Tag Archive | diet

Foods That Help me Feel Better

What foods can I eat?
Maybe we better talk about what I can't eat first.

   Everyone wants to know — I get questions and emails all the time saying: What can you eat?  How did you do it?  How in the world did you lose over 110 pounds? 

So, today I thought it would be appropriate to talk about what foods I do not eat because this plays such an important part in living with Fibromyalgia.


The Three Biggest Problem Foods For Me!
Wheat – Soy – Milk

Below You'll Find Some Photos of Foods Which Contain Gluten
But… Unfortunately There are Many More!

t1larg.gluten.foods.gi  

Okay…. okay, I'll admit it.  At first this new way of eating was HARD!  I thought I couldn't do it.  I wondered what I would be able to eat.  Nothing?  Well, that's what I thought as it's what you are probably thinking too!  

   But… OH MY GOSH!  This has changed my life! 


Truthfully, God 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, I was born with Celiac and that is what caused my fibromyalgia.  Celiac is a severe allergy to many – well… most of the foods I was eating when I got sick. As I kept eating them, the sicker I got.

Celiac affects the large intestines.  There are little extensions on the inside wall of your intestines which are called "villi."  These villi stick our 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, so they cannot absorb any of the nutrients you need to survive – to be healthy – and to flourish.  I was hardly surviving at all, and I certainly was not healthy in any way, shape, form, or fashion.

Thank You Lord!  I am as healthy as I can be while still fighting fibro and celiac – as I will for the rest of my life.  I began starting to to flourish at the "young" age of 60…feeling better than I had felt since I was 29 years old!  And, it is all because of what I eat (and some natural supplements). 

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 almost 8 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 I now know that 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.
 

Below You'll Find Some Photos of Foods That are Really GOOD for you!

GOOD FOODS FOR YOU

 The above food are great to eat!  Fruits, greens, nuts, legumes and many more options can literally change your life!

HEALTHY FRUIT

If you have fibro or celiac… 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!  When I first began this new way of eating, I went down to an 8 petit!  Never been that small in my life – even as a child.  lol  But, now I have gained some of that weight back.  There are starting to be too many gluten free cookes, cakes, and muffins on the market now which taste REALLY good.  So it is a constant battle for me to leave those off!

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  

  

   

Fibromyalgia… The Cure Begins!

"Fibromyalgia" By, Nancy Alexander


The Cure Begins

I ended my last post in December, 2010, after telling you of the many struggles and pain Fibromyalgia brought into my life.  So, here I am now…the third day of a new year…so many changes…so many things are different.  I – Nancy Alexander – have a new life and an unbelievable, overwhelmingly happy one at that!

 

It seems very appropriate to start this New Year – 2011 – with a story of
healing, peace, joy, miracles, pain relief, and happiness as well as thoughts of "I can" instead of "I can't"!

I can even play in the snow with Lucas & Ava now!

Even my dreams for the last 30-plus years have been filled with visions, as well as nightmares, of what I cannot and would not ever be able to do.  Well…No More!!  Thank You God!

I am a different person!  I am being healed from Fibromyalgia — the disease which has no cure — and I am doing things with my family and my husband that I thought I would never be able to do or enjoy again!  I am enjoying life!  I am working hard at my business!  I am traveling again for the first time in many years.  I can go somewhere and sit for longer than 30 minutes!  I can go to movies with my husband!  And — best of all — I can go to church at my husband's side every single week!

 

To be able to go on vacations again — to the beach — the mountains — anywhere we want to go!  These are experiences I thought I would never be able to enjoy again!  The possibilities are now endless.  I can go up steps again.  I can walk on a treadmill.  We go to concerts, college football and basketball games.  I no longer have to sit at home while my husband enjoys these without me!  I can, and do, go with him!!

 

Our marriage and our love has been rejuvenated because a sickness such as the one I had kills the closeness between a husband and wife.  It almost killed us…we almost didn't make it.  This insidious disease came very close to ending our marriage of 38 years before we came across my "cure".  I know you may have heard about cures before but when you researched and read more about these "claims", their answers were just not what you were desperately searching for.  There really was no healing and no renewal of life, body, and soul.

