Listen to your body. Eat what you can digest.

I was told this over and over by my dad, mom, and doctor. Listen to you body and eat what you can digest. I was confused and upset by how my body was responding to foods I know I should not be eating. I was able to tolerate the consequences at one point. A little gas or indigestion never really bothered me that much. Neither did the sluggish tired feeling I would get after eating a plate full of fats, carbs, and proteins. We even gave it a name. The "itis."  I think a lot of us just go on about our business eating this and that without really paying attention to how we feel after a meal. As a matter of fact, I can now tell after a couple of bites if a food is going to be a problem. I have gotten so sensitive to certain foods. Its amazing. Maybe I am just in tuned with my body. I have trained myself to pay attention to me and how I feel after I eat. Food diaries are amazing. I credit the habit of using them to how I have grown in this area. Most of us eat unconsciously. We eat foods because it tastes good or it makes us feel good emotionally instead of for nutriant purposes. Chocolate used to make me feel good but now it makes me sick. Literally. I get nauseas after a few minutes of taking a couple of bites. I blame this odd situation on genetics.

Get to know your body. It could save your life.

MY STORY:

I think it is very important to pay attention to yourself. Pay attention to your feelings, emotions, ailments, and what you put in your body. Also pay attention to what you put on your body as well. I had to learn this the hard way. I ignored myself for so long that all my negative emotions, feelings, ailments and all the bad food I was eating became normal. Stomach aches, dizziness and pain was my norm. I would get sick and instead of changing my life style, I kept putting a bandage on the problem. If it was stomach problems, I would take medicine. If it was emotional problems, I would pray. Which is a good thing but you also have to do your part and change the way you think. There were periods in my life that medication resulted from stress or too many negative emotions. If it was an ailment such as a headache, muscle pain, muscle fatigue, dizziness, or consistent itchy dry skin then any medicine or lotions were my resolutions.  When problems arrive from living that kind of life, I would end up going to get medicines or band aids for problems instead of changing my lifestyle.

Getting to know your body requires slowing down a bit. Take notice of how you feel at any given moment. Assess and resolve it with change of thought, behavior or food. I was always making excuses for how I felt instead of looking for a resolution. I would eat something with dairy in it and feel horrible afterwards, but I would tell myself it was worth it. It was good. Sometimes discomfort from eating the wrong foods would last for almost a week. Even after discovering that I had food intolerances, I did not want to change the way I ate. I did not listen to my body until eating foods that I knew I could not digest sent me to the doctor office numerous times. I even had a couple of visits to the emergency room from the stress of it all. Remember stress can kill. Also eating foods you can not digest or processed foods can causes all types of ailments even disease. After almost being ill for half a year with doctors trying to figure out what was wrong, I decided to take my health into my own hands. Of course I was sent home with a general diagnosis. I have Gerd and IBS. I was given prescriptions to mask the symptoms. I did not take them because I had a strong gut feeling that changing my diet was all I needed to do. My  gastroenologist told me I inherited my stomach digestive issues and to just deal with it. So I decided to get to know my body, something I never learned to do. I did a lot of praying and asking for God's guidance on what I should eat.

After doing tons of research on the digestive system, mind gut relationship studies, Ayurveda, food intolerances vs. food allergies, different diets, and Yoga, I learned a great deal. I found out so many interesting things. I found a whole new way of living. A Holistic way. I learned what I could and could not eat. I learned how to deal with stress properly. I learned that stress has everything to do with my digestive system and health as a whole. Basically I learned a whole new way of living and I think it saved my life.

Update: Trying to perfect vegan baking and cooking

So recently I decided I needed to perfect my vegan baking skills. I learned how to make a lot of vegan baking recipes in the beginning of my journey but that was when I could consume wheat and soy without getting sick. Now, its like I have to learn baking all over again. Being a vegan who can not consume wheat/gluten, soy, corn, certain veggies and certain legumes, cooking is a challenge. I need to talk to a dietitian.

Gluten and Soy free vegan baking has become an obsession of mine this past week. I will get this down pack and come out with a banging cookbook before this year is out. Anyway I have been trying to perfect a gluten,soy, and corn free vegan cup cake. I'm almost there. Cooking vegan with all my limitations is actually a lot of fun. This is the total opposite of how I felt last year when I could no longer eat wheat, soy, and corn. I come up with so many spur of the moment recipes when I am cooking for myself. My imagination runs wild. Creating and recreating yummy dishes that I think of or get inspired by from pin interest. Here are some of the things I made last week.

