My Journey, Part 1
The Background
I didn't know it at the time, but I grew up with health conscious parents that tried to make wise decisions in regards to the foods we ate. Having 5 siblings, we didn't have a lot of money for things like the Twinkies and fruit roll-ups we would see in other kids' lunches. McDonalds was a splurge usually reserved for a birthday meal. Even though I totally know better, I'm still a sucker for those pancakes. When we had pancakes at home, they were buckwheat! I'm sure a lot of this started when I was about 3 years old and had an illness that months of doctor appointments and a stay in the hospital couldn't explain. But we found a Naturopath that was able to do testing and point us in the right direction with a strict diet and supporting supplementation that sent us in a new direction for life. So while I wasn't necessarily raised with a perception of what toxins were, I had a pretty good perception of what a decent diet looked like.
A part of becoming independent in life is learning to make good decisions for yourself and your family. I didn't really have a basis for how to do that other than what we did growing up because that's how we typically approach life. Right?! We either do what we know or go in the extreme opposite direction!! The dietary choices we made early in our marriage were usually out of convenience since we both had full time jobs. This meant a lot of eating out, pre-made foods and pizza. We were living the high life and enjoying every bit of it until we started gaining weight, 'feeling older' and the struggle to get pregnant began.
The Struggle
About 2 years into our marriage, we decided that we wanted to start having kids. We knew that it was going to be easy because everyone was doing it and it was simple science, right?!? I look back now and think, if only... If only we knew what our dietary choices had done. If only we knew what environmental toxins we were spewing into our home. If only... But health is about living in the now, not the past.
We tried for several years to get pregnant and after failing at that along with experiencing some other health related issues, I decided to seek medical help. My doctor thought a hormone therapy might work. I wasn't really interested in that knowing how the birth control I had been on for 2 years had royally messed up my system. I was dealing with incredibly fatigue, barely able to get out of bed in the morning and downing lots of coffee to stay alert and motivated. My cycle was full of hormonal highs and lows, monthly migraines, irregularity and pain that would take me out for several days at a time, bladder infections, weight gain and lots of illness in general.
The Changes
I happened across a 'natural' doctor that a few friends were having good results with and decided to give her a try. This launched me into a series of tests with hair, blood, saliva, stool & urine. All the things! And then came the detoxing and diet changes. I had been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue, Thyroid imbalance, Vaginosis and so many more things that I can't remember any more. It was pretty overwhelming but I decided I can do anything for a set period of time, knowing that it wouldn't be that way forever. Although, I think about that 'diet' now and realize it really wasn't that intense knowing what I know now. I got my body cleaned up and functioning again while my husband dealt with a few things of his own. 7 years after getting married, we were pregnant.
We knew big changes were coming and after listening to some Dave Ramsey teachings, we sold our house and half of our belongings and moved into an apartment. That move allowed us to live debt free and to build up some savings for our future home. We were better physically and I was pregnant, but we were still making some really not great dietary choices.
To be continued...
I didn't know it at the time, but I grew up with health conscious parents that tried to make wise decisions in regards to the foods we ate. Having 5 siblings, we didn't have a lot of money for things like the Twinkies and fruit roll-ups we would see in other kids' lunches. McDonalds was a splurge usually reserved for a birthday meal. Even though I totally know better, I'm still a sucker for those pancakes. When we had pancakes at home, they were buckwheat! I'm sure a lot of this started when I was about 3 years old and had an illness that months of doctor appointments and a stay in the hospital couldn't explain. But we found a Naturopath that was able to do testing and point us in the right direction with a strict diet and supporting supplementation that sent us in a new direction for life. So while I wasn't necessarily raised with a perception of what toxins were, I had a pretty good perception of what a decent diet looked like.
A part of becoming independent in life is learning to make good decisions for yourself and your family. I didn't really have a basis for how to do that other than what we did growing up because that's how we typically approach life. Right?! We either do what we know or go in the extreme opposite direction!! The dietary choices we made early in our marriage were usually out of convenience since we both had full time jobs. This meant a lot of eating out, pre-made foods and pizza. We were living the high life and enjoying every bit of it until we started gaining weight, 'feeling older' and the struggle to get pregnant began.
The Struggle
About 2 years into our marriage, we decided that we wanted to start having kids. We knew that it was going to be easy because everyone was doing it and it was simple science, right?!? I look back now and think, if only... If only we knew what our dietary choices had done. If only we knew what environmental toxins we were spewing into our home. If only... But health is about living in the now, not the past.
We tried for several years to get pregnant and after failing at that along with experiencing some other health related issues, I decided to seek medical help. My doctor thought a hormone therapy might work. I wasn't really interested in that knowing how the birth control I had been on for 2 years had royally messed up my system. I was dealing with incredibly fatigue, barely able to get out of bed in the morning and downing lots of coffee to stay alert and motivated. My cycle was full of hormonal highs and lows, monthly migraines, irregularity and pain that would take me out for several days at a time, bladder infections, weight gain and lots of illness in general.
The Changes
I happened across a 'natural' doctor that a few friends were having good results with and decided to give her a try. This launched me into a series of tests with hair, blood, saliva, stool & urine. All the things! And then came the detoxing and diet changes. I had been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue, Thyroid imbalance, Vaginosis and so many more things that I can't remember any more. It was pretty overwhelming but I decided I can do anything for a set period of time, knowing that it wouldn't be that way forever. Although, I think about that 'diet' now and realize it really wasn't that intense knowing what I know now. I got my body cleaned up and functioning again while my husband dealt with a few things of his own. 7 years after getting married, we were pregnant.
We knew big changes were coming and after listening to some Dave Ramsey teachings, we sold our house and half of our belongings and moved into an apartment. That move allowed us to live debt free and to build up some savings for our future home. We were better physically and I was pregnant, but we were still making some really not great dietary choices.
To be continued...
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