Post Whole30

We Made It!!

For the last 30 calendar days, the hubby and I have been following the Whole30 Diet. It's been an adventure of good food, bad food, sugar-withdrawals, and self-control. If you read on their website, the program is designed not as a weight-loss tool, but as a new way of seeing food and what you put into your body. Often, you will lose weight, but you gain so much more than that.

On Whole30, you are following strict paleo for 30 days. That means no

• grains
• diary
• added sugar/honey
• legumes (yes, peanut butter too)
• potatoes
• soy (it's in EVERYTHING)
• MSG/sulfites/other nasty things

Pretty much, you're left with fruits, vegetables, spices, and meat. It's really not as bad as it sounds, once you start getting into it. The first week was by far the hardest.

Learning what you were able to eat and what to avoid made grocery shopping take forever. I had to read every label to make sure there was no added sugar. We had to avoid things that I normally take for granted: ketchup, apple sauce, spaghetti sauce, dried cranberries, etc. We also had to avoid things cooked in peanut oil, or other mechanically expressed oils. (There's a lot more specific instructions on their site.) Once we figured out some basics, it was a lot easier.

We managed to only cheat on accident a few times during the whole month. We learned self-control enough to not cheat on purpose at all. I won't go into additional details, but now that we're finished, I'll tell you what we have from this experience:

1. Above all, self-control
2. Clean digestion and absorption
3. Release from sugar cravings
4. Weight loss (almost 11 lbs for me, and 10 for the hubby)
5. A greater understanding of what is in our food

After some discussion, we plan on maintaining a large part of the style of Whole30 spirit. Eat more fruits and veggies instead of snacking on processed foods, and have more fun with spices!

We missed the reintroduction part, but that's okay. We're planning on taking it pretty slow to start with, so we should be okay. Apparently you can get some nasty side effects if you go straight back into all the processed foods. I guess that says something about those foods. Anyway, it was an interesting experience, and I would definitely suggest anyone who is having health trouble or dietary issues to try it!

Healthy for the win!

As listed in my previous post, life over the last month has been a blur of pain, tests, X-Rays, and unanswered questions.

I got the most recent round of test results back on Friday afternoon, but they were all normal, so there were no answered offered. The most frustrating part of the whole process is that nothing like RA or PA can be ruled out by testing. It's a wait-and-see game that has to be played while everything else is ruled out in the mean time.

Since all the results were normal, I decided to try something else. My mom is sensitive to the fluoride that is added to tap water. When I looked up the symptoms, it seemed to fit almost exactly. I would post the website, but I can't seem to find it again...

Anyway, I stopped drinking the fluoridated tap water on Monday evening, and by the next morning, my hands weren't stiff any more. I didn't have any trouble brushing my teeth, buttoning pants, or holding my coffee cup. There was still a small amount of pain, but it was mostly just an uncomfortable soreness rather than actual pain. So I continued drinking spring water (instead of tap).

By Tuesday, the pain had dropped by 90%. Still no soreness, and I had more energy during the day. Each day, my joint pain lessens and my energy bounces back to where it should be. It's Saturday now, and I'm working on full detox mode. I'm trying to avoid high fluoride foods and drinks, fluoridated toothpaste, and definitely tap water.

Apparently, the county in which we live has a relatively high tolerance for fluoride in the municipal water system. I looked it up and did some calculations based on the fluoride content, the amount of water I was drinking, and my body weight. The final figure was that I was getting about 4 times the amount of fluoride that is normally considered toxic for someone who is sensitive.

While I am not back to 100%, I really have no complaints. Coming off fluoride seems to be a significant leap forward for me. I pray that this will be the answer that will keep me healthy for a long period of time. I'm even off the prednisone that I was prescribed.