Day 6: Out of the house

Well, this morning I was slated to attend my county Republican Organizing Convention. For the last year I have served as a State and County Delegate for the Republican party. Getting up wasn't so bad. I was excited to attend and the entire house was asleep. I love the peacefulness of it. I eat for breakfast the same hot cereal as yesterday. Didn't seem to matter how much I ate, I don't think anyone else was going for it. Now what to do for lunch. The Teenage Republicans sold lunch at the convention, but I was pretty sure it would be a hogie sandwhich, some chips and a cookie ... not a whole lot for my current repertoire. I decide to throw together a white bean mix to go with a rice tortilla. I mixed lemon juice, fresh garlic, and pepper, olive oil, and sea salt and put it in a container and packed a brown rice tortilla and some green leafy lettuce. I was ready to go.

The day went pretty well, and lunch turned out delicious. I really enjoyed it. Might have got some strange looks as I created my concoction in the middle of the foyer of the high school ... but I was committed and actually not coming up with excuses to not keep with the program.

Day 5: Momma told me there'd be days like this

Did I mention I wasn’t a morning person, oh yeah, I think I might of. I’m feeling so grouchy this morning. I even went down and did a 30 minute kickboxing tape to try to punch and kick my way out of the grumblies. That only slightly lessened them.. I took a long hot shower attempting to wash them away. That worked a little too. Now I am attempting to write them all away. Here goes!

Anyway, last night the light went out at 11:17 PM, at 3:33 PM a loud noise woke me up, and at 6:00 AM the alarm went off and my eyes felt like they were glued shut. I slowly climbed out of bed, grabbed my robe and went to the kitchen. Now after the success of the quinoa and garbanzo bean salad two days ago, and the short-order cook episode of yesterday, I was ready to try to feed the entire family the same healthy recipe, Peach Quinoa with Flax and Nuts. In my head, I had been mentally putting the recipe together the most efficient way to get my husband out the door to catch his bus. So, I stumbled to the kitchen, turn on the way too bright light and grab the recipe. Oh man, the peaches have to be added at the same time as everything else. The peaches are in the freezer in the garage.

A couple of weeks ago the ice maker on the fridge died. We dismantled the freezer in an attempt to fix it, but couldn’t. Brought in the Sears guy and found we needed a new part that won’t be here for 10 days. So everything frozen is in the garage. Grrr. I am in a time crunch. I have approximately 20-24 minutes to make breakfast, serve it, and have him eat it, or he misses his bus.

The recipe serves 4, so I decide to double it, so the whole family can have a wholesome homemade breakfast. I run downstairs, into the garage, grab the peaches, run upstairs, halfway up realize that there’s not enough peaches in the bag, run the peaches to the counter, run back downstairs, grab the other bag of peaches and start throwing the recipe together. I have about 2 minutes before it won’t have time to cook the 20 minutes for my husband to eat it. Everything’s in, expect the allspice. Of course I have allspice, I try to keep all the common spices on hand. I’m going through every spice in the cupboard ... nutmeg, cinnamon, ground cloves, whole cloves, ugh, where’s the allspice. I find whole allspice, no ground. Don’t have time to grind it. Decide to substitute with Pumpkin spice, which is a pleasant mix of all the spices I mentioned above. Throw it in there, get the pan on the stove, stir, stir, stir. I am now at the point where if I don’t start the timer right now, I’m out of luck. It’s not boiling. I stick my finger in the pan. It’s ICE cold. Of course it is. I just mixed cold organic almond milk with frozen peaches ... not a lot of potential for heat generation. I give up on the idea of my husband trying out my wonderfully fruity delicious hot cereal and throw together the same egg burrito he got yesterday. Strike 1 on my morning.

