The wellness journey continues. Wellness in general is never ending and is the catalyst in making sure that your body is functioning properly. Sometimes you need to work on things to improve your ability to see more progress. Over the past week or so, I have been striving to expand many things into my overall wellness regimen.
One of the greatest changes I have made in the past few weeks is buying more fresh and natural foods to some degree. This has included focusing on vegetables and natural meats that are less processed than those in the aisles in the center of the store. One of the secrets from the experts when visiting a grocery store section of a larger store is that the freshest or healthiest items are on the outside perimeter. While this may not be totally the situation in most instances, you will likely find many fresh foods using that method.
Being autistic can present challenges with introducing new foods to one’s palate. Vegetables for me are nothing new, they just weren’t a staple in my house until now. I have canned vegetables, but I rarely consume them because they cause my gag reflexes to react, causing a less desirable outcome, especially around others. I do enjoy having salad, with a little bit of flavorful add-ons to help their consumption. I have realized that little effort was needed in being able to have this opportunity on my own. I do struggle a bit with chopping and cutting to a degree so until I am better at that skill, I choose to buy the salad out of a bag. Prior to realizing that I could add bagged salads to my nutritional palate, I always worried about the salad mixes being expired or tainted. Being in close proximity to several locations that have constant traffic in their produce departments has eased my mind along with being sure to consume the product no later than the “use by” dates.
Remaining with the same mindset of fresh product is the fact of purchasing fresh meats that only require heating or minimal preparation. While not completely nutritional, they are more fresh than purchasing their hot, faster processed, alternatively dressed methods including relying on those that come from chain restaurants. There is oftentimes little knowledge of the preparation and how they are made and lean more to the processed end of the food chain.
Having these opportunities provides me the opportunity to lessen my caloric content for the day. Being the third week since becoming more accountable in my food and drink consumption, I have within this week begun to forgo calorie-containing sodas in place of the diet alternatives. While not ideal, I have decided to continue this method for the next few weeks to see if it is less desired out of addiction or boredom by continuing my soda consumption log.
Continuing down the current path that I am on while continuing to expand several facts of not only my grocery buying, but accessing community opportunities as well such as community meals and other resources will hopefully keep me engaged in wanting to continue the lifestyle change and work toward improving my health for the better. While nice, it isn’t about the number on the scale or even racing a certain number there. It is about being able to do the things that I currently cannot do or have difficulty achieving along with improving my personal health. Being surrounded by so many known to and the recent conversations that have got the ball rolling has made me realize just how precious life is and should not be taken for granted.
Dustin's Dynasty 