No shame. Melanzana (eggplant) panini One of my followers has asked me to talk a bit about my diet as it is today. KS, 28 from New Jersey writes, "How odd that you had no symptoms in Italy. Can you post what your diet is like now? Sugar is the worst for me too. I need to be off of it for 6 months too."
To address your comment about Italy- I have to say I had mixed feelings about it myself. While I wasn't entirely surprised that I was symptom-free in Italy, it definitely got me thinking about the food we eat here in the States vs. the food they eat over there. I've had a number of conversations with different people who have all kinds of sensitivities or allergies and have found that they manage to travel and eat their reactive foods without being symptomatic. It has a lot to do with how processed, genetically modified, and hybridized our food is here in the U.S. It's not like that in many other countries- Italy included. Just a fun fact and food for thought: If farmers are caught growing genetically modified crops in the Tuscany region of Italy, they face either 5 years in prison or a fine of 50,000 Euros. That's $67,000 USD. And yet, Americans are working tirelessly just to get GM foods LABELED in our country. What do these countries know that we don't? I posed this question on my Twitter and one of my followers stated in response: "That the health of your citizens is more important than wealth or politics." This person hit the nail on the head. I couldn't have said it better, myself.
To address your comment about Italy- I have to say I had mixed feelings about it myself. While I wasn't entirely surprised that I was symptom-free in Italy, it definitely got me thinking about the food we eat here in the States vs. the food they eat over there. I've had a number of conversations with different people who have all kinds of sensitivities or allergies and have found that they manage to travel and eat their reactive foods without being symptomatic. It has a lot to do with how processed, genetically modified, and hybridized our food is here in the U.S. It's not like that in many other countries- Italy included. Just a fun fact and food for thought: If farmers are caught growing genetically modified crops in the Tuscany region of Italy, they face either 5 years in prison or a fine of 50,000 Euros. That's $67,000 USD. And yet, Americans are working tirelessly just to get GM foods LABELED in our country. What do these countries know that we don't? I posed this question on my Twitter and one of my followers stated in response: "That the health of your citizens is more important than wealth or politics." This person hit the nail on the head. I couldn't have said it better, myself.
Pizza in Assisi If you've read the "My Story" page of my site, you know how limited I was in the beginning of my health journey. A month into the process I reintroduced the dairy products that I was allowed to have: organic cow's milk, cottage cheese, and plain yogurt. Three months into the process, I began reintroducing my moderately-reactive foods and food chemicals. Some of these foods and food chemicals included: dill, garlic, black pepper, grapes, lettuce, corn, cinnamon, raspberries, strawberries, spinach, eggplant, white potato, cucumber, beets, tea, maple, cocoa, honey, coffee, and candida albicans. Shortly after this reintroduction, I had to begin reintroducing my highly-reactive foods in preparation for my Italy trip. For those of you who aren't familiar with the LEAP MRT protocol, I'm technically not supposed to reintroduce my highly-reactive foods for six months, which would actually be in September. I had to practice eating some of the foods (in extreme moderation) that I would be eating in Italy. The highly-reactive foods and food chemicals I reintroduced included cane sugar, mushrooms, peppers, tomato, and lecithin. I also reintroduced untested foods, which is something I wouldn't do until the six month mark, as well. The untested foods I reintroduced were mozzarella cheese and Romano cheese. I tolerated all these foods fairly well. I also made sure that all of these foods were organic, of course. The initial plan was to avoid wheat altogether in Italy. I was told my by nutritionist that, "wheat is an entirely different story. People with celiac can test low-reactive to wheat and you tested highly-reactive to it, which goes to show just how sensitive you are to wheat." If you followed my travel blog, you know that this plan went out the window after I arrived in Milan as a ravenous, famished, and weary human in search of anything I could put in my mouth. I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours. I couldn't eat the plane food, not like I even wanted to though.