I help my daughter with some things to get ready for school and the quinoa cereal slowly takes it’s time warming up to the morning. Finally the cereal is boiling! I set the timer for 20 minutes and set it to simmer. I pleasantly wake up son #1 telling him unless he wants to compete with his sister for the hot water he needs to get up right away. “I’ll be up in a minute”. Yeah, I was seeing it. I leave for a while, I come back and I again wake up my son and tell him he has about 1 minute before his sister get the shower. Yeah, he’s getting right up. He finally gets up, showers, and is in the bathroom still getting ready when his carpool arrives. “Bye mom” and out he goes. Strike 2 on my morning.

The cereal finally is finished. I add chopped pecans and some flax seed and serve it out in 4 bowls. Daughter #1 comes in. Looks at it with terror in her eyes. I love 11-year-old drama. I take a bite. Hmmm, not bad. The peaches taste hot and fresh, there’s a nice hint of spices and I love the crunch of the pecan with the texture of the quinoa. She takes a bite. I think I may have poisoned her. I suggest a little brown sugar and milk for her. She goes with it. Nope, not happening. Things are just not going all the well this morning. In the meantime, Son #2 runs upstairs, doesn’t have time for breakfast, his car pool will be here any minute. Doesn’t he want to take it in a cup with a plastic spoon, I’ve spent all morning making breakfast for the family. UH, NO! I guess I probably wouldn’t want to take some weird looking concoction my mother is forcing me to eat for breakfast into a car filled with other 14-year olds. Strike 3!!!!!!!!! I’m so irritated by then. I barely notice that the 8 year old only ate the peaches, (she did ask for more fruit) and who knows what the 2 year old ate. I left Daughter #1 in charge and went downstairs and turned on the work out video. Hoping no one would come down, no one would talk to me and knowing that in a few short minutes they would all be gone to school.

Day 4: Short-order cook:

Well, after 4 Omega-3 eggs, 6 normal eggs, 3 brown rice tortillas, 2 flour tortillas, 3 cups of juice, a small amount of salsa and a bowl of oatmeal, I feel like a Short-order cook. Fed husband, fed me, fed daughters, fed son #1, fed son #2, fed son #3, cleaned up everything until it was spotless and left the kitchen 2 ½ hours later. Hmmmm, and this is what I get for waking up at 6:00 AM every morning??

I am NOT a morning person, let me repeat my self, I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON!!!! My absolute favorite time of the day is about 10:30 PM when the entire house is asleep and I have endless hours of undisturbed time to do whatever I want ... work on a project, read books, soak in a bath, surf the ‘net. It’s 100% unadulterated ME time. However, time and time again I am reading articles and books telling me that the 8 hours from 10 to 6 are healthier than the eight hours from 12 to 8. So, it an attempt to follow my “plan”. I am attempting to change my habits. You know the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” I am feeling like an old dog.

Late nights usually lead to late mornings! My kids are pretty self-sustaining having a mom that wasn’t very good at jumping up and getting out the door. They have for many years gotten up mostly on their own, gotten breakfast, made lunches, and headed out the door with not much more from me than a conversation while I stayed in bed and let them have the run of the house. They would bring me papers to sign, spelling words to study, or just come and sit when they had extra time. I actually have some of my best conversations with my daughter during these early hours. But this is all supposed to change. I am going to become a morning person!!

My husband has to leave the house by 6:41 or he will not make his bus. He is going along with the UltraMind Solution Program, but isn’t putting a whole lot of thought into it. He just eats what I tell him to. So, if I have something available for breakfast he will eat it, otherwise he skips it. So, we worked it out that I will get up at 6 AM, I will make breakfast while he gets ready for the day and have it ready for him to eat right before he leaves for work. I figured it was a good idea to help the kids avoid the sugary cereals we have a tendency to buy by including them at the breakfast table.

We have been attempting to turn the light out by 11:00, eventually working on 10:30 and even 10:00 ideally. The light goes out, my husband starts breathing deeply and out he goes and there I lay thinking about how good this is for me to go to bed early ... yeah right. I have tried this before, but usually by about 3 days into it, I’m done and back to the late nights I go. But this is a 6 week program. So, I’m committed to work at it this time.

