Thursday, November 29, 2012

A Change of Pace

In my blogging absence I have been busy, busy with school, work, planning my wedding and..... turning Primal!!!

Lets Rewind a bit first. Over the last couple of years I haven't felt myself, I haven't felt that healthy, I was becoming more and more stressed and anxious. I was getting rashes, dry skin, acne, dandruff, cramping stomach, bloating and hay fever off the charts, plus I gained like 20kgs in a year and a half.
I had had enough, and needed some help! A family friend put me onto a wonderful lady named Suzy who practised Tapping or EFT (Emotional Freedom Therapy/Techniques). Its a wonderful therapy that helped me at my breaking point of anxiety, body image issues and anything else I needed to nut out.
At the same time I went had my allergies tested by a Vega system, a non invasive way of checking for allergies, intolerances and sensitivities. I was given a print out of all the foods, preservatives, chemicals, dusts etc I should avoid. They also found that I had a high Candida count.
Candida is a yeast in your body, everyone has it, but when it gets out of hand it can cause a huge list of problems which you can read up more here and here. I was put on a Candida diet, for 2 months, basically no Caffiene, alcohol, foods containing mould (that in turn would add to the fungus already growing inside me) So mushrooms, blue cheese, packaged nuts. No sugar, no junk, preservatives etc etc. By the 3rd day I had such a headache, I was used to drinking at least 3 good cups of coffee a day (I was working as a Barista, so not much fun) but after that I just started to feel better, I started to drop a lot of weight, apparently the yeast has a biproduct it gives off making it very hard for you to lose weight. Lose the yeast, lose the weight. I started feeling marvelous and by the end of the 2 months, I was hay fever free...no bull. This was a hallelujah moment.
After the 2 months on the candida diet, I was to basically avoid all the foods that I was sensitive/Intolerant. The list includes; Wheat, Preservatives especially those in the 620's (MSG being 621) Preservative 220 (Found in Wine, and basically any foods that have a shelf life, 220 prevents mould growth) Chemicals especially Sodium Laurel Sulfate which you find in your Shampoo and other things, Cows milk and a few others. So I went on search for a diet that didn't involve my no-no foods.

And so I stumbled across the Paleo or Caveman diet. Basically eating as our cave man ancestors would have, before we learnt to grown and process wheat and other grains. I jumped in full throttle, dropped about 6kgs and felt awesome, but slowly slowly I started to incorporate no-no foods, til before I knew it I was eating out, drinking, snacking on preservative laden foods. Then Bam!!! Hay fever symptoms started again, rashes on my face, Candida was back, and a couple of kilos crept back on. Booooooo!!

Fast Forward to now, I have studied Naturopathy a year at the Southern School of Natural Therapies, and love it. I'm getting married and thinking about starting a family next year. So I want to get healthy, I want both myself and my fiance to be healthy. I'm now starting to listen to my body, and know which foods it really doesn't like, Wheat and grains being the number 1 no-no.

My friend referred me to a wonderful website www.marksdailyapple.com. Mark Sisson is the creator of the website and is an amazingly knowledgeable man. The lifestyle is the Primal Blueprint, like Paleo, but does allow a little bit of dairy and he even includes the types of exercise we should be doing, and this will shock you but its not an hour a day at the gym running your arse off on the treadmill (Shocking I know)

I'm now on day 4, I have cooked 4 recipes from his cookbook, they are all delish and easy to do. More importantly it's the best I have felt in ages. A couple of months ago I would of written half of this post and nodded off on the couch, now I cant keep up with my typing fingers.

I feel great, and life is good x x x x

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