As I've said many times, I got through my trip symptom-free and it was the BEST two weeks of my life. Once I returned home, I knew I had to make some changes to my diet, as there was NO way I could continue to eat "whatever I wanted." Unfortunately, I didn't readjust as quickly as I should have. Not to mention, I had accidentally thought some of the foods I was eating were my moderately-reactive foods when in fact, they were highly-reactive. I continued to eat peppers, lecithin (used as an emulsifier) and I knowingly, regrettably had sugar a few weeks ago. To see how that went you can read through my "Sinfully Sweet" blog post if you haven't already. If all had gone as I wanted it to, I would be eating my low and moderately-reactive foods without an issue. Since I essentially screwed myself, I am now back to the drawing board. I recently had an appointment with my nutritionist and we agreed that I should only be eating my low-reactive foods for now, just to see if I end up noticing a difference in the way I feel. Back to the drawing board means back to what I was doing 5 months ago. Except this time, I don't have to detox in the way that I did before. Thankfully that cave-in with the sugar wasn't an everyday occurrence. When I first had to come off of everything, sugar included, I endured the most physically awful 3 weeks of my life. I had a whole lifetime of sugar addiction to give up and honest to God, I never thought it would be as difficult as it was. It goes to show, we don't really understand how toxic sugar is until we have to eliminate it from our diet. This is especially true for those of us known for our sweet tooth. In my case, my mouth was full of them.
To get back to my follower in New Jersey, she also shares: I relate to everything you talk about. My whole family thinks the symptoms are in my head. I sent a link to your blog to them to explain how I feel daily. I also did mrt testing and I am on day 8 still not feeling well. I cheated a little and had some goat cheese and feta this week rationalizing that my cow milk score was .2 , goat milk score was .6 but then I realized that my whey score was 1.7 which means I should not have had it plus neither is a tested food. Also fructose was moderately reactive and I had 1/2 tsp of honey two days in a row, 2 cups of smoothie with mango, blueberries, coconut water and pulp which is also apparently high in fructose....so I probably derailed progress and now have to extend phase 1. I so hope I get better too.
I don't know what all your specific symptoms are, but I promise, your body knows best. Your body is smarter than you think- it tells you when it's mad at you, when you've neglected it, and when something is flat out wrong. I have to reassure you, you're not supposed to feel like a million bucks by day 8. For all I know, day 8 could have been one of my worst days. Phase one lasted a month for me. There is no time-limit on how we get through this to get to the other side and have our health. The LEAP MRT phases serve as a map for your journey. They are not set in stone. If phase one takes you two months, then it takes you two months. I'm not saying that it will by any means, I'm just stating that to reassure you that you are not somehow "behind" or "off-schedule." I will tell you, though, that there is no wiggle room with untested foods or even foods you're moderately-sensitive to during this process if your goal is to feel good and be symptom-free.
My nutritionist has this way with words- she always has the BEST analogies. I wish I could take credit for what I'm about to say, but, Deb- this one is for you...with a little Meag-twist. Let's pretend you have a broken foot and have to put it in an air cast for X amount of time (let's say 6 months) so that it can heal. If you went to your doctor even one month into that healing process and said, "my friends are going out this weekend, I'm going with them, and I just want to dance," your doctor would most likely not give you the green light to toss the boot and break it down on the floor that weekend. We know this because any healing you've done in that past month would be compromised the second you begin to pop, lock, and drop it. You may even end up doing more damage to your injury and wind up suffering additional consequences- including more time in the boot. Simply put, consider your symptoms to be evidence of an injury and the culprit of it all was food. Nurture your injury and allow yourself to heal. You'll be thankful that you did.