Day 3:

Jump up, ready to go. I’m going to try for the Ultra Shake again. Got the rice protein, got the flaxseed, got the frozen fruit, blend it all together, pour it in the cups. My husband takes a drink, looks at me and says, “This tastes like chalk” We add more frozen fruit and off he goes to work with his glass in hand. I feel like every new thing I introduce to him is on trial. It’s a frustrating feeling.

I decided to start tracking my calories and nutritional intake on Sparkpeople.com, not to “diet” but more to make sure I’m getting what I need. I’m finding, after just 3 days that getting enough carbohydrates without having wheat products is going to take some creativity. A person can eat a whole lot of grapes, lettuce, tomatoes, asparagus, potatoes, carrots, strawberries, kiwi fruit, pineapple, and grapefruit and still eat VERY few carbohydrates.

Boy, I could really use a donut right about now!

Day 2:

6:00 AM ALARM came, too early. But I jumped up ... ready to go. This morning was going to be an Ultra Protein Shake. I didn’t have the rice protein, but I still had some leftover soy protein. I had been somewhat leery of continuing the soy protein after it seemed to react negatively with the Levothyroxine I am on for my hypothyroidism. (A condition I discovered after a blood test taken for me to attend Wood Badge, an advanced training for leaders of the Boy Scouts of America) I have very low blood pressure, poor circulation, and my hands and feet have always been cold. Amazingly the thyroid medication has warmed up my hands after all these years. I want it to keep working, but I figured one more day of soy protein, wasn’t going to hurt me.

Got the blender put together, poured in the Soy protein, went to pour in the flaxseed. Grrrr, it calls for ground flax seed, I bought whole. I’m thinking my husband is not going to want little tiny chunky seeds in his smoothie. I check other recipes ... they ALL call for ground. It’s not worth keeping the whole. It gets thrown in a pile to return to the grocery store. I go get the ice. Freezer is broken, no ice. My husband comes out for breakfast. I have a blender with some cream colored powder and nothing else. He says, I gotta go I’m going to miss my bus. Off he runs with some grapes and an orange in hand. I make myself some eggs and feel sorry for myself.

That afternoon we return the Whole flaxseed to the grocery store and trade it in for some Uncle Bob’s Redmill Flaxseed meal. It even costs less. That’s a bonus. Then we take a quick trip north about 30 minutes to visit Good Earth and Costco. At Good Earth I am able to find the Rice Protein, Brown Rice tortillas, and Lavender Essential oil for an Ultrabath. We run to Costco for their fish. Urrrgghh. Wild Alaskan Salmon is $25.00 or more for a package that barely feeds the family. It is not worth it to me to spend that kind of money right now. We’ll live on poultry.

Start Measurements

Beginning Program
Weight (in Pounds) 148
Waist (in inches) 36.5
Hip (in inches) 39
Waist-to-Hip Ratio .936
BMI 24

Time to go Shopping

I then made out a huge shopping list with words I had never heard of before: flaxseed, quinoa, amaranth, tamari, rice protein, and Omega-3 eggs. I even have a recipe for Ratatouille – it is actually a real food, and contrary to my children’s belief it does not call for rat ... just eggplant.

My desire was to head to Good Earth because I figured they have everything I needed and actually know what I was talking about when I didn’t. My in-laws had introduced me to the store a month or to ago while they were visiting. The problem was it’s about 30 minutes from my home. After the 2 hours of sleep and a day of no eating, we weren’t in any condition to go on a 30 minute drive at rush hour. We ran to our local grocery store to see what we could get. I was pleasantly surprised that they had the quinoa ... but at $9.99 for a 1 ½ lb bag, this was a huge investment. I hoped we liked it. I bought whole flax seed. We bought lots of fruits and vegies and organic almond milk, whole raw almonds, sunflower seeds, and pecans.. I was also pleased to find omega-3 eggs right in my grocery store. I didn’t actually think about it until the next day that I was supposed to buy ORGANIC fruits and vegies. This is definitely a learning experience and a kind of expensive one at that.

