I’ve been wrestling with the same issue for years now. My will power, or more accurately the lack thereof… is pathetic. Having led a fairly healthy lifestyle for my entire life, i.e. no smoking and not much drinking, moderate exercise but perhaps not enough of it, you’d think it would be no big deal. Plenty of fruits and vegetables but also some of the crap, like chips and donuts and cakes and cookies and CHOCOLATE.
What I discovered a few years back, while dealing with chronic IBS type symptoms and bloat and headaches and muscle ache and anxiety and hypertension……… after doctor visits and naturopath visits and natural supplements and physical therapy and finally diet change…. was that the only thing that had a real effect.. was the diet change. I went gluten free and dairy free for the heck of it, cut out most sugar but not all, stopped eating processed foods for the most part… and within months MOST of my symptoms were gone or minimized greatly, plus.. I lost the extra 15 lbs I was lugging around. My blood pressure also dropped, a good thing, since I have hypertension.
Fast forward to today … I got lazy. I fell off the gluten free dairy free less-sugar diet. I do physical labor every day with the horses and farm work, etc. I still eat far less gluten, but I picked up the dairy again and occasionally snuck a little bit of a gluteny thing. I slacked some on the exercise and yoga. I gained back 20 LBS, not 15… and yesterday I picked up donuts from a new source that has THE BEST F_ING DONUTS YOU HAVE EVER DEVOURED…. and I caved and ate a few. *ahem. Then last night the guy and I went out.. and instead of ordering the salmon for dinner, I ordered a Reuben, because hell, already ruined it with the donuts, might as well go for the gold and get back to dieting tomorrow, right.
Well, tomorrow is today.. and I have such a gluten hangover from all that crap. I feel fatigued, anxious, like I’m coming down with the flu, my stomach hurts, my head is foggy, my muscles are sore. And yet some doctors still don’t believe that there is such thing as gluten sensitivity if you’re not a Celiac, which I am not.
What’s frustrating is that I KNOW what works, and yet PIZZA.
If you have struggled with any of the same issues, or conquered your bad eating choices and mastered better health, tell me how you did it, I really want to know.
