Primal Plateaus

I believe that 80% of how awesome you feel comes from the food you put into your mouth.  The other 20% is a myriad of other magic and key elements to the whole picture and they include things like: adequate sleep, management of stress, chewing food properly, making time for fun, getting adequate sunlight, spending time in nature as well as social health i.e. with relationships and the community and also financial health. But it doesn't end there, its a really exhaustive list and it's up to you to work out through trial and error what works for you and what you need to stop your bucket from over flowing.

In my personal experience I have found that I have periods of feeling really awesome, bounding with energy, connected to the wonders of the universe, can see the fun in everything and ideas and creativity flow to me.  I get over excited and get really busy, buzzing about from this to that, no time to meditate today, I'm on a mission, doesn't matter if I stay hooked into Facebook til right before bed...enjoying a few more sweet treats than normal....OR if things out of my control take over like recently, it's not been anything that overly serious, just more the perpetual stresses of life that sort of gnaw away at you: behavioural 'issues' with one of my children, said child waking up nightly at 2:30am, after it taking 90 mins for me to get back to sleep then being woken by a bloody cat at 5am, or body clock waking me for the day at 4:30am, husband going on a fishing trip for 9 nights, financial stresses (i.e skint as) and a minor operation at hospital. 

Suddenly, my body encounters a steady flow of general busyness really, with a handful of stress thrown in and a dash of anxiety and before you know it I'm on fight or flight more than rest and digest.  My neck and shoulders get tight, I feel like I am constantly fighting a cold, there is a headache around the corner most days when I get like this. 

I found myself walking on the beach, zero energy, flat as a pancake wondering - what am I doing wrong?  I am eating all of this amazing food and yet I feel like shit.  Then I started to realise that because I hadn't been feeling as great I hadn't been bothered to make my usual bowls of leafy green salads for lunch and was just getting by on some fruit toast or a chia pudding (good choices, def paleo but not if they are pushing veggies out of my day).  My daily mediations had been more like 2-3 times a week and I wasn't giving myself enough time to REST.  With my head banging I didn't feel much like exercising, sprinting or lifting heavy things.  Anyway I was too busy with my busyness.

Then it dawned on me, you can't eat your way out of being too busy or too tired or out of a mountain of bills!

Even though I was loving what  was doing every day and it was just washing, cleaning cooking and kid stuff, I was all busy and no rest and running around like a headless chook.  I had a cold about a month ago, it lasted about four days and then left but every time I push it too far, the aches and the headaches come back.

With hindsight I reckon this was probably the norm back in the pre primal days, I used to always have Nurofen on hand for my regular headaches and haven't taken them much at all over the last 9 months. But now that I have experienced the baseline of awesome health I can feel it so much more when things aren't balanced, even though there is some discomfort to this I am thinking it is a good thing that I can feel the cues from my body....slow down....log off.....b r e a t h e!  There is no masking these feelings with five glasses of wine of a night or starchy snacks anymore!

I considered trialling the auto immune protocol...maybe I can't have nuts (I don't have an auto immune disease...) or maybe it's the eggs?  No Helen, you're too busy and not resting enough!

So here is my new intention:
I am committing to a bowl of leafy greens every day.
I am committing to meditate every day.
I am committing to exercising a la Primal Blueprint every day.
I am committing to being more present by noticing my breath, when I remember.

Can you relate?  Do you have cycles of awesomeness then a drop? Do you think it's normal, inevitable?  Have you got some wisdom to share, please comment below.  Have a great start to your week.