So, we came home happy to have food in the house. I hurried and put together one of more staple menu items. Mandarin orange chicken and rice with steamed brocolli. It was good to have some real food. Hmmm, too late, the mandarin oranges have added sugar. Well, it’s only Day 1!

Our 6 Week Ultra-Wellness Plan

Daily Needs:
6-8 glasses of filtered water
1,000-2,000 mg buffered pure ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)
2 T ground flaxseed
Multi-vitamin and other supplements as necessary

Do’s and Don’ts of Eating:
No white flour or sugar products
If it has a label, don’t eat it
Include protein for breakfast
Organic if possible
No Dairy or Gluten

The Day after Easter

We spent a wonderful ten days of spring break visiting family in Canada and spending time at our Worldmark Condominium in West Yellowstone. I enjoyed my sugar cereal, my favorite Canadian candy bars (Big Turks, especially), my Costco double chocolate muffins, my Tim Horton timbits and more, each with the thought that in a few days these things would not be on the menu. We returned home Sunday evening, unpacked and stayed up until 4 AM helping my 9th grader finish off a project for his Science class. We barely woke up the next morning with no food in the house. No eggs, no fresh produce. Pretty much nothing, but we did have candy from the Easter baskets. This was not a good way to start out the “program”. My husband skipped breakfast. I ate some Rice Crackers. He called me at lunch and said, “What can I eat?” I told him to go buy a salad. I ate more rice crackers and some ham. This clearly wasn’t working. We had decided to skip the preparation week as most of it seemed designed to slowly wean people off of alcohol and caffeine, neither of which was something we had in our diet already, however it was time to figure out what our plan was.

Varying Opinions ... what’s yours?

While at my in-laws house during spring break, I was looking at some of their books and found one called Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About by Kevin Trudeau I spent some of our free time going through it as I was interested in what the book had to say about heartburn and ulcers. Much of the book was dedicated to a great conspiracy theory regarding Pharmaceutical companies, Food Companies, and the Government. Not much ready to buy into that, it did give me some things to think about though, after my experience with the Prevacid.

The drug companies were certainly getting a lot of money out of me, to cure heartburn, with the knowledge that I would probably have to use more than the thirty in my bottle. The book gives some basic lists of things a person can do naturally. The book is still at my in-laws, but I took the time to write down the lists. His basic take on life is

Clean out Toxins
Stop Putting Toxins in
Fix Nutritional Deficiencies
Avoid Electromagnetic Chaos
Reduce Stress

Now, the interesting thing is, since I have returned home, I googled Kevin Trudeau. I was not familiar with him and I wanted to know if the internet would give me clues as to the truthfulness of his conspiracy theories. I guess I don’t watch enough infomercials. Apparently he has done quite a few in his lifetime and people either love him or hate him. The reviews on Amazon for his book were all good or all bad, no in between. It was weird to me that people have such opposing opinions, however, when I mentioned that to my husband he mentioned politics and how the same people here the same speech and both come out with different takes on it. So, yes, I guess that makes sense. Outside of Amazon there are many reviews of Trudeau’s books that are more reviews of the man, rather than his book. If someone has taken the time to review him, it seems like he or she doesn’t like him very much.

I actually found that much of what was in his basic lists agreed with the basics of the book by Dr. Hyman. I then went to Amazon and read the reviews for the The Ultra Mind Solution. Interestingly enough, it was the same way, very positive or very negative. I have found, though, that outside reviewers have all been very positive about the information found in Dr. Hyman’s book.

When!?!

My husband and I looked at the calendar and decided we would begin the program following our Spring Break trip. We have a good six week period without many interferences. We would start the Monday after Easter. Now, the program recommends a one week preparation period where you eliminate sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats or trans fats, junk food, alcohol, and caffeine. Following the preparation week we were then to remove all gluten and dairy from our diet. Dr. Hyman says these are the two major food allergens that lead to health problems.

