Just after March 2014 I started to feel sick and I was sure it was from what I was eating. I had heartburn, upset stomachs, and headaches. I started by doing the
Wild Rose Cleanse because I had done it before and it helped alot. It did help alot, but did not solve the problem completely this time. I was still having some strange digestion and headaches. Thankfully my husband's work covered Naturopath appointments so I booked an appointment.
First I would like to say that the Naturopath is very expensive and it took 3 appointments before I actually had a diet plan. The third was completely useless. Thank goodness for good benefits!
I also think its important to point out that I have a very high metabolism. If I don't eat every two hours, I will probably have troubles walking because I will be so weak. I don't necessarily have to eat a lot, but simple sugars that come from a granola bar kick in much faster than the sugars in a carrot.
To shorten a long story a bit, I was on this diet for 2 months. I could not eat gluten, dairy, eggs, sugar, chocolate, coffee, most teas, corn, most meat, nuts, vinegar, any yeast, and a few other random things. Essentially my diet was rice, veggies, potatoes, and fruit (thankfully it was summer so the fruit options were a life saver). It seems like more when you just hear it, but its harder than you think. Rice everyday gets very repetitive.
A hard part for me was baking. I grew up in a mennonite home and my mom baked a lot of very unhealthy desserts. As a result I developed a sweet tooth, and learned to love to bake as well. I have a sister that is very severely celiac, so we learned to substitute for gluten quite well. Dairy is not too hard, as long as you like the taste of either almond or coconut milk. But sugar? Its really quite challenging to bake without sugar. I did learn to substitute for stevia or agave, but not too many recipes worked very well.
Another huge challenge was convenience. First of all there was almost nothing I could eat if I was out. At most restaurants I could eat only fries, which would be great if you love salty food, but I really only like my fries with a big juicy burger. If I was out and just wanted a snack to pull me over until I got home, I had to stop at a grocery store; which is not always the easiest to find (I once walked an hour to find one). I also could not eat at anyones house. Most people don't know how to cook with such limited ingredients. Once I did go to a friends for dinner, but I brought all the food.
I found myself spending 3/4 of my free time cooking. Now as I mentioned above I do love to bake, but I really only like to bake when either I have tons of free time, or I am having company over. I would often leave a friends house early because I had to cook a meal for my lunch the next day. If I wanted to go out for the afternoon I would have to cook a meal ahead of time and bring it with me. I couldn't go out after work because I couldn't buy dinner, I had to always go home and make food.
Always preparing food from scratch might seem like it has benefits such as cost savings, but really gluten free dairy free food is very expensive. I did not find any sauce or dressings that I could eat so everything was prepared from scratch, with tons of alterations.
I did learn a lot through the process. after a month I finally learned that most foods on the candida diet I can eat (why did the naturopath not tell me that?). I also learned some simple ways to eat healthier such as subbing rice noodles for wheat noodles (no extra effort). I am fairly good at baking gluten free and I don't mind buying margarine over butter, or using coconut milk in my recipes. I can sub honey, agave, or stevia for sugar in pretty much anything except baking; which makes a huge difference in the huge amounts of sauces that my husband loves.
I got re-tested after two months and though a lot of foods cleared, I still could not have gluten, dairy, chocolate, and minimal sugar. So I went home and told my husband I quit. He was happy.
We decided that a stomach ache once a week was well worth spending an extra hour with friends; not to mention the joy I receive from enjoying chocolate! I am much happier now and have learned to balance my health and quality of life. I am not a slave to the kitchen, but can still cook healthier than I was before. If I start to feel horrible again in 6 months, its not a big deal for me to do a 2 week cleanse. But I will not be a slave to my kitchen.
My husband said: "If you die 1 year earlier, at least you enjoyed all the years leading up to it."
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