We're all human, we make mistakes. I've done it too. But as I've stated in this blog post, I'm about 5 1/2 months into this process and I need to reboot my system based on some foolish decisions I made. I could beat myself up over it and be disappointed in myself, but we know that this, too, is counterproductive. Instead, I have to pick myself up, reboot, and learn from my poor judgement. Just know that your health journey is worth it. I haven't been feeling 100% lately, but I am 100% looking forward to *that* day in the next few weeks where I'm able to say, "yes, this is what it feels like to be in a good place again. Why'd I compromise this in the first place?" When you have *that* day, you'll totally understand what I'm saying. It's a GREAT day. My biggest and best piece of advice for you, KS, is to stick to your low-reactive foods and only reintroduce when the time is right. Also, try not to rationalize. I've done it too and it definitely didn't help me. "I'm gonna put scallions in my scrambled eggs because I can have onions and well, potato-potahto." Scallions aren't onions, nor are they tested. See what I'm saying? Try to imagine that you will feel better much sooner if you stick to what you know you CAN have. Consider all untested foods right up there with your highly-reactive foods. They are that off-limits. You will feel better. It takes time. Time is annoying as hell when you just want to feel better, but if you want it badly enough, you'll accept time for what it is. Trust the process, it's not a race- it's a journey. Journeys come with bumps, detours, turn-arounds, and the best- reaching your destination. Also know that once you've reached your destination (achieving better health) it's up to you everyday to maintain your health. It's worth it.
I hope that what I've shared here has helped, KS. Please check out The Sensitive Life Facebook page, Twitter, and Pinterest for additional support, resources, and valuable information. :)
I don't know what all your specific symptoms are, but I promise, your body knows best. Your body is smarter than you think- it tells you when it's mad at you, when you've neglected it, and when something is flat out wrong. I have to reassure you, you're not supposed to feel like a million bucks by day 8. For all I know, day 8 could have been one of my worst days. Phase one lasted a month for me. There is no time-limit on how we get through this to get to the other side and have our health. The LEAP MRT phases serve as a map for your journey. They are not set in stone. If phase one takes you two months, then it takes you two months. I'm not saying that it will by any means, I'm just stating that to reassure you that you are not somehow "behind" or "off-schedule." I will tell you, though, that there is no wiggle room with untested foods or even foods you're moderately-sensitive to during this process if your goal is to feel good and be symptom-free.
My nutritionist has this way with words- she always has the BEST analogies. I wish I could take credit for what I'm about to say, but, Deb- this one is for you...with a little Meag-twist. Let's pretend you have a broken foot and have to put it in an air cast for X amount of time (let's say 6 months) so that it can heal. If you went to your doctor even one month into that healing process and said, "my friends are going out this weekend, I'm going with them, and I just want to dance," your doctor would most likely not give you the green light to toss the boot and break it down on the floor that weekend. We know this because any healing you've done in that past month would be compromised the second you begin to pop, lock, and drop it. You may even end up doing more damage to your injury and wind up suffering additional consequences- including more time in the boot. Simply put, consider your symptoms to be evidence of an injury and the culprit of it all was food. Nurture your injury and allow yourself to heal. You'll be thankful that you did.
We're all human, we make mistakes. I've done it too. But as I've stated in this blog post, I'm about 5 1/2 months into this process and I need to reboot my system based on some foolish decisions I made. I could beat myself up over it and be disappointed in myself, but we know that this, too, is counterproductive. Instead, I have to pick myself up, reboot, and learn from my poor judgement. Just know that your health journey is worth it. I haven't been feeling 100% lately, but I am 100% looking forward to *that* day in the next few weeks where I'm able to say, "yes, this is what it feels like to be in a good place again. Why'd I compromise this in the first place?" When you have *that* day, you'll totally understand what I'm saying. It's a GREAT day. My biggest and best piece of advice for you, KS, is to stick to your low-reactive foods and only reintroduce when the time is right. Also, try not to rationalize. I've done it too and it definitely didn't help me. "I'm gonna put scallions in my scrambled eggs because I can have onions and well, potato-potahto." Scallions aren't onions, nor are they tested. See what I'm saying? Try to imagine that you will feel better much sooner if you stick to what you know you CAN have. Consider all untested foods right up there with your highly-reactive foods. They are that off-limits. You will feel better. It takes time. Time is annoying as hell when you just want to feel better, but if you want it badly enough, you'll accept time for what it is. Trust the process, it's not a race- it's a journey. Journeys come with bumps, detours, turn-arounds, and the best- reaching your destination. Also know that once you've reached your destination (achieving better health) it's up to you everyday to maintain your health. It's worth it.
I hope that what I've shared here has helped, KS. Please check out The Sensitive Life Facebook page, Twitter, and Pinterest for additional support, resources, and valuable information. :)
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