“I want you to go near a wooded area and take 20 to 30-minute walks per day”, she said. I nearly fell off my chair. I literally just spent 10 minutes talking to her about my 2 careers, family life, lack of sleep, fitness regimen etc and she perceived the solution to be rectified with more supplements and walks.  I had no words.  Later on that day when I reacted to the cocktail she gave me by scratching my hands furiously (all because of the pineapple flavour), I realized I was in hot water. Last year and many years before that, I got away with functioning with little sleep and juggling a lot of tasks and responsibilities. It has caught up to me and my body has had it and has clearly protested for viable changes.

I’m about to embark on another detoxification diet and like none other.

I just spent a year and a half on a pretty strict diet. 13 of those months, I have eaten the same 5 foods daily. Again and again. In the past 13 months, I have also ingested an obscene amount of supplements and natural cocktails to try to remedy chronic issues.  Diet on point. Exercise on point. Unfortunately every cocktail or supplement alleviated one problematic area but created havoc in another. It’s great all you people like your lemon water. I can’t have it and if I’m going to do anything with lemons worth getting a reaction to it will be my lemon biscotti.  Research clearly indicates stress releases cortisol which is never a good thing.  In the past year and months, while my fitness efforts were worthy of applause, where I have failed most was with everything else that I “ingested”.  I also ingested, tolerated and accepted a substantial amount of bullshit, hurt, bureaucracy, emotional toxicity, and the list goes on.

You see a good diet extends far beyond what you eat and how you exercise.  A good diet must also entail daily thoughts, practices, habits and behaviours that allow us to thrive and bring out the best versions of ourselves. In my case, I not only omitted the sweetness of fruit from my life but self love and was not kind to myself, often beating myself up for not meeting my own set of expectations.  And for someone intelligent like me and who understands people quite well, I also allowed people around me that never had my best intentions at heart. If you think I ‘m being harsh towards myself, it gets better. You see I’m not alone. We’re all doing it in some shape or form.  We’ve all seen the visual pollution of uninspiring people out there trying to seek validation from the wrong places and with the wrong behaviours. I know people that diet even more meticulously than myself yet walk around and engage in poor behaviours.  People that talk about good karma but speak poorly of others. People that spend countless hours on hobbies but none with their families.  People that go out of their way to one up you. So when Little Ms. Cupcake tells you you’re amazing and then imitates your menu, you got to realize that they were just attempting to make a personal gain and really don’t care about you. Don’t get me wrong, I am far from perfect but I work hard to make good choices and more than ever I am making a conscious effort to align myself with actions, behaviours, thoughts and people that are not toxic to me.

I mean good for you! You can follow a meal plan but you can’t refrain from thinking unkindly towards yourself or others.  Discipline is not just what you eat. It’s being kind, compassionate, empathetic. It’s refraining from saying or doing things that you cannot take back. Take a close look at what you do.  Look around at your interactions? Can they be better? I think they can for all of us and I think this is the most important part in protecting your sanctuary. Remember, you will be many things to many people and you will do many things during your life journey. But we must also remember that we take nothing with us. What’s left behind are memories of you and how you lived and much of that is in our control. So always protect your peace because it’s worth more than a nice booty.