  

 

I am writing this post today…January 3, 2011…to tell you a different story — a true story — one with a happy, pain-free and joyous ending. 

 

 

It all begins at the end.  God allowed me to sink to the bottom of the "pit" with no hope of a better life.  My husband and I no longer had a life together.  We were strangers in the same house growing further and further apart with each passing year.  Neither of us could understand my illness with all of its debilitating pain and strange peculiarities.  How could Steve understand what I was going through when I couldn't even understand it myself to explain it to him?  And then God reached out His hand to me and my husband — pulling us out of this "pit".  God is using this experience now in both of us.  We will cheerfully and "blindly" follow God's leading anywhere for any reason – as long as it is "His path".  

This blog, my website, and our story are reaching people from all over the world; people who are in pain and have no hope.  Well, your hope is within God.  He has poured His miracles down upon us by giving my husband a new heart, and a new understanding, along with an undying – cherishing, forever-after kind of love!  And me – well, I have a new healthy body along with courage built on a determination and strength that I never knew I posessed.  These miracles have left us both "speechless"!  But, at the same time, we are certain that miracles such as these cannot be "hidden" or "kept quiet".  This is a very painful, and personal story…but one that we feel God wants us to share with those who are desperately searching for the answer in their painful lives. He is using our time in the "pit" to help so many others.  So…that is why I am revealing so much of our journey to you.

 

 

I had put myself into the hands of so many doctors — dedicated, intelligent doctors, who could not help because they knew so little about Fibromyalgia.  But my first breakthrough was with a nearby women's hospital physician, who specialized in Fibromyalgia.  I found her myself and made an appointment.  She gave me a firm diagnosis — "yes, you definitely have a severe case of Fibromyalgia".  Then she wanted to try the same old drug regimen that every other doctor had tried, but nothing really new to offer.  I had the same reactions to these medicines again just as when I had tried them before…and eventually I gave into the fact I had been avoiding…she could be of no help to me!  I finally realized any relief…any cure…would come from my own determination and research — so my journey began!


 I was lucky to finally switch to our neighbor as our family doctor.  On my first visit to him, he told me up front, "You know much more about Fibromyalgia than I ever will.  I don't totally agree with everything you think may be causing your illness, and I don't totally agree with some of supplements you believe are helping you, but I am willing to treat you, refer you to any doctor you want to see, send you anywhere you want to go, and try any drug which your research leads you to believe might help."  I have always appreciated his friendship, his honesty, and his willingness to try things with me…he is still our doctor and a very good friend.

 

Now, let's move forward to what I consider the first of two turning points in my life, when I finally began finding help and answers!

 

My research saved my life.  It led me to a specialist in Atlanta, Georgia.  This endocrinologist practiced medicine about 2 hours from my home.  He is an older doctor – a very sweet man – whose specialty is diabetes and also Fibromyalgia, because he suffers from it himself.  I called his office wanting to know if he would do a phone consultation with me.  At that time — which was in May of 2006 — I could hardly ride in a car for 30 minutes.  So, I knew I couldn't make the two hour ride to Atlanta, Georgia.  He did agree to a phone consultation. 

    

This doctor with a strong faith in God, a kind manner and his knowledge was the first step in saving my life!  He understood everything I said; he understood all of my symptoms; and he understood why I was not getting better.  He even understood something I had noticed years before; that I had become extremely chemically and environmentally sensitive to everything.  Even cleaning supplies had to be chosen carefully.  Some clothes and materials literally hurt my body.  I had stopped wearing scented perfume or lotion – sometimes having to leave church or other event because someone sat near me with perfume or cologne on which made me ill.  Many smells and chemicals made my muscles much worse.  Weather changes such as storms or higher barometric pressure made me feel like I had been run over by an eighteen-wheeler!  I had even begun to notice that certain foods were a problem for me too, but I HAD NO IDEA…LITERALLY NO IDEA…THE PART THESE FOODS PLAYED IN MY ILLNESS!!