It was a year ago this
Memorial Day that I started a quest to heal myself with food. At that time, I
had chronic headaches that no one could seem to find a cause for. Our family
had been driving back from a trip and I started watching documentaries on Netflix.
I stumbled across Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. If you haven’t watched it you
should!! I bought a juicer immediately when we got home, and juiced everything!
I started researching holistic healing and nutrition, read watched, and
listened to everything and anything I could get my hands on about nutrition. My
family literally wanted to throw things at me because this was all I could talk
about and was completely enthralled by all of the information available. I also
found a Dr that complete allergy testing on me, and found the culprit to my
headaches! GLUTEN! I to some extent knew breading on foods gave me headaches.
Such as chicken, or fried fish, and had learned to avoid these foods over the
years. Yet since gluten is in the majority of all processed foods, from
chocolate chips, licorice, to tomato soup, its hard to know specifically know
what food is triggering your symptoms. After more than 2 months of a headache
that would not go away, I was happy to say goodbye to gluten! I can also say I
rarely get headaches at all anymore. For as long as I can remember I would get
headaches or migranes at least a couple of times a week, and now its been
months.
Over the past year I have
gained so much knowledge! Not only about gluten sensitivity, but about
auto-immune disease, healing your cells from the inside out, vitamins,
minerals, fat, carb, protein ratios, fermented foods, leaky gut, inflammation,
and the list goes on! I have found myself on a new quest, with a couple of
goals. First I want to heal my body from the inside out of Multiple Sclerosis,
two NO MORE MEDICATION! I have been injecting myself with immune suppressant
drugs for the past 12 years, and taking stimulants for the past year, and I am
over it! I also want to help educate others and keep learning! There really is
so much information available it could make your head explode!
Recently I read (listened to
an audiobook), Dr. Teri Wahl’s book, Wahl’s Protocol. If you have not heard
this woman’s story google her, she is amazing. In short she had chronic
progressive MS, and went from being wheelchair bound to walking and riding a
bike using paleo principles to heal herself. The book is amazing to say the
least. It really breaks down what to do, how to do it, and the science behind
it. I have been doing my best at the diet for a couple of weeks. I have eaten
so many green vegetables, and produce its unbelievable! I am hopeful that I
will continue to get better, and this will become easier. I have made fermented
dishes twice including saukraut, which I had never eaten in my life! I am
drinking kombucha, and have even made chicken liver! Its definitely new
territory for me! I am also starting to use essential oils. I used tea tree oil
on my sunburn, and have been putting lavendar and lemon on my head and feet to
help me sleep at night. Its working! I am slightly amazed at how well its
working, but I am really excited! As I get my eating a little more regulated, I
am starting to look at beauty products, and household cleaners I use and the
chemical impact its having. I started using natural deodorant, and have started
to do some research on sunscreen. Although I don’t have all the answers on this
topic, I will say that it disturbed me to read that the sunscreen I had been
using absorbs into the skin to change how the chemical reactions of the UV rays
that are absorbed. It changes our bodies normal chemical reaction? Ick, so many
other questions, and so much more to discover and learn!
I want to end with a couple
of things. For those of you that are thinking, glutens bad, dairies bad,
chemicals, processed food, and everything else is going to kill me, who cares!
I just want to say you have to
keep it all in perspective, based on is importance to you. For me nutrition,
minimizing toxins, and eliminating build up is important for me to achieve my
goals. For you it may not be. However, I would encourage you to be aware of
what you are putting in your mouth, and on your skin, or exposing your home to
as opposed to blinding doing things. Make an educated choice. Making changes is
not easy, and can be expensive, and time consuming. Just make educated choices,
keeping goals, finances and your personal factors in mind.
Secondly, everyone is on a
different journey. I can see how the fact that I have MS, and am a former fat
kid is a HUGE part of who I am. If it weren’t for these two huge factors I
literally have no idea what my life would look like, or what my interests would
be. Your story may be vastly different, or the same. Either is okay, I am going
to keep sharing my story to be an inspiration, and educate others with what Ive
learned!
With all of that being said,
I am hopeful that I can re-prioritize some things this summer, and make regular
blogging one of them. There have been so many times I have thought, I should
write this down, and haven’t. Im going to start! Happy Summer (2nd
day!)!!