Making a Commitment

I finished the book and determined that I wanted to try out what the book calls “the Six-Week Basic Brain-Boosting Program”. Which consists of the following:
1. A healthy eating plan designed to help you heal and optimize your brain.
2. Basic supplements you need to take to balance and enhance your brain chemistry.
3. Lifestyle changes including exercise, relaxation, sleep, and “brain” or mental exercises.
4. Living clean and green to reduce your exposure to environmental toxins and support a sustainable future for us all. (See pg 289, The Ultra Mind Solution, Mark Hyman, M.D.)

Back to the Book

So, while all of this is going on with my heartburn and my tingly fingers I am reading the UltraMind Solution. In the book, Dr. Hyman has a whole section entitled, “The Dangers of Acid-Blocking Drugs”. He mentions Prevacid by name. He discusses the potential of these drugs to prevent proper food digestion, vitamin and mineral deficiencies and irritable bowel syndrome. He specifically mentions vitamin B-12 deficiencies. At the same time I did a google search on Vitamin B and found that Vitamin B deficiencies can lead to neurological problems, such as tingly hands and feet. It was all coming together and I didn’t like what I was seeing. I immediately quit taking the Prevacid. I have been off the Prevacid for 3 weeks and the tingly feelings in my hands and arms have nearly gone away.

Prescription Drugs

A few weeks prior to this I had gone to the doctor with an extreme pain just below my sternum. It had come on one evening and the next day had not gone away and was very painful to the touch. The doctor diagnosed me with GERD and gave me a prescription for Prevacid. This is a stomach acid blocker. By taking it I would relieve the pain, it also seemed if I continued to take it that it would close up an ulcer if by chance I had one. I was also told that if I continued to have problems I should probably go and get a scope put down my throat to check out the level of damage. Wow, this miracle drug turned out to be $75.00. I hoped it was a good investment. Soon after I started taking it, I noticed that as I worked on the computer my fingers would start to tingle and my hand and lower arm would fall asleep. This had never happened before, but continued on. I was concerned that something was wrong, but wasn’t sure how to go about getting it looked at or taken care of.

The UltraMind Solution

About a month and a half ago, my husband was watching a program on PBS by Dr. Mark Hyman. He was talking about Autism. One of my son’s has been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, or High Functioning Autism. The doctor talked a lot about diet and nutrition and how many of our modern day problems are because of our modern day eating styles. We have seen a huge difference in our son since he began a Gluten Free diet last July. His mood seems to be more stable so we see much fewer of his rage cycle than we did before. He had felt much better and had fewer instances of bowel troubles. We had personally seen what a change in diet can do for a person. What he said was so intriguing we immediately ordered his book.

The book arrived about a week later and I began to consume it. It reads much like my old Zoology textbooks from college in some places. I enjoyed that. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology, but following graduation have done little with my degree as I have chosen to be a SAHM. Many of the things he says in the book “rang true” to me.

Winter Blues

So, fall came, then winter. Holidays, snow, gray days, winter doldrums ... the scales started to climb again. I did not feel like I had much support from my family to be healthy. Once while logging in my food intake for the day at the SparkPeople Nutrition Tracker my 14 year-old says, “Of course you’re losing weight, you spend all of your time on the computer and have no time to eat.”. They would give me a hard time about what I was choosing to eat and tease me about “the diet”.

Pretty soon I was back at that dreaded 150. Why do I hate that number? I was 118 prior to the birth of my first child. He is 16 ½.. Following the birth of my 5th child I had hit about 127 and was happy there. I would fluctuate between 127-133 depending on the time of the month and the year, but it was okay. This new number I am not okay with. I have heartburn a lot of the time, my old clothes don’t fit and I don’t like the new ones. And I just don’t have an over-all feeling of wellness.

Fact or Fiction??

