Do You Really Know Me?

Do You Really Know Me?

I love meeting new people. I enjoy hearing about their life and talking to them about music, food, sports, weather, whatever.

Recently I have realized that most people don’t think the way I do. That’s not a bad thing. It keeps me motivated to share what I know and what I have learned in my life.

When I share with friends about my food allergies and about being gluten free, I get that turned head puppy dog look. So many people don’t connect illness and food, they just don’t because they never heard of it before. That’s where I come in 🙂 I’m all about awareness!! LOL!

So when I share how the food today is not the same food as years gone by, I must look like some crazy person acting like I just want to share a bunch of useless information that doesn’t affect them.

The conversation that I had this week is what motivated me to write this blog post. When I made a comment about food making people sick, I was asked “How do you know that?” I wanted to say, Do you really know me? That question made a light bulb go off in my head! Most people think  I read a bunch of stuff to learn what I know. The truth is I LIVED what I know.

I was sick for 20 years. My body hurt, my stomach hurt, bathroom visits were not fun and way to frequent. I would get allergy colds 4 or 5 times a year. My skin itched, I was extremely tired all the time. I had headaches, my bones felt like they were broken, my muscles felt like they had been punched for days. I would feel like a truck ran over me. For 20 years I felt that way. I was not the mom to my kids that I wanted to be.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia around 1995. Then I found out I had food allergies in 2004. I never connected the two. Until I started eating better. I am allergic to wheat, oat, corn and white potato. Let me just tell you, all of those foods are in everything I used to eat. EVERYTHING. I also have some intolerance to some foods like egg yolks, mango, pomegranate and mushrooms. (Well not really mushrooms, I really just don’t like them)

I took the bad foods out of my diet for 2 years. I seriously was afraid to eat. I lived on chocolate and some fruit and meats. I would try gluten free foods, but most have corn or potato substituted so that didn’t really work for me.  I lost weight, but I wasn’t healthy.

I started eating the food again. I gained 70 lbs in a very short amount of time, not from the amount of food I was eating, but the kind of food I was eating was affecting my body in different ways. Sugar is a huge culprit as well.

I decided to completely take the wheat out of my diet. Gluten is horrible. It causes so many health issues. I am getting ready to read the book Grain Brain.  I’m sure I will blog about it when I’m finished, just sayin. I also added an antioxidant to help with the inflammation in my muscles, my head and my intestines.

What I want to get across in this post is that I feel amazing now. My pain has lessened greatly. I have so much more energy. I feel and look 20 years younger. All because I changed my diet.

I ask people to try and go gluten free for 2 weeks ( 6 months, but that’s more than they can handle at first, small steps).  It can be done. It is scary. But being prepared is key. All your ailments won’t disappear in 2 weeks, but you will notice a difference. It is a process and will take commitment and dedication to feel better.

What can you lose, seriously? There ARE tons of other foods to eat.  What do you have to lose? Weight, Your pain, Missing time with family and friends because you are always sick? Think about what you can gain! A new life! I want you to feel amazing! I want you to enjoy life! I want you to be healthy! What do you want?

I was sick for years, now I’m not. Changing my eating habits is the main reason.

~Coach Mo