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Reply With Quote***6/18/2011 update*** This is a good place to make my handy list of health improvements from eating real food - ones that I never expected.
Timeline -
2006 or 2007 - removed artificial colors, flavors, & preservatives
3/07 - skim to whole. removed cereal from breakfast, snacks, and lunch! went more and more Traditional Foods / Weston Price inspired eating
12/07 - added fermented cod liver oil.
12/26/07 - eliminated grains & sugar. Totally TF by this time, including broths & ferments whenever I remember.
3/08 - bout with sugar here and there
7/08 - 11/08 - increasing bouts with sugar
11/08 - started Radiant Recovery for sugar addiction
3/09 - detoxed from sugar except for very rare occasions, having sourdough whole wheat here and there.
2/10 - went primal, also removed potatoes & corn. Started losing weight. Occasional sugar bouts rare. Started barefooting it most of the time.
9/10 - began 8 months of GAPS TF gut-healing diet
2010 - started vitamin D, more frequent Mg, HCL supplementation
4/11 - began two months of weekend sugar binges, gained 10lb.
6/11 - began Leptin Reset
10/31/11 - LAST BINGE
12/11 - 100% eliminated gluten & dairy, sort of began CT
2/12 - began CT in earnest, began low dose natural ThyroGold
9/12 - began Naturethroid, struggling with cravings
- smoother skin on backs of arms and tops & sides of legs. This used to be serious chicken skin (keratosis pilaris - vit A deficiency) and improved dramatically around the time we started fCLO.
- smooth knees & elbows almost all the time. These used to be like sandpaper. fCLO
- I think I rarely itch anymore, unless I go off diet. No more random back, arm, head, ear, nose itches.
- Attack hiccups almost never occur anymore.
- gas eliminated when I stopped consuming unsoaked oats. Used to be chronic & mortifying
- gained at least 4 half steps on my vocal range and began to be able to sing in my head voice without headrush or breathiness for the first time in my life. Developed a sudden confusion as to whether I was really an alto or a soprano as I now have a three octave range and some repressed bitterness, lol, about the lost years where I loved to sing, but never had a useful instrument. The tone improved amazingly at this point, about three months after I removed grains & sugar from my diet on 12/26/07. I realized that the top part of my nasal passages have been clogged for decades, if not all my life, and I never knew it.
- began to be able to breathe through my nose while sleeping for the first time I can ever remember. Same time, around 3/08. I can feel it clog up again after long periods of commercial food (don't know whether it's grains, processed oils, or sugar, but suspect oils), or just a short period when I'm pregnant
- b/c of the previous, stopped having cracked and sometimes bleeding lips & mouth corners from extreme overnight dryness
- end to recently acquired sleep apnea (waking up gasping for breath after not breathing for IDK how long)
- occasional bad breath gone when I stopped sugar, I think the 3/09 time?
- nasty morning breath gone unless the cake returns
- started getting moons on my fingernails (other than thumbs) 5/11, after several months of intense HCl & mild B12 supplementation.
- the pimples I didn't start getting till I was 20 (around when the sugar addictxion started) only show up in times where something is clearly going on (very rare - don't yet know whether it's stress or being off on food that creates it, or both).
- not thinking about food 24/7, can easily forget to snack and can occasionally forget to eat!
- not me, but on the day we switched from skim to whole milk & removed boxed cereal from our diets, my 8, 5, & 2 year olds' cavities stopped dead in their tracks (even four abscesses froze in time, no more pain, no spreading, nothing) and none have gotten a single cavity since. Not one.
- heartburn seems to return only on consumption of seriously processed oils
- from 1/09 to 3/11, got my triglycerides under 100 and my HDL nearly doubled (IIRC).
- I think I stopped popping my fingers at some point. The reason I'm not sure is that I noticed myself doing it in April (after bad diet crept in) and have been doing it ever since, and noticing it. I don't think I noticed myself doing it for several years.
- brain fog, fatigue, bloating, several related problems have been heavy since about 6/06. I've recently seen several windows where these lifted, and the windows are coming a little closer together and lasting a little longer each time. These windows have also included waking up feeling well and alert for the first time since I can remember.
- much less susceptible to sunburn 6/11. Vit D? Less sugar? PUFA -> sat fats?
