Journey to Health

Hi!
My name is Nancy and I want to share my story as I travel the journey to health. 

A little over a year ago, I finally hit my lowest of low points with my health.  I ended up with high blood pressure (which for me was unusual as my blood pressure always ran low) and had been told that I had high cholesterol, not to mention that my hormone levels were near extinction.  I weighed 194 lbs.

I had been struggling with allergies ever since my second pregnancy decades earlier.  I seemed to attract new allergies like nails to a magnet.  I suffered in spring with the tree pollens, in rainy weather with mold, summer with grass pollens and fall with ragweed and mold.  The rainy weather or windy days would drag me down this tunnel of fatigue. 

But it was the food allergies that finally did me in.  I found that I was allergic and sensitive to the majority of foods.  Well, I would give up wheat and caffeine on and off over the years.

When one of daughters came down with food allergies in her early years, I cooked everything from scratch and our family flourished.  I managed to handle my life and health ok.

But speed ahead, girls out of the house, busy life, lots of stress, more fast foods, instant meals and my health sank faster than a boulder in the lake. 

Soon, I could barely get out of bed and function.  My eyes were red, itchy & weepy.  My mind was foggy, every muscle in my back shouted out with pain.  My stomach turned hard like a rock and my intestines felt like the router rooter man came for a visit.  My joints hurt, I started to dread the stairs.  My joy for life was gone.  I just was happy to force myself to get up and get working each day.

Then one day I was told that I could no longer eat gluten.  That meant no more wheat, barley or rye in any product.  Well, I already knew what that meant.  No more eating out, unless I would go to a better restaurant where they sell pure meats, no fillers, and would make the food accordingly.  Which all in all wouldn't be so bad, except we were one of the households who fell victim to the
 economy.  My husband was laid off for quite some time by this point.  And now I was told I couldn't eat noodles, bread, oatmeal, prepared boxed foods, condiments, you get the idea.  If you ever read the labels on food, if it isn't in it's natural state it probably has gluten in it.  But, alas there is an epidemic out there for us gluten free people and the food industry has come to the rescue!  They have developed some decent products that are gluten free! Now, if I could afford the groceries, I could join the world of the living and live the life of luxury, right?  Well not in my world, that wasn't to be.

There was another curve ball waiting for  me.  Once I stopped eating gluten and oats (some people who can't eat gluten also can't eat oats, at least for the first year or two, I was told).  I found that all of my food allergies acted up more.  I became even sicker when I ate corn or potatoes or certain fruits, such as lemons, pineapple etc.   My list of edible foods plummeted!   And all those lovely gluten free products that I found as substitutes, well guess what they used in making them, corn and or potatoes! 

Well, that really was depressing.  I just eliminated over half of the foods that most of us love to eat!  No more bread, pizza, noodles, soups, sandwiches, pancakes, cereal, etc...  Wow, I thought forget it, I would just go back to eating what I wanted. 

When I eat gluten, corn or potatoes I wake up at night burning up!  I feel like I am the furnace working hard to heat the house.  My back muscles feel like they had quite a work out, and my mind, well I might as well as had a good night out drinking, because the fog I had to get through just to acknowledge the headache, well you get the picture!  The hives and the sore mouth I could live with.  But my eyes!  Those gave it away to anyone who could see.  I had the darkest circles under my bright red, itchy, weeping eyes. I must have been a sight!

Well, one day a good friend of mine shared a product that she was trying with me.  She told me it could help me lose weight.  Well, been there a dozen or more times and I was too sick, tired and poor to want to try another weight loss product that wouldn't work for me.  I had thousands of dollars worth of products I bought trying to feel better.  You know, every ad that came in the mail promising weight loss, everything from patches, to tablets, not to mention all the supplements to help with sluggish thyroid, stiff joints, sore muscles, products to improve the eyes, etc.  We just didn't have the income any more to try another product, that will just end up on the shelf!

But, as she was a good friend, I listened to her, looked at the product and took home some samples.  I must say I was a bit excited that I might have found something I could eat for breakfast that was more of a breakfast food.  The shakes and bars that she had were gluten free and I could eat them.  They did not have anything in them that I was allergic too!  I felt like it was a miracle.  So, I started on my journey to health...

