“What Foods Can I Eat?”
By, Nancy Alexander
Maybe we Better Talk About What I Cannot Eat…
Yes, I know! That is what everyone is wanting to know! I get questions and emails all the time. What can you eat? How did you do it? How in the world did you lose over 110 pounds? Since I have already started a series on Fibromyalgia, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about what foods I do not eat because this plays such an important part of my Fibromyalgia CURE!
Okay…. okay, I’ll admit it. At first this new way of eating was HARD! I thought I could not do it. I wondered what I would be able to eat. Nothing? Well, that’s what I thought as it is what you are probably thinking too! But… OH MY GOSH! This has changed my life! Well, God has changed my life through my new “healthy” life style and through the marvelous doctors my husband and I found who knew immediately what was killing me (yes, you did hear me right), and who knew what immediate and major changes I needed to make in the foods I ate .
You see, as I said before, I have Celiac disease, and that is what caused my Fibromyalgia. I don’t know if any of you know exactly what Celiac disease is, but it is a severe allergy to many – well – most of the foods I was eating. As I kept eating these foods, I got sicker and sicker!
Celiac affects the large intestines. There are little extensions on the inside wall of your intestines which are called “Villi”. These villi stick out and move around to grab hold of and absorb fat, vitamins, nutrients, and minerals from the foods you consume. With Celiac, these villi are flat against the wall of the intestines and therefore do not absorb any of the nutrients you need to survive – to be healthy – to flourish. I was hardly surviving, and I certainly was not healthy or flourishing in any way, shape, form, or fashion.
But, Thank You Lord! I am healthy, and I am starting to flourish at the “young” age of 60…feeling better than I have felt since I was 29 years old! And, it is all because of what I eat (and some natural supplements I’ll talk about later). I am going to go over the foods I eat with you today, and then in another post, I’ll delve more into details.
First of all, these are the foods that I COULD NOT eat when I started this new lifestyle!
NO Gluten (wheat, barley, oats, Aramanth and glue on envelopes – don’t lick it!)
NO Lactose (milk, cheese, yogurt)
NO Soy (soy is in everything… even coating some of the medicines you take)
NO Dairy
NO Canned Foods
NO Processed Foods
NO MSG
NO Sugar
NO Eggs
NO Tomatoes – or only very little
I have now been eating this way for over 5 years. I have been able to add back some dairy, like cheese on salads, and sometimes in a casserole, or even in gluten free pizzas. I have now added back an egg for breakfast every morning. Before the diet, I had a stomach ache every morning of my life. I didn’t know it was from eggs until I left them off…
I do eat bread every day, but it is bread that I make in my $10.00 yard sale bread machine. Pamela’s bread mix which is made from rice flour. I buy this from Amazon and make it a couple of days a week — because my husband is now wheat free also. (His arthritis got better when he left off wheat.) I eat pasta, macaroni, spaghetti, etc. made from rice flour also. If you were to come to dinner at my house, you would not know that you were eating gluten-free! We can eat pizza which I make using Kinnikinnick gluten free or Udi’s gluten free pizza crust.
I will probably NEVER eat soy again! Turns out it made me VERY sick. This really didn’t show up until I had been off gluten for a month or so. That’s okay…. I truly can live without gluten and soy for the rest of my life — more than happy to, as a matter of fact! With some of these other foods, I sneak a little every now and then, and although I don’t feel great afterwards, but I am not deathly ill.
If you have this, or even think you have this, try eating as healthy, natural, and organically as possible. This was not a disease, or even a problem 100 years ago. Do you know why? They didn’t have all of these chemicals, preservatives, and insecticides in their foods then. A good rule of thumb is; if you couldn’t find that food 100 years ago… then don’t eat it now! Simple, huh?
The weight loss? Well, obviously I was overweight from being sick for so long. I didn’t change my way of eating to loose weight. I changed my way of eating to be happy and healthy and to be able to enjoy my life and my family again. The weight loss was a plus…. an amazing plus! I love being a size 8 petite!
There is a scrolling bar from Amazon in the left side bar of my blog. I have picked out some of the products I purchase which I have found to be very good. You can click on them, and it will take you to Amazon if you want to check them out.
Until next time…. think healthy, happy, and be very grateful that you have a chance to change your health and your body just as I did!
Blessings & Smiles… Nancy
