Joy's discovery of food intolerances

Thank you for the invitation to join you, not only in the quest for better living, but expression about it.  Facebook is as cluttered as my system fighting to function with gluten in  it.  This is a great forum to get to the point about better health.  

In high school, I was always gassy and uncomfortable after lunch.  I thought my 501s were just too tight.  Now, that may have been the case, but since decluttering my digestive system, evidence keeps appearing showing me that food intolerances have been a part of my life for a long time, albeit a silent pest. 

Food intolerances, if not violent, are like termites, they do a lot of unseen damage. Before you realize it, your health starts to cave in and being in my 40s, I just chalked it up to getting older:  pain in my knees, muscles, stomach, headaches, sleepless nights,  and general crabbiness.

I first heard about "gluten free" while selling Thrive food storage products.  We had committed to cleaning out the preservatives and boxed foods a few years ago and we cut Katie & Benson down to one McDonald's trip a month.  Although the latter was met with much objection, now they forget to ask to go. 

My next hint was after we moved to Texas. My wonderful friend, April, who it seems can't eat anything but air, is intolerant to gluten, soy, dairy, peanuts, sugar, beans, night shades, eggs.  Wow, what is left, right?

Needless to say, her friendship has been a gift from the Lord preparing me to accept the reality of my own food intolerances.  By the way, she has beautiful hair, skin, nails, teeth!  Picture of health for not having what seemed at first any food to enjoy.  Little did I know....

Next, my new friend Rae, enlightened me by suggesting  WHEAT BELLY .  After reading that; wheat was out for about 3 weeks.  April noticed a difference in my attitude. It did not hurt when Benson crawled on me.  No longer was it painful for someone to touch me.  Holidays came and went, so did the good attitude and back came the soreness.

Both my wonderful Moms suggested watching the Rose Parade New Year's morning as we visited.  Two telling me the same thing.  Well, sorry, Mom(s) the parade escaped me, but you gave me something better.   The local station had a vibrant woman in her 50s speaking about leaky gut, gluten, hi-fi foods.  Her vitality sucked me in.  She summed up all the bits and pieces of the tidbits of learning and pulled them all together.  

Her name is JJ Virgin.  VIRGIN DIET, LOSE 7 FOODS, DROP 7 POUNDS, JUST 7 DAYS. Amazon delivered her book and a companion cookbook written by someone else in just a few days.  After devouring intelligence like, "If it makes you miserable, why would you eat it?"  "Iceburg is no more than a vehicle for pesticides, don't buy it, don't eat it." "Ranchers use corn to fatten cows and pigs, then we pop it and call it 'diet' food."

The basic premise is:  Strip out gluten, soy, dairy, corn, eggs, peanuts, sugar & artificial sweeteners for 21 days.  Keep a food journal.  Think, see, and listen to how you feel.  Then add those foods back one a week for four days.  Observe for the remainder of the week.  Move on.  

Immediately gluten was out!  No longer could I deny that I am gluten intolerant.  Peanuts were no big deal.  We eat almond butter anyway.  Corn---tortilla chips--ugh. I was suspicious of dairy already.  I never suspected soy.  That little mean trickster. SUGAR.  She promised it would only be hard for a couple of days.  Now, EGGS???  I traded my eggs for a pea-protien shake.  12 g protien, no more than 5 grams sugar.  I use VegaOne from WholeFoods.  Within less than a week, I felt like a new person.  

The swelling has gone down until  I got  a hold of soy in some salad dressing and within 20 minutes was bedridden.  Everything hurt.  My head was spinning. I felt sad. my injured knee was swollen very tight.   All from a teaspoon of dressing with soybean oil in it.   p-o-i-s-o-n

I have added back corn chips, but only once a week.  Eggs make me tired.  After enjoying So Delicious Coconut milk, I could care less about drinking calf-fattener in a carton. I do enjoy quality cheese once in a while.  

So, here we are.  I want to share this with everyone so they can reclaim their health and vitatliy.  I have lost 10 lbs this month, I have gained a new lease on life.   My next book to read GRAIN BRAIN

I am not the only one affected in our family from grain brain. This week's goal, stay on program and get the wheat out of the lunchbox!!

Love to all,

Joy