First I only had a shake maybe 3 times a week.  I just didn't have the money to spend on the product.  After a couple of months, I noticed I was feeling better.  I was enjoying the shakes and had some good days.  I shared this information with some friends and my daughters and a few of us tried the products here and there.  Well, those of us who were taking the shakes started feeling a little better and we lost a little weight, but that's pretty much where we stayed. 

Then came 2011.  2010 was one of the hardest years of my life for so many reasons.  So I embraced the new year with great joy!

I was feeling better physically.  I wasn't 100 percent, but I would say that I was 50 percent better than I had been, and that was just with taking the shake once a day.  I felt well enough that I really looked at myself and realized how obese I was.  It's funny how we can have such a distorted view of ourselves isn't it?

When I was in high school, I only weighed around 110 to 115 lbs.  I thought I was heavy.  I didn't feel like I looked very nice.  Well, welcome to life 35 years later and add on another 80 lbs and I felt like I looked a bit heavier, but not all that much!  Talk about delusional! 

Well, two of my daughters and two of my friends decided that they would join me in a contest, using these products to lose weight.  There was a contest that paid out a nice amount of money, enough to be an added incentive to give this product a real trial run as a weight loss program.

So, January 10th, the journey began.  We took 30 days and committed to a better life style, breaking one bad habit, adding one good habit, exercising 30 minutes a day, taking the products as suggested and seeing what would happen.

Well, we started on a journey that has evolved into my third daughter joining us this month, a couple other friends and my husband, a friend's husband and son.  Just with my two daughters and I, we have lost over 100lbs total since January 10th!  If I add in my friends we are closer to 200 lbs.  I am almost down 40 lbs myself.  Me, the person who didn't lose weight even if I didn't eat anything. 

The day I decided to start taking the shakes for my breakfast faithfully was when I my body reacted violently to the foods it couldn't tolerate anymore, and my mouth and throat broke out in hives.  It hurt so bad to swallow the saliva that I couldn't even think about drinking water or eating.  After one week with out food or drink and no relief in site, I started forcing down one shake a day.  Then one night when I couldn't take the pain anymore.  I came downstairs (so as not to bother my husband and to be alone, so I could cry), but my husband followed me down.  He got out a diet soda and that fizz gave me the first relief in over a week.  I then got my tea tree oil, spread that on the hives in my mouth & throat and lived on one shake and one or two cans of soda for the next week.  Guess how much weight I lost in those two weeks.   Nope, nothing, not one pound.  Talk about the unfairness of it all!

So imagine my delight when I finally found a program that worked for me!   I am half way to my goal now.  I have gone down 3 pants sizes.  But even better than that I am feeling alive and happy ! 

I still struggle with not eating corn & potatoes.  I have been successful for the most part with the gluten.  I may eat gluten unknowingly, when I forget that it might be in a salad dressing or dip.  But, my body instantly lets me know when I have done so. 

I didn't mention all the bouts I had with constipation or diarrhea or vomiting, but that is because those things are fleeting and could be fixed more easily than all my other symptoms.  For me the migraines, the vision loss, the fatigue, those were completely debilitating, they could last and would last for days, weeks or continuously.

If I ate something that caused me to vomit, it would put me out for a day, but my eyes were a constant problem.  If you never had really itchy, tired, sore eyes, that just plain wore you out, you couldn't understand, some of the many challenges I had to face day in and day out.  My body was tired and worn out.  I could feel the end around the bend. 

But, not any more!  And not only do I feel better I look better too.  I will post some before pictures and some current ones. And you can be the judge.

Ironically, my youngest daughter, the one that just joined our team in this healthier life style, has been encouraging me to start a blog.  Now, she doesn't need to lose any weight, she may want to lose a couple of pounds, but she has never been heavy.  She grew up with food allergies and the better eating habits that
seemed to have stuck with her all through her life. But she's working on creating even better habits as well as toning up.  So, she is my inspiration for this blog.