Strawberry pancakes with banana ice cream

Gf Sf Vegan cupcake with avocado icing and strawberry pecans toppings

Yummy Walnut butter rice balls

Recipes soon to follow.

OOPs I did it again. Let me share...........

Lately I have been experiencing quite a bit of discomfort in my stomach and horrible constipation for about a month. What did I change? Oh well, I have just been having a good ol time eating meat. I was eating about 95% vegetarian. I put chicken and fish back into to my diet long ago. I guess I got a little to happy because, as I was introducing more foods back into my diet, I was noticing that I was not reacting to these foods like I was before. I could now eat spaghetti sauce, ketchup, and have a small amount of black pepper with out indigestion. Whooo hooo! Oh how I've missed ketchup.

So one day, I decided that I was going to have me a hamburger from In-N-Out without out the bun of course. Yum that was good. Next week, another burger, and then some how after that I ended up eating another burger. I had beef about 3 or 4 times in the month of December all the while eating chicken too.

Really, me??? No wonder I'm having problems. I didn't even ease beef back into my diet. I shoved it in. Chicken+ Beef= Constipation. So I am trying to undo the stress I have caused my digestive system. I am still not there yet. My doctor told me to just go back to the diet I had before. I agree 100%. A diet that is 90% to 95% vegetarian is what works for me.

Why are my favorite products getting discontinued...

My all time favorite ice cream was discontinued. Sprouts took my corn free baking powder (by Hain) and vegetable shortening (by Spectrum) off the shelf. My freaking Artisana Raw walnut butter is now being discontinued. WTH! So lately my baking is jacked up and so is my homemade ice cream. Whhhyyyyyyyyyy?????????????

Sorry but I had to rant a little. I know I can just get the baking powder off line but still. I liked having my favorite items right down the road. As far the ice cream goes, I need to find a good rice ice cream recipe. Or write Rice Dream and tell them to start making that Neapolitan flavored rice ice cream again!

So my only option is to make like a mad scientist and make my own walnut butter, rice ice cream, and find a class on gluten free, soy free, dairy, and corn free baking.

Any suggestions?

HAPPY NEW HEALTHY YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

Pray all is well with whom ever reads this. May God bless you with a happy healthy new year!

Food Intolerances are hereditary

First off, Happy Holidays
I'm up this morning with extreme gas and gas pains. I have been having a little bit of unbalance in my gut since last Friday I think. It could have began after eating black eye peas for dinner. I have not got back into strictly recording all food and drinks I consume. I stoped doing that a while ago. My food diary has been taken out of my purse and put somewhere. It looks like I need to start recording again. Something has definetely got my gut all out of whack. Excess gas and fatigue everyday since sometime last week is a good enough warning that whatever one or few foods I am consuming is not digesting properly even with me taking my probiotics.

After talking with my dad yesterday, I found out he and I were going through stomach trouble on the same day. He is having a hard time changing his diet to fit his digestion needs. He also can not eat corn, wheat, and dairy without having digestion problems. Other foods we both have trouble digesting are salads, cucumbers and processed foods. He knows which foods are connected to his digestion problems yet he keeps consuming them. This is the mindset I have been in all my life and finally changed this year. So I will continue to encourage him, with the same words he encourage me with. " Eat what you can digest." We also talked about how my grandmother, his mom, had a very sensitive stomach. So I am sure this thing is hereditary and like my gastroentiologist said to me, I have to learn to live with it. I am doing just that with a few set backs. I need to become more disciplined and start recorded in my food diary again. It really helps when you need to pinpoint or narrow down a problem causing food.

I encourage those of you who have food intolerances to learn as much about food intolerances as you can. Doctors only pay attention to food allergies. You have to be your own food intolerance advocate. Talk with your relatives about you food intolerances because it is hereditary. I thought I was alone in this, but now I know its just how I was designed. I was designed to eat as close to earth as possible. A whole food diet. I feel my best and keep a healthy steady weight when I eat high amount of vegetables, especially greens. My second high intake is gluten free grains such as brown rice, sorghum and quinoa. I like organic eggs as my protein. A low meat consumption is best for me. I eat meats like chicken, salmon and some beef. I try to buy organic foods as much as possible.