"Shut it down!"

Sometimes, there comes that one moment of the day when you know for certain that you have gone too far to the extreme. I started seeing a chiropractor recently for headaches. I've had headaches for most of my life, and nothing has really helped long-term. In fact, I've seen two chiropractors before this. This chiropractor of course assured me she was different. Shortly after starting the treatment, she asked to see a three day food diary. I submitted one, confident that she would be impressed with my quinoa bread for breakfast, and my relatively healthy diet full of veggies and good stuff (save some chocolate, wine and cheese here and there). On the contrary, she told me that I was pumping my body full of toxins and that cleaning these toxins out would change my life. She told me I had to go on a two week all-natural diet. What's that, you might ask? Oh, it's just organic meat, veggies, fruit, and eggs. That's it. No grains, no cheese, no milk, no yogurt - not even potatoes (too starchy). She said even cooking with olive oil was toxic. Easy, right? Um, not exactly. Unlike the gluten-free or paleo diets which I consider difficult to deal with, this meant I couldn't even eat in a restaurant. What was I supposed to do, ask everyone if their food was organic and cooked in coconut oil? My chiropractor told me that she just cancelled her social plans when she was eating all-natural, which she said she did several times per year. She wondered why so many of my social plans revolved around eating. So, quaking in the face of her judgment, I tried it for a bit. Well, a full 6 days. After spending more money than I care to admit in the grocery store, obsessing about food 24/7, and watching one friend eat a bagel while I sipped my water at the bagel shop, today I finally snapped. I was heading to my chiropractor appointment, ready to be grilled about my menu choices of the day. It may have been the empowering email from my mom, or the call from my grandma where she told me to "take care of Julie", or my friend texting me to ask how this diet was going. I realized in that moment that I am 31 years old, and that I am perfectly capable of making good food choices for myself - in moderation. An all-natural diet is just too extreme for me. So, in the famous words of "30 Rock", I decided to "Shut it down." My chiropractor of course judged me when I told her. In my mind, I devised witty retorts.