Life Challenge Week 2: Louisa Wilkins

Day 14: Breakfast pitfalls

In the absence of gluten-free, lactose-free breakfast goodies, I had some fruit and a coffee for breakfast. I was ravenous and light-headed all day, and felt a little like I was experiencing life from the end of a long tube. As enjoyable as a bowl of fresh fruit is, it’s missing some sort of substance… Need to hit the shops for some sturdier morning grub.

Day 13: A day of learning

Three lessons from today:

1. Rice milk is much better in tea than it is in coffee.

2. There are definitely no sharks in my compound swimming pool (thanks to Shana, who made me realise my shark fear was not a phobia but an active imagination).

3. All children go ga-ga for helium balloons.

Day 12: Learning to be boring

I had my third session with Shana today. At the risk of bashing on, I cannot believe how positive these sessions have been for me. I won’t say they’ve changed me as a person, as that sounds a little scary, but they have enabled me to see the ways in which, in the past, I have sabotaged my own happiness with negative thoughts and by not being in aware of my emotional needs and reactions.

In this third session, we were supposed to be erasing any limiting beliefs (the negative things we think about ourselves which stop us from achieving what we really want). I struggled before the session to identify my limiting beliefs and said as much to Shana. Through a little talking, it transpired that my main limiting belief was actually erased in the second session, when we had talked about sadness. It’s not like I was prone to sadness before – in fact, people often used to say to me that I was the happiest person they had ever met (a comment which always struck me as a little disturbing, like I was some psycho-smiling clown). But, through the sessions with Shana, I now realise that at some point in my life (probably early childhood) I started believing that sadness equated to loneliness, and that if I could keep myself surrounded by people, and never feeling lonely (or never really being alone), I would never have to experience sadness. There I was thinking I was just a sociable chatterbox, but now I see that, all those years when I couldn’t say ‘No’ and kept triple-booking my evenings with different engagements, it was a form of self-preservation – my way of making sure I never felt lonely, and therefore never felt sad.

Until this revelation hit the open air of consciousness, I never would have known that this belief system was fuelling so many of my decisions and actions on a day-to-day, minute-by-minute basis. Recognising this, and being released from it, has had knock-on effects in all areas of my life – my parenting, my friendships, my health and physical wellbeing, my work, my future… and on, and on… to the extent that I don’t have any other limiting beliefs left. I can now be the version of myself that makes me happy, rather than the version that makes everybody else happy. This new version is more interested in getting into bed with a book and a pint of blackcurrant squash on a Thursday evening, rather than hitting three different parties in one evening. And more likely to leave her phone at home while she takes her kids to the beach, rather than being permanently distracted by constant communication with family and friends. It may be a more boring version and may eventually lead to having less ‘friends’. But that truly doesn’t worry me in the slightest.

Day 11: Jellybelly surprise

Getting up before the crack of dawn for a 5km run followed by a 1km swim in the sea this morning was brutal. 250metres into the swim, what felt like a slick of seaweed slipping across my wrist turned out to be a jellyfish, which then stung me all over my tummy and legs.

Despite the stinging, I’m feeling super bouncy and energetic today. Is it endorphins from running this morning? Positive effects of cutting out my bread and dairy fetish? Lessons from my last session with Shana sinking in at a deeper level, where they are easier to manage and control? Don’t know exactly what it is that’s caused it, but it’s definitely working for me. 

Highlight: Finding a gluten-free biscuit recipe on Gluten Free UAE’s website: http://www.glutenfreeuae.com/1/category/biscuits/1.html

Lesson of the day: Exercise isn’t always good for you.

Day 10: Read the labels

I stopped on the way to work to stock up on gluten-free, lactose-free provisions for the day. I’m embracing my intolerances – be gone bread, cheese, chocolate and crisps! Welcome wasabi-coated dried peas, rice milk and quinoa!

Come 11am, when my tummy was rumbling and concentration was waning, I reached for a little chocolate temptress. But as I tore open the wrapper, it dawned on me that chocolate is a no-go zone for a lactose-free life. I set it back down on the desk and felt strong, resolved and fabulously in control of my life, and decided to have a soya milk latte instead. As I looked over proudly (and probably somewhat smugly) at my soya milk carton, horror of horrors, I noticed it said ‘Contains gluten’ in big red letters on the side. Deflation.

Generally quite a bummed-out day. Think I need to exercise more.

Highlight: I think I like Sojade soya yoghurt more than I like Rachel’s Organic yoghurts. Joy!

Lowlight: Have I really not been to a Core Direction group class for four whole days?

Day 9: Ransacking the cupboards

I was on the verge of tears today as I kissed goodbye to some very dear friends of mine – Monsieur Gluten and Mademoiselle Dairy. Lily from the Dubai Herbal Treatment Centre brought us our results from the super-impressive ImuPro 300 test, which – through a simple blood test – gives you a break down of your intolerance levels to 280 different types of food (1 being a very weak intolerance and 4 being a very strong intolerance).

Lily explained the detailed information and coached us through our bereavement – having an intolerance is not the same as having an allergy; you may have an intolerance for a long time and not know; and you can develop an intolerance of something simply by eating it too regularly over a longtime.

On the up side, you can cure your intolerance by omitting the item from your diet for a certain period of time – three months for a level one or two intolerance, six months for level three, and a year for level four. Luckily for me, the only things I have a strong intolerance to are poppy seeds and linseed.

However, I have a mild intolerance to gluten and cow’s milk, which are present in basically everything I eat: Weetabix, bread, milk, yoghurt, crisps, biscuits, pasta, butter, cheese – CHEESE! There goes pizza, lasagna, cheese toasties, pancakes, French toast, chocolate, cakes and basically everything else that’s nice in the world. I came home and ransacked my cupboards, chucking out everything that is wheaty or milky. There was very little left.

Negative about this situation: In a word, cheese.

Positive about this situation: A lot of unhealthy stuff contains either wheat, or cow’s milk, or both. And my health means more to me than my weight. So, whereas knowing that one tube of Hot and Spicy Pringles contains 853 calories and 53 grams of fat wouldn’t stop me shoving a six-inch stack of them into my mouth in one go, the fact that they contain seven ingredients that I am intolerant to does. At least for three months. 

For details of the ImuPro 300 test, visit www.imupro.com.au. To book yourself a test, call Dubai Herbal Treatment Centre on 04-3351200.

Day 8: A bike ride

I borrowed a road bike and joined a friend for a lovely sunset cycle around Nad Al Sheba area, which hopefully worked off at least one of the three pieces of cheesy, buttery, herby garlicy bread I had at lunch.

Click here to see how Louisa got on during days 1 -7 of the challenge