Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Leaky Gut and my struggle to Health and Dr. Axe

6 years ago, my kids were young, life was chaotic at times, I was trying to run a small business and I started noticed more and more that I was getting rashes on my shoulders when I ate certain foods. I connected the food/rash dots from years of meeting people who were struggling with food issues themselves. 
My body was struggling to stay healthy becoming slowly overweight. The scale was climbing pound by pound, and when I approached the weight that I was the day after I had my daughter, I knew something was wrong. I had been dedicated to my running 3-4 miles a day, but nothing affected the scale. Around the same time I was feeding my children some vegetables and I realized that I actually hadn't eaten vegetables in some time. I would usually fill my body with bread and meat and milk products mostly. 
With only liability health insurance at that time, and me getting sicker and sicker, I was forced to take control of my own health by researching healing diets and natural healing methods. 
Thank God for this!!! What if I did have health insurance and I decided to go into the doctor for all my issues? I wouldn't be alive right now. They would have given me 5 different medications to help me with the bowel issues, and the rashes and everything else. 
Thank You LORD for the internet because I am not sure I would have found the Healing and amazing Selective Carbohydrate Diet if I hadn't had access to this resource. Did you know that The Whole 30 is basically this diet which is ages old? At that time I dove in 100 percent, desperate for healing. I was judged and sometimes criticized by certain people because I was so militant about what I wouldn't put in my body. Reading every label and not letting even one microbe of soy, sugar, wheat, rice, grains or cows milk into my body for more than a year. If there was even one droplet of milk on a spoon I wouldn't use it to stir my coffee.  
Do you know how hard it was to stick to that diet for soooo long in this day and age where food is soooo celebrated and it is so hard to get things like raw milk!!!??? I know a lot of you are doing the whole 30 for 30 days and it is harder than not to continue past that point consistently. 
Those choices of selective food intake completely healed me for over 4 years. I remember feeling fantastic and having so much energy and being shocked how quickly I lost 30 pounds and all the flappy parts of my arms were completely gone. I was 125 pounds again and healthy and none of the inflammation problems I have now did I struggle with. My asthma was completely under control and my skin rashes and histamine intolerances were completely gone. And my IBS was Gone. 
We moved to NYC 4.5 years ago and at first I was still all in on the SCD diet and was trying to stay with it. But life happens and smears of cream cheese on yummy high gluten filled NYC award winning bagels happened and the best sushi I have ever had happened and oh, don't get me started on the wood fired pizza or shake shack.  
Slowly the SCD became my history instead of my norm . I am so thankful that I did go through it and stuck to it long enough to feel the results and see the results that Food is medicine. Now I see food in a completely different way ( it is either healing medicine or toxic poison), and I can't live in denial ever again. Now when I grab a bagel, I know how poisonous it is to my system and I have to remind myself that this choice has consequences.
Which brings me to this day. A new day, a new morning. Recently in the past 3 years,  I've climbed the weight ladder up to 177 pounds. I have NEVER ever been that heavy before. in 2014 I had an unfortunate miscarriage and had to go on a Rx lexapro for a year. While the Lexapro recalibrated my brain, it also fluffed me quite a bit too. Thankful I am off it, but I am struggling to lose all that weight from this time.  Back when I was pregnant, I started eating bagels and bread and ice cream and such and it stuck, I became weak and addicted once again. Can you imagine how different I look, moving here at 122 pounds and at my third year 177? 
I came to my senses and have been diving back into Food as medicine and taking it seriously once again.The last two years I have been on damage control and keep trying to go back to the strict diet I once could easily follow. Thankful I am down 20 pounds now, but I need to be down at least 18 more. 
Every ailment is back full force. My asthma has never been worse, Inflammation in my joints, skin rashes, Thankfully no acne yet, but that might be on its way if I don't take this seriously. 
I have been looking for help and support during this time having to make this decision amongst the most delicious food ever offered to us. Surrounded by Smorgesburg and pit BBQ places, Pizza and award winning restaurants, it is going to be REALLY hard to stay with a program that will actually heal my leaky gut and balance the crud that is going on down there. 
All this to say, years ago, I found Dr. Axe through a friend of mine in Raleigh, who went to school with Dr. Axe. He was slowly becoming an expert on natural health, and now, is the expert online. I watched a webinar on his leaky gut healing and have decided to try out his system for $147. If it provides the support I need and the information to help me get back on this road, I think that is the best investment I will ever make if it works. If it is a scam or doesn't work, he has given us a generous 60 days to cancel. this is more than enough time to see big results.  
So today, this day marks the new journey of Faith and food and good choices in healing and here's to you Kelly, Tracy Woodward, and PJ for being my food and wellness coaches in the past.  Hopefully as I move forward into using food as my medicine and essential oils as my rx, I can be at least an example to others for what you can do by taking food seriously and using natural nutritional ways to heal the body. Let the new adventure begin.










Wednesday, June 7, 2017

I blogged quite off and on when I first moved to NYC, and slowly, the city just became normal life and the blogging faded out.

One of my facebook memories reminded me of this place, so let's see if I can figure out how to blog consistently and to see if it is worth it!!

It might be better to blog and post here instead of a million posts on IG or FB. The ART creative healthy faith journey continues. Blogging just helps me to stay present and close to my own experience and hopefully to share helpful ways that I continue to learn from NY about how to live a  creative life, striving for authenticity and the raw faith journey, plus I am willing to share with you all any helpful process experimentations and understandings.

Finally, for today, if you love Curry,

Please try this recipe... I made it with cauliflower rice and honey to make it a paleo recipe!! It was the tastiest Curry I have had  in a long time.

http://www.fortysomething.ca/2010/06/thai_red_chicken_curry.php


Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil  Coconut oil 
  • 2-3 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and sliced into bite-sized pieces (or about 2 cups leftover cooked chicken pieces) (I used really flat thin pieces of chicken) 
  • 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
  • 1/2 red pepper, cut into matchsticks
  • 1/2 onion, cut into thin slices
  • 1/4 cup canned bamboo shoots, cut into matchsticks  ( I actually was out of this, so I left it out) 
  • (Optional) 2 cups greens (bok choy, spinach etc) (I used spinach) 
  • (Optional Vegetables: sliced zucchini and/ or slivered green beans) ( green beans all the way) 
  • 1 tsp. minced ginger ( this is very important ) 
  • 1-2 Tbsp. red curry paste (I usually use 2) ( use half a jar... since it is so small) 
  • 1 can coconut milk (light or regular, about 1 3/4 cups)  Coconut cream not milk ( buy at TRader joe's for a good deal ) .     
  • 1 Tbsp. lime juice (I used two limes) 
  • 1 Tbsp. brown sugar    (  honey instead or real maple syrup !!!) 
  • 1 Tbsp. fish sauce (or Soy Sauce  or Coconut aminos)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Garnish: Torn basil leaves and lime quarter, for juicing over finished dish ( add cilantro like the picture)