In late 2013/early 2014 I learned about how all of these symptoms relate to inflammation from my friend Stephanie (Louden) Townsend. On the blog "Mind. Body. Green.", Shelley Malone explains inflammation:
"Simply put, inflammation is the immune system’s response to a stimulus that is viewed as foreign or toxic to your body (aka an antigen).
Your immune system constantly monitors for anything that appears as a foreign intruder (like an infectious bacteria or other material) that shouldn’t be in the body and is always at the ready to signal its highly specialized troops of cells and molecules to attack and dispose of the foreign material.
It is an essential part of healing in acute conditions (e.g., a fever fighting an infection). However, when your immune system is disrupted, it puts itself unnecessarily on constant defense, sending inflammation continually rippling throughout your body. In this state, it’s working against you, instead of for you, by switching focus from the antigen it’s supposed to attack and instead launching a targeted strike on your own cells, tissues, or other harmless material."
Here's the bottom line: 60-80% of your immune system is determined by the health of your gut. The food you eat impacts your gut, and your gut impacts your immune system. A consistent diet of inflammatory foods triggers the immune system into chronic inflammation (which causes unpleasant symptoms and ultimately disease). Conversely, a diet of anti-inflammatory foods protects the immune system so it can do its job only when needed. This is not new news! Hippocrates said that "all disease starts in the gut" back in 460-370 BC! Stephanie encouraged me to do the Whole 30 and gave me some suggestions to ease back into an exercise routine. She mentioned that my asthma, eczema, and allergies would all likely be helped as well. Inflammation fuels that triad (as it is called in the healthcare world) as well.
I cannot tell you how many times I started the Whole 30...and never finished it. Or how many times I started a 10-week exercise program only to make it two weeks. I have honestly lost count. I ask myself time and time again why I continued to live this way instead of doing what I knew my body needed. But I can't live looking in the rear view mirror anymore. So here I go again...
So what is different this time? While I have been slender to average build for most of my life, I just hit my highest weight ever, bringing me a BMI of 31, taking me from the overweight to the obese category. I am now 40 pounds away from a healthy BMI. And I am SO TIRED. I am thinking about taking a nap 100% of the time. I used to have periods of energy...now I have none. However, that does not stop the insomnia. I lay there at night unable to sleep, but so so exhausted. The headaches are getting more frequent. And the brain fog and forgetfulness affect every facet of my life. The mood swings...not fair to my family! I want to be really clear: this is not an "oh poor me blog". I want to be descriptive because I know so many of you experience the same things. And I want to share this journey with you. IT IS TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE.
Thankfully I have some tools in my tool belt already:
- Wildtree: Freezer Meal Workshops have helped us to eat healthy dinners for over three years. However, my problems have been breakfast on the run, sugary coffee drinks, and snacks, snacks, snacks. Lucky for me, Wildtree has solutions for these too...and I am finally going to start utilizing them.
- Breakthrough Health and Wellness "Boot Camp Hub": These 20-30 minute living room workouts have worked well for me in the past...just need to get rolling again.
- Friends!!!: Many have gone on this journey before me - Wes, Stephanie, Jennifer, Hannah, Ashley, Christen, Danelle, Teegan, Julia, Whitney (click here to read about her journey), Heather, Jessica, Brenda...and so many more. I need to lean on them.
So what exactly am I going to do this time around?
- Eliminate gluten, dairy, soy, and sugar
- Limit corn (pretty much only going to consume it if it is in a Wildtree product)
- Start exercising three days a week
- Drink lots and lots and lots of water
- Keep up with my multi-strain refridgerated pro-biotic
- Click here for other great Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle tips from Shelley Malone
I will do my best to chronical my journey here. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ME. January 2 will be Day 1 for me (I would be setting myself up for failure if I committed before my 30th birthday this week).
READY. SET. GO.
