The Gelato Dilemma

T minus 2 days...

Until my grand adventure of the year. 10 days in Italy with an intrepid co-adventure-er. 

What does this have to do with my health coach journey?

Everything. 

I love coffee. Italy has coffee.

You see, I am a believer in whole-self health. I am also a believer of a "Food First" approach to health. In this case there may be a bit of a conflict. One I am terming "The Gelato Dilemma".

To me, whole-self health means that watching what you eat won't make you healthy if you aren't also making room for play. Good sleep won't help you if you don't feel good about your work or your relationships.
What good is good health if you don't have a good life?

However, I think if you've got a bunch of crap going wrong in your life, or just not going right enough, it's a good idea to start with food. Food first means that for me, I have found that giving my body the wrong fuel makes it so much harder to engage my energy towards fixing the other things in my life.

This is extra super duper true if you are on the blood sugar roller coaster -- swinging from hyper to hangry every few hours. Energy ups and downs, food cravings, needing to snack all the time -- it just takes up time! Plus my brain works so much better now that I've kicked the bread habit.

So, brings me to my dilemma.

Italy.

Gelato.

Pasta.

Bread.

Life gets crazy.
This is how my son puts the milk away

Who am I kidding? Is there a dilemma here? I will be in italy. I will taste food. If it makes me feel unwell (as it might, according to the low carb folks who have gone before me), I will not taste it again.

On the other hand, I will also listen to my body, to my appetite. I doubt that ice cream will really sound that good. AND one does not need to consume much of it to have tasted. 

And there is an even longer list of wonderful foods available in Italy that offer me no reason to pause -- I can enjoy wine, cheese, meats, vegetables and all the olive oil in the world. These are flavors to be feasted on. 

Life is about balance - feast and fast. And a healthy life is about mindful choices about each. 
Life is made to be tasted. But one can taste - nibble, sample, savor and also indulge.
In fact, I think one must indulge in order to find whole health. In food and in life. 

Summertime tree climbing = best.