Everyone is different and all foods can have different effects on people. When I first started my journey on a healthier lifestyle I didn’t know where to start. I did know that what you put into your body determines what your body can make, so I choose to start with nutrition. I started by slowly incorporating healthier foods into my diet. However, even with the addition of healthier foods I was still feeling sick.
I couldn’t figure out where I was going wrong. In research the more information you have the easier it is to solve the problem. I started logging everything I ate and including how I felt after eating it. Turns out my body does not do well with certain foods. I started removing the healthy foods that my body didn’t like and incorporating more that my body responded well to. To be honest, I drove my family nuts just about every week I was adjusting my diet to remove or add different foods. But with the help of my handy dandy food journal I now knew what foods caused me discomfort. Some of my problem foods are: dairy (cow), bananas, pork, oranges, and gluten to name a few.
The thought of never having ice cream, cheese and bread broke my heart. I knew I wouldn’t be able to eliminate everything at once so I took it one food at a time. I wasn’t ready to give up my cheese addiction. I started with gluten because that seemed to be the food my body hated most. I will be honest, it was really hard for the first few months. I dreamed about bread almost every night and I had never really been into bread before hand. The cravings got so bad that I even cheated twice, but it made me so sick that I decided my health and happiness were more important.
About three weeks into my gluten free lifestyle I removed dairy from the list. Dairy was tough. I had been vegan in the past and knew just how hard this was going to be, which is why I started with gluten. Looking back dairy was by far the hardest thing for me to give up. Even though I fought the transition I couldn’t argue with the results. I had made no other changes aside form nutrition and was consistently losing 2-3 pounds a week. My skin was clearing up, my color was evening out, I had less inflamation, and my digestive problems were becoming less and less.
My last big push was to remove pork and the remaining painful foods all together, mainly because I didn’t really eat them often. Almost all my cravings for sweets, breads, and bacon were gone after about 3 months. I have so much more energy and I rarely get sick. If and or when I do get sick now it lasts a day maybe two. For someone that a year ago felt like they were dying it is amazing to feel so good everyday. Every now and then I eat something I shouldn’t (it’s so hard to say no to bacon). Almost instantly I regret it because the food makes me super sick.
I challenge you to take the first step to a healthier you. Just start a food journal. Eat the way you normally do. However, this time write it down and how you feel after eating it. You maybe as surprised as I was to find out that your blood might have something to do with it. Be sure to read my blog on blood type diets! For an accurate opinion try doing your food journal first for a few weeks and then read up on the blood type diet.