First, straight out of the shoot, I have to tell you I am an animal lover and an animal eater and that is what I have always been.....I was brought up on good ol' southern values and good ol' southern cooking. You had your meat, starches and veggies with some tea and bread. And that was good eaten! And likely, that is the very idea that landed me where I was healthwise.
A little health back ground......
My eating habits have never been what most consider "normal". When I turned 7, I all the sudden had these very severe food allergies. At the time the doctors basically said they did not know why I developed these life threatening allergies out of the blue. (which has always puzzled me, how could they have absolutely no idea? But then again, Medical Freak could have been my middle name!) I had two typed pages of foods that I could no longer eat. It was strange to say the least and it made for some interesting birthday parties...(I could not have flour, eggs, milk...you know the yummy stuff that is in all birthday goodies!) But as we all do, you adapt. My mom changed how we ate some what and we moved on. As I got older, the allergies became a little less severe, but they never fully went away as the allergist said they would. I always dealt with them in some way or another.
I have had my appendix removed when I was 24.
I was in the ER with what I was certain was a gallbladder attack at the age of 34. I did not have gallbladder stones so I was promptly sent home without further investigation.
Fast forward to last year.....
I got really sick in 2012. With what though? That is still debatable. All the sudden I was exhausted in ways I have never been exhausted before. I live a fast paced life, as most of you would expect with a million and one kids, a job, and a lovely husband, but this was no normal wear and tear. I was almost paralyzed with exhaustion that stopped me from living my life practically. I would feel sick, but never actually come down with anything. (you know how you feel when you are about to get a cold or something similar, but I felt that way all the time) And seemingly out of the blue as well, I began to get terrible migraines. I had never had a migraine in my life, nor was I someone that dealt with frequent headaches. (lucky duck, yeah I know) But now it was an almost daily issue. What the heck was wrong with me?
I went to my general doctor and he ran about a million and one blood tests. And the only thing that he could find was that I had Mono about 3 months ago. That fit and it did not fit. It explained some of the symptoms but did not explain why I felt worse as time went on instead of better. He told me either I was depressed (oh, you just wait...my blog/rant on how easily doctors treat so called depression without much cause & why I think only psychiatrist should be able to prescribe these meds is coming= stay tuned!) or I was getting over Mono. He sent me packing with an ADHD med script for energy and what felt like a kick in the pants.
Then, here I was again, rolling around in such severe pain, I was sweating. The so called "not a gallbladder attack" pain was back. This time the hospital took me a little more seriously. They admitted me. I spent the entire weekend in the hospital on heavy pain meds while they found nothing. Seriously? From then on I really could not eat without pain.
I went to a gastrologist about a week later. She reviewed the hospital tests and told me again she did not think it was my gallbladder either. She basically told me she thought my intestines had the flu. (did you know that was possible? Nope, me either) I asked how that explained the same thing happening about a year earlier. I got that blank stare which told me she really did not know either. She wanted to do about a million dollars worth of painful tests, I decided just not eating was easier.
Okay, now we have reached the vegan part of this blog. (about time huh? Blame my Daddy, he is long winded & I think it is genetic)
I went without eating for a while but that really was not solving all the issues. I still dealt with the migraines almost daily and my digestive pain was still there. I had pretty much stopped eating meat during this time. Still the issues persisted. Then I came across someone talking about eating vegan and BAM! LIGHT BULB went on! It is very possible all these food/digestion issues are all tied back into some strange type of food allergy. It is really the only possibility that made sense as I kept thinking about it. Maybe any other issue I had (gallbladder pain) was derived from this allergy. Why not try to eat vegan and see what happens?
Thus began my vegan journey. Now, ***disclaimer*** I do not claim to be a vegan expert. I am a vegan beginner. I do not eat meat, which is really not an issue. I hadn't been eating meat for quite some time. But now I also do not eat meat by products either. So that means no eggs, milk, cheese, butter, and a million other things I am still learning. It really is not that hard, especially when you have kind of been beaten up by food or your body's reaction to food already. The incentive is there to make it work. But, I have not been perfect by any means. Which I think is likely the beginning stages when you are changing your life's eating habits.
The first couple of weeks were tough. I was still so dang tired! And my stomach/digestive track still hurt but I could tell the pain was lessening daily. So, thanks to the power of Google, I figured out I was not eating enough of some foods, thus the - you want to workout, yeah we aren't doing that, sorry no energy, try again later - internal conversations. But as time went on, it all got easier.
The best thing was, I could eat. And eventually I had no pain. And what do you know, my migraines have reduced to almost nothing as well!
I am not only doing the vegan lifestyle, I am also going completely gluten free. Our lives have already been gluten free, for the most part. At home, I guess I should say, we are gluten free due to my kids having Celiac Disease. But when away, stupid me would play with flour! I would roll around in gluten filled yumminess. Okay, maybe I would not stray that wildly but you get the picture. We have determined my Scottish genetics is where the girls get their gluten allergy/intolerance from so it makes sense that gluten likely affects me in some way as well. We have wondered if my migraines were from a gluten sensitivity. (mostly because when my daughters were so sick with celiac, before we knew, they both complained almost daily about terrible headaches) And since I have changed my life to vegan & gluten free, my head is almost my own again. (migraines steal your head & turn it into a place you no longer want to be....doubt me, live with daily migraines. You will do almost anything to make it stop.) I say almost because I am not a 100% migraine free yet, although I do believe that is coming...my body has to heal itself first.
It is all working....I feel good, I feel healthy, I am living my life again.
This is how I solved my problem. I am not saying it is the answer for everyone. And it is not like my house has gone vegan. My teenage son would likely pass out if you told him there was not another whaterburger #1 in his immediate future. But it is working for me. I think too often we accept what people say about our health and just stay in the same unhealthy place. Keep looking, your answer could be just a click away......
So, what do I eat....that is the question I get a lot.....
The Morning Star spicy bean burger patty is the best thing I have possibly ever eaten..well maybe not the very best but you know, it's pretty dang good! Of course I eat fruits & veggies...salad with vinaigrette & all the veggies I can get in it with some kidney beans, Naked Juice in the AM, potato tacos on corn tortillas, hot sauce & corn chips, Larabars, rice, Chinese all veggie plates, GF pasta with tomato sauce.....I could go on and on....there are a lot of recipes on the net. (stay away from the vegan cookies...talk about YUCK! At least I have yet to find one that was actually consumable) But just so you know, I eat more than I ever did before "the change". And my body is changing...
Tackled vegan & gluten....what's next??
Just another day in paradise.....
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