Some of you out there have maybe seen some of my food posts on other social media outlets, so here's the story....
I am working on getting healthy. This isn't a weight loss thing, this isn't a body image thing, or a self-esteem thing. This is purely a "I've felt like crap for a decade" thing. For the greater part of the last 10-15 years, I haven't felt great. I've had stomach issues that couldn't be figured out, sleeping issues, and don't even get me started on the headaches/migraines. I've been dealing with those since I can remember! I remember staying home from Primary because of headaches. Throughout my life, I've generally had about 2-3 headaches a week, mixed in with migraines. And yes, I know the difference. The way I explained it to a friend once was that I pretty much always have a headache, it's just a matter of it's a 1-2 pain scale and I barely notice it or if it's a full blown 7-8, throwing up, black room, ice packs, zombie for 3-4 days recovery. I also got a pinched nerve in my neck about 7 years ago (never riding Colossus at Lagoon again!), that 4 years ago developed into a bulged disc. My neck is pretty much on lock down, all the time! That definitely doesn't help the headache issue. Through regular physical therapy, chiropractor and massage therapy, I've mostly been able to manage things, but that's just it. I want to fix it, not just manage it. The stomach issues aren't as bad as they used to be about 12 years ago, where I would be doubled over in pain after eating anything, but they're still not great. Over the last 18 months, things have just gotten worse. I really wasn't sleeping well, and I have been completely drained everyday. No energy, brain fog, and just feeling like I was going through the motions - zombie mode. I had a very difficult time waking up, and by 5 p.m., I would be exhausted, often climbing into bed for the night at 7:30. But don't worry, having 10 hours of sleep wouldn't help anyway. I'd still wake up just as miserable the next morning. Could this really be as good as it gets?
Now that you all think I'm a big whiner, here's the good part. I'm doing something about it. For the last 2 months, I've been seeing a specialized chiropractor who also deals in functional medicine. Blood work was done and while everything was in "normal" range, there were several key factors that were outside of "functional" range. Basically, things were working, but they weren't working to peak performance. I had about 6-7 different systems that weren't firing on all cylinders that were all contributing to these issues. My body wasn't absorbing nutrients to actually make these systems work well. Over the years of the SAD diet (Standard American Diet), my stomach and small intestine had eroded to the point that it couldn't extract nutrients. This is also called "Leaky gut" (you can google more of it if you want to).
So, we are changing my diet. While I was generally pretty health conscious, I loved eating out. I hated cooking. It wasn't my thing and I was generally horrible at it. Wanna hear something crazy? I haven't eaten out in over a month! And you have no idea how bad I want a greasy, fatty-fat burger and a chocolate chip cookie! But alas, I am determined to fix this! For the last month, I have been on an "elimination diet", also called Leaky gut diet, or Anti-inflammatory diet. I have eaten no wheat, dairy, soy, corn, oats, rice, legumes, peanuts, nightshade vegetables(tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant), and the obvious ones, no caffiene, sugar, fast food. The foods that I am able to eat is pretty much meat (organic) and vegetables & fruit, again mostly organic. My one saving grace is eggs which is normally on the "no" list, but because my cholesterol was so low, I get to eat as many eggs as I want. In the first week and a half of this, I lost about 10 pounds. Yeah, I'm not as stick skinny as you all thought!
After 4 weeks of this elimination diet, I am now at the point of slowly adding foods back in to see how they react. On Friday, I added rice. It's almost sad how giddy and excited I was to eat rice! I chose rice and beans to start with because I figured those would be things that would affect me less. Every 2 days I get to introduce new food. If something starts to react or hurt, I stop eating it, wait for the symptoms to subside, and then start again with something else.
The idea isn't that I won't ever be able to eat that greasy, fatty-fat burger, but that hopefully through healing my gut, when I do eat something maybe not so good for me, it doesn't affect me as bad and my body can process it better. And while I don't think I'll forever be able to stay away from french fries, pasta, and hamburgers, I am definitely more aware of how things affect me.
Here's what progress I have seen so far. We've been doing the NUCCA chiropractic treatments for 2 months and my headaches have significantly decreased. Less often and less severe. So happy! My sleep and energy levels haven't changed too much, but we are adding supplements for both, Vitamin D, a probiotic, an anti-inflammatory Turmeric, Magnesium tea and supplement, and Vitamin B-12/Folic Acid combo(turns out my body can't break down B-12, so this is an already methylated form).
I am determined to fix this! I am making changes to make my life better. Here's my message: Don't settle. Don't think that the way your life is right now is really the best it can be(unless it really is, then kudos to you!). There is always something we can change, something we can do a little better, some way that we can improve our life and the lives of those around us.
Happy eating!
