We’re all fighting battles of some sort or another. One of the largest mistakes we make as individuals is to assume that someone is not. Their life might look perfect, they might look to be hugely successful or have the perfect home or the perfect kids. Newsflash – that does.not.exist.
In this digital age we have gotten really good at making everyday shit look amazing – even tech amateurs can make that vacation look “perfect” or their afternoon baking with the kids look like the most loving memory, instead of the festival of chaos it probably was.
Every single one of us has a cultivated digital personality – whether we did it on purpose or not. It’s how we present ourselves to the world, and how we either choose to be seen, or subconsciously believe we deserve to be seen. Mine is very much about my hilariously ill behaved children and their shenanigans, but also my positivity in a world that can desperately use it. You don’t often see me downtrodden or unrealistically perfect. However- this does not mean that what you are seeing is all that there is. It does not mean that I am not struggling daily or that I am a stranger to a whole host of issues you yourself may be dealing with.
I’ve always had weird health issues that I couldn’t pinpoint, but they got remarkably bad during my pregnancy with Owen, and then never improved. Because this is not a health forum I won’t get too into it but let’s just say that my digestion is all off, my hormones are wacky as hell, I can’t lose weight to save my life (in fact, I also can’t stop gaining it), and I am so fatigued all the time that I need to take a daily nap to be able to function even at a low level. I went to multiple doctors, had tons of blood work, and everything was within the “normal” range – so I was fine.
Owen is 3.5 so this has been a thing for 4ish years at this point. I recently went to a naturopath to have a food sensitivity panel and complete hormone test done because I have been unable to find ANY answers elsewhere.
Turns out I have the hormones of a geriatric woman, and I have been experiencing pre menopause. Ok, that explains A LOT of it.
I also am highly sensitive to gluten, dairy, eggs, and a few other things. So ya know, a large part of my diet because I’m not a huge fan of meat.
There are a few other issues thrown in there but that’s the gist of it. As of last week I have completely upended the way I am living my life in order to get my health in check and it’s hard. Not as hard as not knowing why I feel like shit all the time, but hard. There is a lot of adjusting when you suddenly have to give up most of the things you eat on a daily basis and find alternatives.
I’m on enough daily supplements/vitamins that I could rival the pill cabinet of a 90 year old and keeping Owen out of them is turning out to be an olympic sport because they don’t have child locks and I don’t have a cabinet to keep them so they live on my countertop.
I’m fearful that I won’t be able to fix these problems, but hopeful enough to try.
I have had no dairy, no wheat, no sugar, or pretty much anything fun in the last week and since that stuff is technically still in my system I still feel like garbage.
But I had a moment today. I needed lunch and thought, what in the hell am I going to eat? Then it hit me : Guacamole. It doesn’t have a single thing in it that I cannot eat, and I fucking LOVE guacamole. It’s basically heaven in a bowl and I CAN EAT IT! Who cares that I can’t eat tons of stuff because I STILL HAVE GUAC SON!
How often do we overlook small things that make us happy or that we enjoy because they aren’t “enough” or because they pale in comparison to whatever we have going on in our lives? Because someone else’s life looks perfect and ours is awful so what’s the point.? For me, all the time. I can’t tell you the last time I truly appreciated eating guacamole but today I did. Sometimes we need a reminder to appreciate the little things that make life great, even if that reminder comes in the form of a bunch of shitty allergies and health problems.
I challenge you all to find your guacamole today 😉