Invitation to Health

I never want to forget that just because I'm feeling good doesn't mean I can stop doing what I do on a daily basis to achieve that wellness.  I have come a long way achieving success via doing the right things consistently over time.  Achieving success is a daily process.  I use to be very depressed, anxious, a worry wart, had very uncomfortable bumps on my fingers, and skin irritations on my hands and elbows.  I had pain in my lower abdomen and mucousy stools from time to time.  I had brain fog, inability to concentrate, and my world just seemed dull and confusing.  Here is a letter I wrote to a family member asking for diet advise describing my story.

I am so proud of you first off for taking your health into your own hands.  Secondly, I know how personal food is to people and they take offense easily...sort of like religion, politics, and then there's food.  Food is my passion and I get a little over zealous when I get to share my journey and knowledge with people that are ready to make changes to their health.  I want to eventually combine my love for nutrition and fitness so that I can help more people as both a Nutritional Practioner and CrossFit Coach.  

As you may know by looking at our society, you see a lot of obesity.  This isn't a state of over nourishment but these people are actually suffering from malnutrition.  People believe and trust that when they go to a "grocery store", they can find "foods" to eat.  What we actually have at grocery stores is not food.  It is processed junk in the form of "anti-food".  I would like to see more people turning to their gardens, local farmers, and farmers markets to stock up on what they should be ingesting which is nutrient dense real food.  There are two philosophies that exist which I feel are very worthy of spending your time to educate yourself so that you will ensure life-long health and vitality.  Those are Dr. Cordain and the Paleo Community and the Weston A. Price Foundation (Sally Fellon).  

I thought it would help if I shared my own personal journey with food.  I use to eat a very low fat diet and tons whole grains (the "heart healthy" diet of the 90's) back in the day when that's what "experts" said to do.  I also dappled with a vegetarian diet. I felt horrendous.  I was depressed, had mental fog, and just felt like life was zapping energy away.  I've always battled with an addiction to sugar and still do.  I have skin irritations on my elbows (still exist) because I have an imbalance of candida in my body due to sugar.  When I go without sugar which I have done, my elbows clear up.  What is going on outside of our bodies is a direct reflection of what's going on internally.  After I had Addie, I began to notice some fatty stringy stools on occasion.  I couldn't quite correlate them to anything in particular but I did also have a pain in my lower right side which I had always passed off as an ovarian cyst.  I had it checked out by my OB and she said that there was no cyst, I didn't have a hernia and that maybe I was constipated and that was causing my abnormal stool.  I was always regular so I knew she was full of bologna.  I took it into my own hands to begin a journey of what I believe is listening to your body to find true health.  

I read books like Gut and Psychology Syndrome and found out more about the gut being our second brain and how 90% of our immune system lies in our gut integrity. I learned that you can completely heal your gut with a GAPS diet and have a fresh start (which I have yet to strictly follow).  I do believe that from everything I've heard and read that food is medicine.  I believe that many of our mental illness can be reversed with the proper healing of the intestinal track and a proper diet.

The first thing I did was eliminated gluten.  I did it cold turkey.  I threw/gave everything away in my house that contained gluten in it.  I wasn't up to speed on the Paleo diet at first so I still was buying things labeled "gluten free" even though they were highly processed and loaded with sugars.  I was able to quit the typical "American" habit of eating bread or pasta with every meal and began to create a habit of not ever having bread.  It took a good year but the bread habit is completely gone and so is the pain in my lower abdomen and no more stringy stools. I do remember going through a withdrawal period the first time where I just felt REALLY depressed for a couple days and I could tell it was my body's way of saying good bye to the toxic/highly irritating and allergenic foods I had been living with for the last 30 years of my life.  About 2 or 3 months afterwards came the true test of how my body despised gluten and that was after having a weak moment (which made a lasting impression of why I needed to be gluten free) where I went from being completely gluten free for those couple months and then ate 2 pieces of Papa John's Pizza.  I was sicker than a dog for 2 days afterwards.  I felt like I had the flu, was achy and was on the toilet having diarrhea and stomach pains until it passed.  After 3 years of eating primarily gluten free and unprocessed foods I can more easily tolerate small amounts of gluten if I now eat it.

Not long after my gluten free period, I ran into the Paleo Diet (although advocates don't like to associate the word "diet" with Paleo as it is something lasting, not a fad or a trial that you won't be able to sustain long-term) and tried it for 30 days.  That's when all the puzzle pieces began to fit for me.  I learned the true meaning of eating from the perimeter of the grocery store and I bought a 1/2 of a local grass fed steer for the freezer.  Sometimes the grocery bill is steep, but it's a price I choose to pay for now rather than later.  In addition to avoiding gluten, with Paleo, I felt even better eliminating dairy in addition to other grains and legumes that caused bloating and gut irritation and I found myself eating more vegetables because I wasn't loading up on grains.

This lifestyle change happened at a crucial point in my life; while I was in the throws of mothering two young children and getting ready to conceive number three. I have found that when the following is in order/prioritized my well-being is optimized.  

1.  Sleep: 7.5 - 8 hrs, not always possible with the kiddos' night-time wakings but sleep effects everything; hormones which effect appetite which effects energy which effects outlook on life and ability to perform the long hours of the mom/wife job.  I can't always control the night time wakings but I can control what time I go to bed at night.  I try hard to get to bed as closely to lying my kids down at night as possible which is early because it doesn't matter to them what time they go down, they always wake up early.

2.  Water:  Since I can't always control sleep, I can control how much water I drink. I usually find that when I think I'm hungry, it's usually that I'm under-stimulated (you know that 100th round of ABC's or the 50th time of playing Candy Land or Peek-a-boo sometimes is...yawn, very important but you know what I mean) ,sleepy, or thirsty.

3.  Eat right:  Eat meat & vegetables, nuts & seeds, some fruit, little starch, and NO SUGAR.  Your primary focus on eating should not be about calorie control but the effect of the food on your hormones (insulin levels).  I also take a high quality fish oil (not all are created equal) supplement. 

4.  Move your body

5.  Pray/Meditate

When I eat Paleo (aim is for 80% of the time but note that I'm far from perfect and have moments of weakness) I am a glowing image of health from my skin, to my mental health, to my energy, to my sex drive.  I rarely get sick and don't have post nasal drip like I did in the past.  I feel vibrant and alive and look forward to carrying this high quality of life on through later adulthood.

I wish you the same vitality as you begin your journey into finding optimum wellness.  I am always here as a resource if you need anything or have questions. I would love to find an answer or help steer you in the right direction if needed.