Well, I must admit, as much of a “risk” taker as I am, you throw those words at me and I will tell you you are NUTS!!! I am so not in to a detox.
Really? You want me to deprive myself of food? And, you probably want to throw something weird at me like a spinach shake or something. Have you noticed a LOT of my blog revolves around food? And you say detox?
Okay, I have to admit, prior to June I would never have considered it. Now, I highly recommend it. Read my story. You might agree.
On June 19, I felt like someone had hit me in the upper gut. Gall bladder to be more precise. But unfortunately, as time passed, the pain did not subside. So, since it is my gall bladder, I try to watch what I eat. Not fatty products (stay away from those anyway), nothing highly acidic (yeah, that one was hard, I like tomatoes and fruit), basically just bland food (boring). But regardless of what I ate, within 15 minutes of starting to eat, I was hurting significantly all over again. So, even though it is my gall bladder, no food helps or hurts the pain!!!!
Back history: In March and April, I had an acute case of a contact dermatitis. I ended up having a steroid shot, steroid IV, and was on oral steroids for 26 days! Gained some weight that didn’t want to go away!!!!
Back to the story: Finally 6 days of this, I am hurting pretty badly. Tim and I discuss our options as to how to most rapidly get this gall bladder CUT OUT OF ME!!!! We decided that going to the ER would have the potential of speeding things up. So….away we went. Unfortunately, we were not aware that an ultrasound would need to be taken and our ER didn’t do those on weekends!!!! So….doped up with darvaset, they sent me home.
Remember the weight gain? Well, I had seen this detox on Pinterest that looked doable for me. As I studied it, it didn’t look like I would have to really give up any of my must-haves. It said lose 10lbs in 7 days. Well, seven days is workable for me. So, I decided to do it. I had been putting it off with the pain I was having, but decided on that Monday, that I should go ahead and do it since nothing of my food intake was increasing or decreasing my pain. I started it on Monday. Just fruits for day 1. How lucky could I be?
Day 2, I was on a vegetable diet, allowing me one baked potato and all the other veggies I wanted. This day I also went to my doctor. She agreed that the problems I was having had to be my gall bladder. She scheduled an ultrasound for me. I told her I was doing a detox. She told me that I couldn’t have better timing on it. So….away I went with the doctor agreeing it was my gall bladder, and saying the detox was a good plan.
I continued the detox for the remainder of the 7 days. I lost 7 lbs, to which I was satisfied. I know I could have done better, but this was the first form of ANY diet I have EVER done! DON’T TAKE AWAY MY FOOD!!!! At the end of the detox, I did notice feeling better. But one thing I noticed at the end that was eye-opening – I recognized I may have another food allergy. I have a few food allergies, with only one giving me real problems – Dairy. A food allergy is not the same as lactose intolerant. When I have too much dairy, I can have an asthma attack. I eat dairy, but not often. This new food allergy observation – a little graphic here – I have daily nose bleeds. I have attributed it to seasonal allergies for the past several years. During the time I was on this detox – NO NOSE BLEEDS!!! HUMMMMMMM???????
Skip to August 18. I’m in dire pain again. Would love to go to the emergency room (oh yeah, my ultrasound came back fine), but realize they won’t help me any. I told Tim that I was going to do the detox again because at least I experienced SOME relief. Unfortunately, day 5 of the detox was also my birthday…..and a few of us were getting together from church. I knew they were going to throw in cake, and it would be disrespectful to not eat some. I ate a tiny piece……..and the puzzle fell in to place.
Over the course of the next 4 days I was able to knowingly walk in to the doctor’s office with what was wrong. I had eliminated this one item from my diet, but when it “snuck” in, I was back to immediate pain, along with several other symptoms. I thought I had a wheat allergy.
I walked in to the Doctor’s office confidently saying that we needed to test me for food allergies again, but mainly for wheat. I walked out of the doctor’s office understanding that it wasn’t a food allergy but it was another auto-immune disorder. Celiac Disease!
No, don’t feel sorry for me. Celebrate with me. It is amazing the difference I feel in taking out that one food item. Sure, it is EVERYWHERE, but you can work around it. I am learning how to do so. You will find several follow-up posts about my journey in the coming weeks/months.
Why did I dare you to do a detox? The sheer difference in how I feel. Do you feel good? Or do you just feel okay? Are you sure there isn’t something in your diet that is keeping you from feeling your best? Even though 1 in 133 people have Celiac Disease, I don’t believe that is the problem for everyone. But, I do think sometimes we are eating something that is causing us misery.
Find a detox that would work for you. Here is the one I chose. Lose 10 lbs in 7 days
This detox may not be for you, but find one that is. Your health could totally change by simply figuring out what doesn’t work for YOU!
Detox – I DARE YOU! Share the detox you do, along with the end results. We all need to work together to find what works best for us.
Do you have Celiac Disease? Over the next several weeks I am going to focus on this. I will be sharing insights from my new discovery along with recipes that I am using to continue our normal lifestyle – tortillas, pita bread, rolls, etc……
PS1186 