better than steak…be aware and be creative and flexible and curious!

Learning to listen is a great skill to cultivate…whether it is listening to God, listening to others, or listening to our bodies screaming for relief for what we are doing to them!