I honestly have no idea what to think about those things, the BioMeridian Test, the plastic drum, the foot detox. If you google search all of those items (although I’m not sure what to call the thing he used on my back ... ANYONE??) You find people who totally believe and swear by them and you find people telling you they are a complete rip-off, scam .... I only have my personal experiences to go by which I’ve shared with you.

Natural Cures or just more Voodoo Medicine

My in-laws have always been very much involved with alternative medicine. They became very involved with Sunrider long before I joined the family. I always know I can have interesting conversations with them about alternative health options.

A few months ago my mother-in-law was having some trouble with her legs shaking. I told her about my friend who owned the spa. At the spa she offers an ionic foot detoxification system. My mother-in-law immediately called and made an appointment. She came back with a horror story about the color the water changed as it cleared out the toxins in her. Some time later, another friend and I went to visit the spa. She was going through a huge stressful time in her life. She had been to many medical doctors and she was trying out some of the many different options at the Spa. I sat there while she went through a foot detox. It was as if the water turned into orangish-brown mud.

It was too intriguing to me, I had to try it. We switched places, the machine was cleaned out and I got to sit for the 15-20 relaxing minutes. The water did not change for a long time, then it started getting a little gray colored. It settled into a light greenish color with some cloudy patches of fizzy gray bubbles. I was feeling pretty good, but had been dealing with a little bit of hay fever. A month or two later I was feeling rotten. The hay fever had set in big time, none of the normal meds were working and I was willing to try anything. Off I went to my friends spa. I stuck my feet in the water and out came the orangish-black mud. Too weird!

In July, while I was using the SparkPeople program, my husband and I went to the spa for a double date. I had not had any processed foods for a couple of weeks. I had severely limited my white sugar and white flour intake and had only eaten the natural foods that were good for me. My water did not change color for the first 10 minutes and after that barely got cloudy. The girl doing the test said she had never observed one that turned out like that. She even put me in for an extra ten minutes, trying to get the water to change color. My husband got the brown mud.

What’s the Way to Wellness?

At that time I was invited to a Wellness Seminar being held at a friend’s spa. The evening turned out to be all about detoxification. My friends’ program at her spa consisted of many days of eating nothing but lemon juice, water and pure maple syrup and her special concoction of powders. The overall idea intrigued me, but I knew I would never commit to such a restricted diet, so I started researching other options. I was wondering if that was the reason my belly would not reduce at all. Could I really have years of build-up going on inside me?

I was reading many testimonials about people whose food allergies had completely disappeared after participating in a colon cleanse. I even went about ordering Dr. Natura’s Colon Cleansing program one evening over the internet, however the next morning, I woke up at 5 the next morning with a huge panic attack that I had done the wrong thing. I called and cancelled it. I was concerned that with my different allergies I could be ingesting something that could cause worse troubles than I already have.

The only constant in life is CHANGE

Two years ago we moved to a new state, new city. Over the year prior to moving we had two homes on the market to sell and my husband had already relocated. I ended up living with my parents with my 5 children in a totally different state while we got our affairs in order. Through the stress of all that I ended up gaining over 20 pounds. I hit 150 lbs, a number which to me had always been associated with a 7-9 month pregnant body. I think with the move, the weight, the new location, etc. I then went into a state of depression. My weight continued to increase. I was simply miserable!

In July of last year my frustration hit bottom and I decided to do something about it. I researched on the internet for diet programs that would work for me and were not too expensive. I looked specifically at E-diets and Weight Watchers. E-diets had worked great for me when I had tried to lose weight following the birth of one of my children. Weight watchers had helped my sister. Both had monthly fees and I wasn’t ready to invest in a program which required a monthly payment. Then I stumbled upon SparkPeople.com. Here was a site based on nutrition, diet, education, lifestyle, fitness, education and more and best of all it is TOTALLY FREE! I started tracking my food daily, exercising regularly and focusing on taking care of myself. About 6 weeks later I was at 143 lbs. It wasn’t where I wanted to be, but I was at least moving in the right direction. The one thing I noticed was that even though I was run/walking 4 miles a day and was keeping my caloric intake between 1200-1500 calories that I could never get rid of the poochy belly.

