All about READING labels...

The last couple weeks have been busy and wild, both with work and with my personal life. Trying to squeeze in workouts, meetings and travel make for a crazy Heather. With that said the first thing to always go is what I consider "self care". To me self care includes, health (eating well and exercising), getting enough sleep, exercising and taking some moments to clear out the brain so that we can relax!

For me eating well is the most important. That sounds like something that everyone should say, but for someone with specific dietary needs, it is HUGE! Last week after realizing my laziness and eating out much more often than I should (even at Sherry Lynn's Gluten Free), I found that I wasn't feeling as well since I was eating the "dreaded french fries" that make my blood sugar go up, but taste oh so good! So, while at the grocery store (and I was HUNGRY) purchasing all the GOOD things I could eat, like... asparagus, onions, garlic, spinach, mushrooms, squash, etc... I found that I was starving! Well since there isn't much in my basket that I can just eat, I grabbed a drink at the checkout. Now, before you start, I know this is a BAD thing, and for impulsive people, but I should remind you by this point I was STARVING!! I grabbed a SoBe water (Yumberry... I think). I looked good and tasted great! That should have been my first clue. Now I usually read EVERYTHING that comes in contact with my mouth, but due to the low blood sugar, hunger and laziness (this is how I came to the realization), I did not read ALL of the ingredients.

So home I went and unloaded and put everything away. About half an hour later (while still drinking my SoBe and chatting on the phone), I started having severe stomach cramps. After realzing what was going on, I re-read the WHOLE label this time. What did I find... Modified Food Starch! Now, research tells me that Modified Food Starch is not on the list of GLUTEN FREE FOODS due to the fact that it can be made from a variety of source and WHEAT is one of the most common. In my case, WHEAT is a serious NO-NO and I derived that since the SoBe was the only "new" thing that had been added to my diet that day.

So the moral of this story is: READ LABELS (all the way thru), TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF, and LEARN WHAT WORKS FOR YOUR BODY!