A few years ago, I was trying to heal my eczema (which we now know is an aluminum allergy). But in the process, I eliminated, one-at-a-time, sugar, gluten, and dairy.
I also incorporated probiotics (but not natural like in kefir), and tried vegetarianism for a brief period.
Naturally, eliminating sugar made me feel better, but it did not cure the eczema. Eliminating gluten did wonders for me though. Every day growing up, I packed a sandwich for lunch to go to school. But I ate the sandwich throughout the whole day. If I ate more than a quarter of it at once, I felt “full.”
Learning to read what my body was saying made me realize I wasn’t “full,” I was nauseous.
I just didn’t think about it. When I eliminated gluten, my mood improved and I just felt better as a whole.
I JUST now started reincorporating gluten this year. At first, I went through an adjustment period. The first time I ate it again, I got the worst belly pains ever, and laid in bed, unable to move for almost an entire day. My body temp got up to 102˚F, and when Frank got home, he nursed me back to health with beef bone broth and kefir.
On my VGN Tour, I’ve been eating a moderate amount of bread and doing fine. A couple days ago, I ate an entire sandwich with no problems! :)
When I was doing the eliminations, I eliminated PASTEURIZED dairy. This was before I found raw milk. As soon as I did that, I dropped 5 pounds right off the bat, and I was less bloated. It was great! But it didn’t cure my eczema (because it wasn’t eczema).
I only tried vegetarianism by accident, for about 6 months.
I just didn’t like the taste of meat anymore. There were a few times in there, where I ate a steak because my body NEEDED red meat. There was nothing else that made me feel better. But this was before I discovered pastured, grassfed meats. The taste of pastured, grassfed meat is SOO different than conventional, and the first time I tried it, it was like heaven in my mouth.
By accident, again, and because pastured beef is cheaper than pastured poultry, Frank and I started buying more red meat than chicken. As a result, we ate more red meat than chicken. I had to learn to cook meat! Ha! But what happened, is I started feeling the best I have in my life. My head is clearer, I have more energy. I’m not longer anemic. I feel more balanced.
We started drinking raw dairy, and I saw the same change. I lost 5 pounds of weight I’d gained that I didn’t need. We started eating WAY more grassfed butter, and I lost another few pounds. (I can now fit into my jeans from SOPHOMORE YEAR of high school!!) So awesome. And besides that, it’s delicious!!
My journey with food was almost entirely organic in it’s evolution.
I am glad that there are diets like Paleo and GAPS, etc. that can help people pinpoint problems and push them in directions to try new things and hopefully heal their health problems. People ask me if I’m on a diet, and what ends up happening is I’m a mix of all of these other diets because I followed what felt best to me, and it just happened to align.
For example, we started making bone broth—not because of it’s health benefits but because the depth of flavor and texture is 100 times better than store bought broth. We started buying pastured meat because it TASTED better, was higher quality than “organic” meat in the grocery store and was CHEAPER than grocery prices when we bought it in bulk.
We started buying organic, local produce because we could get bell peppers for $0.31 each at the farmers market versus $1.88 each at the grocery store (organic).
We were motivated by taste and budget, but it was the HEALTH BENEFITS that opened our eyes to the miracle of food!
I used to be allergic to trees and grass and animals.
—All of that is reversed.
I used to get sick three times a year and got the flu.
—I haven’t had the flu in at least three years.
I used to have horribly itchy eyes, and carried eye drops everywhere.
—I haven’t used them in at least two years.
I used to take a Claratin and a sudafed everyday.
—I can’t remember that last time I did that.
I used to get horrible rashes—some reactions to food and allergies, and others due to my aluminum allergy.
—Between junking my toxic cookware, junking my toxic body products, and eating real food, I no longer have rashes.
I used to be acutely sensitive to heat (made me detox and break out in rashes).
—I am all detoxed now :) and I can play in the sun during the summer.