More Voodoo Medicine!

The naturopath I chose was a friend of the family and had often tried to get me to come into his office to work on my back. Following the PT sessions, I still had pain off and on and my doctor recommended I see a chiropractor. I couldn’t do that. My college room mate had often preached the dangers of chiropractics. They would move my bones around until they no longer stayed in place. They would create more harm than good. But my doctor gently pressured me and told he would find someone gentle. He sent me to Ann. She was a kind quiet woman who did help me to feel better, even if it was only temporarily. I was seeing her at the same time I went to Dr. G for the allergies. One day I came in for a visit and he said, “Why don’t you just let me try your back.” I finally gave in.

He had me lay down on my stomach on his table. He got out an orange, small, round drum-looking device. He put one hand on my back and wet the fingers of his other hand. He then proceeded to move his hand over my neck and back. The wet fingers rubbed along the drum. It made a high squeaky “ee-ee ee-ee” sound. Suddenly the pitch of the sound went higher. His hand on my back pushed down harder and he had found the spot that was giving me the most pain. Over and over he repeated that same sequence, always the pitch changed when he found another area of stress in my back. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever observed, but it worked!

Did I have Fibromyalgia?

I told my new PT where I was going and he wasn’t happy at all. He warned me that I may come out of there with a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia. Unfortunately, many of his clients had been going to this particular doctor and all of them had come out with a new diagnosis. He gave me some paperwork to read and recommended the book: All About Fibromyalgia: A Guide for Patients and Their Families by Daniel J. Wallace and Janice Brock Wallace. I immediately ordered the book and read it page by page prior to my appointment with the surgeon. I did not feel that the book was describing me in any way.

Unfortunately, things turned out just as my PT had warned me. I spent a few minutes with the Surgeon. He had me do a few different muscle tests and he left. He came back a little while later and said, “Let me tell you what you have.” I knew what I had. I had a compression fracture in the thoracic region of my back that was left untreated and was now causing me severe pain. I had seen the x-rays. I had already told him that I was not taking pain killers as I was nursing a baby. He said, “You have Fibromyalgia and the only thing I can offer you is a prescription to kill the pain. Come back when you are no longer nursing and we’ll see what we can do.”

I wonder if there are other women who did not have the warning that I did. Did they walk out of his office with a new label? Did they now look through every thing in life with fibromyalgia-colored lenses. Every ache, every pain, every day that they just didn’t get enough rest the night before and they wanted a few more hours of sleep, did they blame it on their fibromyalgia? I wonder.

Step on a Crack, Break Your Mother’s Back

A few years prior to the allergy breakout, we had discovered that somewhere along the road of life I had broken my back and was living with the effects of an untreated compression fracture. I had been through a few months of excruciatingly painful physical therapy and was pretty much determined to never go back there again. But the pain was severe and was limiting my daily activities. I was unable to stand in one place for long periods of time and rarely made it through the folding of a batch of laundry before the muscles of my back were seized up into painful knots. Laundry, fixing meals, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping floors ... all of those day to day things a mom with a trio of children is required to do were painful and tedious. We got by and my husband was so wonderfully supportive. He had to pick up the slack quite often during those years. My primary care physician had sent me to the physical therapist and I had not enjoyed that experience at all. Coming back to my doctor again, he recommended me going through another few months of therapy. I had no desire to return, but this time he recommended a man who had just opened his office in town. He thought he would be very gentle with me. The experience I had with him was like night and day compared to the prior experience. He was a huge help to me and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him. During that time I also set up an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon. I wasn’t really looking for a surgical solution, I more wanted someone to give me help developing a lifestyle that would help me be pain free. Was there a better diet I could eat, were there exercises I could do? What things could I do differently that would give me a better quality of life?

