Eat: Better

When we first settled in California, 8 years ago I was suffering from terrible joint pain. It was likely caused by the Lyme disease I had contracted around 2000. In fact, I blame that disease for just about every ache and pain I have. I can't remember who I was before that disease, but I do know who I am now. And I'm pretty sure the two me's are quite different.

The single best thing I did for my health after we arrived here in California was change my diet. I became gluten, dairy, refined sugar, corn, caffeine, night-shade and red-meat free. That was hard. But within a few days (!) I was in less pain and had more energy. It was good to have me back. I enjoyed living my life in a 120 pound body - oh how I enjoyed it! Then I came down with adrenal fatigue, lost a lot more weight. To comfort myself I started eating just about whatever I liked, mm how I enjoyed eating! Three years later I'm living my life in a 140 pound body and I'm really uncomfortable. It isn't all about what size pants I'm living in. Mostly I just feel crappy. And yesterday as I walked I could feel my fat jiggle! Now THAT is quite enough of THAT! Time to change my eating habits again. A journey is about to begin...

I'm not prepared to go back to the diet I had been on, though I did have a lot of success with it from a pain control aspect. I was often trying to replicate a non-gluten free life in my cooking that became stressful. I've done a great deal of reading about different diets over the past few months; vegan, paleo, specific carbohydrate or SCD, gut and psychology syndrome diet or GAPS. Having experienced the power of a diet change I am ready to change my eating habits again in order to change my body, my mind, my life. Chris is going on this 30 day challenge with me. I think we could both loose ten pounds by the end of the month with food changes alone. Add exercise in there and look out!

Which diet have I chosen? I'm going to start us on the Whole30. It is similar to the paleo or the SCD diet, but I must confess I will not eat any more meat than I already do. I may feed Chris a little more fish, but I have never liked it and with the state of our oceans, well I don't think I will start now. I would like to ultimately move over to a vegan diet again, and many of our meals will be vegan. I'm not ready for full time vegan life yet. My focus will be on making the meals we eat more healthful and loosing weight and exercising more regularly.

Here we go!