Remember me? The girl bound and determined to change the way she cooked, ate, lived and make everything she loved about cooking taste just as good gluten and dairy free??
Well I'm back. It has been quite the roller coaster the past few months for me. When I began this blog I wanted to show people how easy it was to cook delicious and "normal" meals without gluten and dairy. Cooking and baking (more so baking) has always been a source of stress relief for me. It's a way I can pass time, get lost in a creative project, and, in a way, feel like a child again. Growing up, my grandma was always the baker. I like to think that my love of baking comes from her and in turn, that makes me feel closer to her. When my food problems started to get worse, I started to get very discouraged and down on myself. I am someone that loves flavor, loves a complicated recipe and loves a great tasting meal. Some of my favorite moments with my husband involve cooking a big meal together and sitting down to a good bottle of wine and this fantastic meal we created.
When I last blogged, I was eating anything I wanted (within reason of course) as long as it didn't include dairy or gluten. I was also on a prescribed PPI from my gastro doc. Everything seemed great for about a month or two. Things calmed down, I could enjoy food again, and I felt my spirits lift as well. The thing is, when you are like me and have GERD....and anxiety things are bound to pop up again. My gastro doc also failed to mentioned those same PPI drugs that were making my stomach feel good for a bit were depleting me of some key nutrients. I came off the pills after my GI doc said I was "cured" and about a month later, I was in the throws of it again. It didn't matter what I ate, I had heartburn, indigestion, chest pain, bloating, and gross gut issues I won't even get into. Things then progressed by the end of June that I had 3 nights straight of heart palps giving me very little sleep. My GP told me that he, too, has GERD and when it 'flares up' he gets heart palps and it is just something I need to learn to ignore. Thankfully I was also seeing a great chiropractor. We sat down and had a hard talk about nutrition and what is was that I was eating.
The week before the 4th of July, I went on an all fruits and veggies diet. Believe me folks, if there is anyone that I thought would fail this miserably, I would have told you it was me. No meat was hard, but even harder was no grains. I was very compliant and open to what he thought would help me based on just cleaning out my body and allowing it time to heal and let all the inflammation in my digestive system subside. When we began, this was going to be a 2 week plan and then we were going to slowly add animal proteins back into my daily diet. Oddly enough, the 2 weeks flew by. I got a juicer and began making a juice for breakfast and dinner. Lunch was a big salad with everything from nuts to seeds to raisins. After getting past focusing solely on the food I was without and all the negative thoughts that went with it, I began to notice changes in myself. The best part was when others noticed those changes, too. My skin cleared up. I never had a huge problem before, but it just looks so even-toned and clear. I was dropping weight like crazy, even my "I feel like stuffing my sausage legs into these tonight" jeans were loose on me! The best part was not feeling all the digestive symptoms. No more bloating, no more tender pouch just above my belly button, no GERD symptoms, no heartburn.
I was elated to say the least! Week 3 we added plain chicken breasts back into my diet and the next week was egg whites. I was loving it! At the start of week 5, I had to admit, however, that the bloating and indigestion was back. Much to my chagrin, we went BACK to fruits and veggies the last week in July, but this time we included no legumes in there, too. It wasn't really that I had awful emotional ties to food, so much as I kept getting down on myself because I couldn't just have the freedom to go out to dinner with my husband. I had to really think before I put something in my mouth. The hardest was my brother's wedding......but I did it. The following weekend was my best friend's wedding shower and bachelorette party at a winery.....and I did it. Girls brought dips, chips, cookies, brownies, hummus, all the things that would have normally done me in BUT.....I did it. At week 6 I still had had a few nights of random heart flutters, but my indigestion was gone, my GERD was gone, I was on new meds that were actually working to put acid back INTO my stomach (turns out low stomach acid has the same symptoms as too much acid, so all those acid meds I have spent years on didn't do me any good), AND I had lost 25 pounds and almost 4 inches off my waist. It wasn't that I was starving myself (as my parents feared) it's that I was filling myself up with good whole foods that my body not only needed, but responded well to.
The most important part of this entire journey is the lifestyle change. I don't look at food the same way anymore. I couldn't tell you the last time I read a food label. It's ironic because mainstream media convinces you it's all about the Calories, fats and carbs and I spent years trying to remember what it all meant. I would be 'that girl' in the aisle, holding up a can of food trying to determine if it was 'healthy' according to the label. It really is just as simple as reading the ingredient list. Who cares what some chart on the back of the package says. It could have ZERO fat and calories, but if it's loaded with sugars and words you can't pronounce, what good does it do for your body?! Stepping away from food really allowed me an opportunity to look at things from a different perspective.
Here I am at 9 weeks off any kind of gluten, grains, and processed sugars and I still feel great. I have added turkey and chicken back into my diet, tried out bacon, and even "cheated" with some hummus and my stomach is doing remarkably well. I have always believed in a more holistic approach to medicine, bringing things back to the basics, but it wasn't until this experience that I really had my eyes opened. My big focus now is back to food, but in a healthy way. I have really searched for a reason or purpose behind this journey I have gone down the past 5 years and I have come to at least one conclusion....the journey was not without purpose. I have learned so much and changed so much and I love being able to help others with similar issues or others just wanting to change things up in the kitchen to offer their families a healthier way of eating. I am not exactly sure yet where this will lead me, but I do know I am armed with a bunch of new recipes to share with you and a new determination!
