Guest Post by Michelle Cannizzaro
I feel my topic is timely after Shannon’s article on the 5 ways you may be talking yourself out of a healthier lifestyle last month. I personally was one that used several of these excuses to talk myself out of focusing on my health.
As moms it is easy to get bogged down in the practical reasons for not being able to incorporate nutrition and exercise into your daily life. Perhaps you are like me - you need something a bit unconventional to get you focused.
We all know it's important to be healthy - which we know means eating better and being active. There are lots of benefits that we’ve all heard a million times. We also know we are never too busy for the things that are important to us.
So why is it that health rarely makes it to the forefront for us moms?
Having been in a sales career of some sort for over a decade my best bosses always asked - was it is in for the potential customer to buy xyz product. Over 5 years ago when I first started my serious attempt at my own health journey, I finally realized what great advice that was to take into my personal life!
WHAT WAS IN IT FOR ME to prioritize my health and overall wellness?
Focusing on answering this question was pretty challenging initially since there were so many paths I could choose to answer it. The inspiration to pick a path came from a strange place, Tom Brady. He’s the quarterback for the New England Patriots. I came across an article about his eating lifestyle and I found it fascinating. Yes, I semi fell victim to a celebrity diet plan though not entirely. What pulled me in was how Tom described negative symptoms he experienced when he ate certain foods.
This particular nugget of information got me thinking about all the lousy physical symptoms I experience or deal with daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. Could these be happening because of my lack of exercise and the food, drink and products I put in and on my body was causing it?
This blew my mind.
When I started thinking about wellness from the perspective of both WHAT WAS IN IT FOR ME and the seeing what food and environmental factors could be contributing to the negative symptoms - BAM - there was my turning point and motivation to finally focus on my wellness.
I started a short list of unanswered ailments and annoyances I experienced:
Why do I have heartburn almost everyday?
Why is it that sometimes I can’t put my rings on my fingers in the morning?
Why do I get headaches/body pain sometimes from drinking wine no matter how little or much I drink?
Why do I get 5-6 UTI’s every year?
Why do I go straight to hangry (Hungry Angry) when I’m hungry?
Why is my skin so dry despite drinking so much water and using so much lotion?
It wasn’t until I used the framework of this new perspective that I saw some of these items as issues. Prior I was just “managing” them, like everyone else does (right?) with antacids or trying to drink even more water or going to the doctor for more antibiotics. What symptoms are you “managing” vs attempting to solve?
The path to health is a journey and for some knowing you have that favorite spin class or the accountability from a friend is all that you need. For others though, like me and perhaps you, you needed something more specific and tangibly beneficial to you. What are your ailments/symptoms? Now imagine what it would it be like to no longer experience some or all of them? Is this the motivation you needed to make health a small part of your day?
In part 2 of my Healthy Living: What’s in it for ME? series I’ll dive deeper into the Clean Living approach that I took to solve/better understand all the ailments I listed and more.
Michelle is a part-time clean-crafted wine broker and full-time mom to a 17 month old and is expecting May 2019. She’s been on a clean-living journey for over ½ a decade and found that as an Independent Consultant for Scout & Cellar Wines she married her passion for wine and wellness into her own clean-eating/drinking journey.
Follow Michelle on Instagram or reach out to michelle@drinkcleancraftedwine.com for personalized wine experience options.