- almost no mosquito bites as of summer of 2010. Three of us used to get upwards of 20 per leg each time we went out on summer evenings.
- no longer getting poison ivy, even when intentionally rubbing my leg against a leaf, then a root, then a thick vine. Whoa!
- rarely catch what's going around, and when I do, it's like a pony version of the same thing, and it never goes through all seven of us, rarely more than two.
- heart rate & BP went up with sugar addiction; it's back down to 58 & 90/60.
- sugar binges brought palpitations, dizziness, chest pain, _____. All gone.
- night sweats brought on by either sugar or processed oils (thought it was the former; now I think the latter) gone.
- no more months-long battle with bronchitis every winter.
- little toe no longer crammed sideways (as it was even while barefoot).
- need to verify this with a second trial, but the first time I wore Merrell barefoot shoes hiking on a mountain was also the first time in 15 years that I didn't have hobbling knee pain on the way down the mountain.
- after five years of gaining weight, even while eating no sugar and a completely traditional foods diet, the day I stopped eating one serving of soaked/sprouted/soured grains per day, I started losing weight, and continued for the next year till 40lb were gone.
- soon will be able to cross legs easily again
- pimples were rare, but now they're gone
- I think I'm cracking my knuckles a lot less
- less TP.All problems in this area totally gone, even though I was known in my house as the worst in that department.
- during my most primal times, even brussels sprouts taste sweet to me. I have a real palate for real food now.
- most grain products taste like so much paste now. Most anything with HFCS or most other sweeteners taste like so much syrupy nastiness now. I used to think these foods were the pinnacle of delicious.
- can camp for days w/o showering, tooth brushing, etc., and ... NO FUNK AT ALL!!
- getting my chest cold (or lungs full of cold air) doesn't make me cough anymore
- have stopped needing frequent chapstick in the winter
- fragrances smell like chemicals and foods with vegetable oils smell stale to me now - much easier to "Avoid poisonous things"!
- never once had to get up to pee while pregnant (unlike the other four times)
- At 18 months, my baby isn't yet showing the tooth decay that affected the other four (each worse than the previous) as my nutrient-depleted body tried to make good milk, but couldn't. This baby, OTOH, is getting the good stuff after two good years of me working hard on restoring my nutrient stores.
- broke my previous labor record of 32hrs by 30 hours.
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I thought I could start by listing my most recent food days (where I did what I thought was right, but wasn't losing), and then today's food.
All meat, milk, eggs, & most cheese are from local, pastured farms. Milk & most cheese is raw. All dairy is whole. All oils are unrefined. Nearly all food is organic. Nearly all food is homemade from scratch.
PB-3 Days...
B - 3 eggs cooked in 1T coconut oil, 6oz milk, 1/4C black beans
L - 3oz turkey, 1oz cheese, 1oz chevre, 1/2C oatmeal, 1/2 apple
S - 1C yogurt with two packets of emergen-C (yes, it has fructose)
D - Pork chop, butternut squash bisque, salad
PB-2 Days...
B - 3 eggs, 1T coconut oil, 6oz milk, butternut bisque
L - 3oz cheese, "farmer's cheese" (soured raw milk drained of the whey), 2TB peanut butter + 1T 100% fruit raspberry jam, 1/2 slice of cinnamon-raisin Ezekiel bread
S - 1C Greek yogurt, 2 pkts Em-C, 1/3C oatmeal
D - grillades & grits (Cajun round steak dish w/ tomatoes & onions), salad. Butter in grits.
PB-1 Day...
B - 3 eggs, 1T CO, 2oz chevre, 1/2C oatmeal w/ berries (when I say 1/2C, I mean 1/2C prepared, not 1/2C before it's cooked)
L - broth from Grillades leftovers, leftover egg, date-orange stilton (from TJ's), bell pepper, 2oz turkey
S - 1C yogurt, tiny bit of Em-C, 1T butter just for kicks
D - Steak (from the ham) w/ mustard-maple marinade (very little maple), salad, bell pepper, mashed potatoes (sour cream, butter, milk)
TODAY - PB Day 1 !
B - 3 eggs, 1T CO, 2oz raw colby
All in good time...go at whatever pace works best for you.