Voodoo Medicine

During this highly allergenic time of my life, I began going to a naturopath/chiropractor. This was quite an act of desperation. I had a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology, all those pre-med and pre-dental guys had been my study buddies, and I had a roommate who was a daughter of a physical therapist. I had the traditional medical system ingrained in me and to look at alternative solutions required me to change my mind set greatly.

I went to his office bearing the paperwork from my recent visit to the allergists where I had reacted to numerous items and felt like I had a life of rice ahead of me until I developed a sensitivity to that ... and then I was just out of luck. I could die a slow and painful death of starvation. Yeah, I’m probably being a little too dramatic, I could live on twinkies. I didn’t seem to react to those, not in the short-term anyway. So, Dr. G. introduced me to a BioMeridian Electro-Dermal Test. This test was conducted by having me hold a large electrode in one hand and having him put a small tip electrode on various acupuncture sights on my hands and feet. This produced a small voltage in which the range would be measured. I watched the screen as it would rise up and then level out landing in a green (Yeah, healthy), yellow (oh,oh Warning!!), or red (BAD!) zone. Most of mine landed in the red. Not that I was surprised by that. The one area I was surprised by was the female and urinary tract areas. I had been suffering from Yeast and UTI type infections for many months off and on, but nothing showed up with a normal urinalysis. I had not shared any of that with him, feeling it was completely unrelated to my allergies. His test showed red in those areas.

After taking the test he then presented to me around 6 different natural substances that he felt I needed to take for the next month that would “cause natural healing in my body”. Again out of total desperation I bought them all. I’m not a great pill taker, so, this was a huge commitment of money and of me to actually take them. My husband created a chart for me for each day of the month with little circles for me to fill in when I had taken the supplements. It was like 12 different pills or powders 1-2 times a day. I plugged away at it. I ate my rice cakes and one month later I returned to take the test again.. Same test – new results. According to his test many of my stressed out areas were now in the normal range or very close to it. I started incorporating real food back into my diet.

Currently, I am able to eat most anything but fruits and vegetables. I can eat most fruits and vegetables if they have been cooked or processed in some way. I do not eat any fruit with a pit, cherries give me horrible immediate sinus reactions and avocados bring on migraines. I can eat red grapes, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and peppers raw. I can have a banana if it is completely ripe. I am continually trying different fruits and vegetables to see whether I will react or not any particular day. I never did fill the prescription for the Epi-Pen I am supposed to carry around with me. I don’t think I’d be brave enough to shoot myself, anyway.

The Set up ...

I have decided to undertake a program called The UltraMind Solution, based on a book of the same name by Dr. Mark Hyman. It’s a six week program dealing with diet, nutrition, supplementation, stress management, and more.

First a little history:
Approximately 6 years ago, maybe more, I began developing extreme food allergies. Swelling lips and tongue, canker sores, itchy throat, difficulty breathing, sinus infections, migraine headaches, etc seemed to come on unexpectedly. I went to the allergist and had the normal skin tests and reacted to about 61 different items. At one time I was eating nothing but rice for a 3-4 week period. I finally narrowed the allergies down to most raw fruits and vegetables. From a medical perspective they call it Oral Allergy Syndrome and it seems to be a reaction to the pollens that the fruits and vegies cross-pollinate with of trees of which I have always been allergic to.

The miserable thing is that I can eat a candy bar and feel great and eat cherries and end up sick in bed. It seems a little mixed up to me.

My first post!

I’ve had a few people tell me that I need to start a blog. I’ve kind of dismissed the thought because I never thought I had anything worth reading (or writing) about. However, recently I have made some huge changes in my lifestyle and am thinking that it might actually be worth it to record what I’m doing and how it’s going. I figure I have four good reasons to create this blog

1. Other people might be going through similar challenges and may find something I’m doing helpful.
2. Other people may have already done what I’m doing and can give me pointers on how to do it better.
3. Maybe people will actually be interested and then it will hold me accountable to keep plugging away at it.
4. I think it will be good to have a log for myself, if I am actually having positive results from the changes I am making in lifestyle and diet.

So get ready, get set .... GO!