Okay, so it's been a while! A long while, so I will give you a quick update on what has been going on... my beautiful daughter turned one, I turned 29, we celebrated our fourth year of marriage and a bunch of other wonderful things have happened along the way!
One of those things happened just last week! After many many loving people in my life shared their stories and urged me to take a look at alternative medical care I finally bit the bullet so to speak and went to see a naturopath. I've been battling various ailments and ongoing issues that I've always been told by regular G.P.'s "here, take this pill and it will sort itself out". There comes a time in your life where you get tired of hearing that line and want to try and take a bit more control over your own future and get the viewpoint of someone else to help get you to where you want to be.
So, I made the appointment and spent two hours sitting with a naturopath, pouring over every personal and medical aspect of my life for the last 29 years trying to get a starting point to find out what is going on with the inner me. It was enlightening to say the least! I was given a totally different viewpoint on my life and the things that have gone wrong and right and how it has impacted where I am now. I have also found out that there may be absolutely simple fixes for the issues that I am currently battling in my life, like stress, sleep loss, weight loss plateauing and well, so to put it out there... and sorry love to make this public, loss of libido. It is what it is and that's what I'm facing right now.
The great thing is that this naturopath I have started seeing is wanting to work on things right away! She gave me some melatonin to try and reset my sleep cycle, which has already been fantastic! I think the last four nights have been the best sleep I have had in almost a year! She's prescribed some natural herbal supplements to help level out my hormones, which for any mom reading this blog, you know that as soon as that amazing little bundle is born our system can just go completely off course!
The other thing that she has done is she has recommended that I begin a four week elimination diet! Needless to say, after speaking with a dozen people that I know have already gone to a naturopath I suspected that this would be in my future. Was I worried about it? Hell yes! I love food! I live for food! Food is the longest relationship that I have had! Yes, we've had our fights, and at times there have been some of us that have not spoken for long periods of time, such as my six year divorce from meat, but we've always come back together!
So when I was told that this was the best possible way to rule out my system being off track due to a food allergy or something along those lines I decided to go for it! Because at this point, what do I have to lose? I need to get my health on track, not just for me but for my husband and my kids. I've come to the point where I want to make the decision to be here for a good long time, and that in that time I want to be the most complete me I can be! So, starting tomorrow, and for the next four weeks I will be doing my very best to stick with the elimination diet plan. Which includes no dairy, no wheat, no chocolate, no coffee and no red meat. Which for anyone who really knows me, these are my food groups.
Today I took Em and we ventured out to the grocery store to make sure that I have plenty of fresh veggies and fruit as well as frozen options of both so that I can whip up various meal options as well as snacks for work since that is where I tend to have the most dietary issues. For those people who may possibly read this blog that need to shop gluten-free, kudos to you! This was the hardest shopping trip I have ever had! Trying to shop gluten free that still didn't have cornstarch or potato in it was quite the experience! And holy cow this stuff is expensive! I know that this is only my first experience but I can honestly say that this has changed the way that I look at certain foods!
So, to get this new journey started (and really this is me ending this now because the melatonin spray just kicked in and momma needs some sleep!) Please stay with me over the next four weeks while I give you the ups and downs, the highs and lows and the ins and outs of what one person goes through on her first look at an elimination diet. I will try and give you a day to day look at how this is going and hopefully share some great news about how things can change when you change yourself and your habits!
