Sunday, February 14, 2016

Sugar, Sugar

After reviewing several options the decision was made to eliminate sugar. Now when I say sugar I mean ALL sugar. Now I don't know about you, but when I think sugar, I think candy, cookies, soda, and all those sweet treats that we all know outside of moderation can be bad news Well that is just the surface of the amount of sugar that is baked, mixed, and added to the everyday food that we all eat. (Again this is why everyone needs a Aunt Sherry and AJ in their lives)
After an hour of intense education and encouragement, I learned that this also meant no pasta, no bread, or any other items that contains sugar. Wait a minute.....no PASTA?? No Soda? I am sure I will not make it. But then I remembered something. Food is one thing and one thing only. It's fuel for our bodies. It is there to allow our bodies to do what it is we need to do everyday. Food is not a relationship. Think about it this way, if you put cheap gas in your car all the time, its not going to run as well. Well up until now I was surfing the cheap gas wave and needed to get off, and not for a few days, forever.
I am not going to lie, the first week was torture. I was suffering the same withdraws that any other person would as they remove a drug from their body. My body was learning to live without artificial sugar. From the cravings from you know where, to the crashes from the absence of that junk! I can honestly say I was amazed at the effects it had on my body and enraged that I had been filling it with this nonsense for so long.
Then came the rainbow at the end of the storm. After my first week it was like all of a sudden all of the side effects were gone. Then amazing things started to happen. I traded afternoon crashes for full days of energy, sleepless nights for falling asleep fast and waking refreshed. I felt amazing! Wow just the simple exercise of removing sugar was already proving to worth the effort and journey I was taking.
The commitment to remove sugar was paying off in big ways, now it was time to build on it. I had the bull by the horns and I was ready to take it to the next level.........

Saturday, February 13, 2016

AJ - The Nutritionist From The Heavens

I was excited to hear that someone wanted to help me, but was a little unsure of how this was going to work. I had never had a nutritionist and from what you see one t.v. I was imagining  drill sergeants, whistles, yelling, and that other fun stuff that you see on weight loss programs. I got my first email from her within a few days introducing herself and scheduling our first call. "Ok, we're getting somewhere, she is going to call me"
The first time I talked to her I will never forget. I was in the car on the way home from work (The few times that I am without little people). It was like the universe was calling out to me this was the person I was waiting for to help me. Her soft tone of voice and encouraging spirit had me feeling like I had know her my whole life. I am already in love with this woman and I have spoken to her for 30 mins. We went over my profile talked about my health concerns and other details. We left the conversation at she was getting a plan for me and would touch base in a couple of days....

Yay! She called me back! Now it was time to get down to business. This was the first conversation of the rest of my new life. As she began talking I realized something really quickly. Wait a minute? We are going to heal my body with food? Your kidding right? I eat food everyday, I've got this under control..... Well turns out I didn't. And not only did I not have it under control I wasn't even close. I learned more about my body and its beautiful relationship with food that I have ever. I was amazed. Ok so now what? The plan was to begin eliminating certain things from my diet. Ok I can do that, I have done that before.  Wrong again! My idea and natures idea of healthy clean food are very different.

I will go into more details of my diet changes later, but I want to  make one thing very clear. A journey like that cannot be made alone. You need someone there to educate and encourage you along the way. I cannot put into words what this woman means to me. I love her so much already and can't imagine her amazing presence in my life......................

Well Here I am.....

Greetings from the lovely state of NC! My name is Jennifer and I am a married mother of two. After the suggestions of several friends I have decided to start writing some of my thoughts and experiences on this wonderful journey I am on. What journey you ask? We will get there in a quick second. You see everything about my life is amazing. I have a great job at a company that treats me well. A husband that I am sure was sent to me straight from heaven, and two beautiful daughters that I am beyond in love it. Everything is great, except one thing. I have an auto-immune disease.... 
For those that don't know auto-immune diseases come in many shapes and forms. The form I have is RA or Rheumatoid Arthritis. It started around the age of 19 with a dozen tests and medical doctors scratching their heads. When I finally moved to NC I found a great doctor that finally got me some answers. Unfortunately by the time I found him, I was in such bad shape walking, dressing, and even bathing was not possible without Brad's help (yeap ladies he's an angel) . Then came all the drugs, low dose chemo and many others, too many to count. While I was getting better in a way, the medication was causing a whole new host of issues, upset stomach, hair loss, etc. it was a nightmare! I decided the medications were too much and stopped taking them. Not too long after I found out I was pregnant with my second baby girl. The great thing about pregnancy is that your immune system drops so low that your pain and issues all but go away. What a gift from this little baby girl! Well fast forward a couple years and I am back to dealing with it again. From good days to bad days to REALLY bad days. I could see my body slowly giving up. I was at a loss. You see my Memaw had the same exact disease as I (I inherited it from her) and her passing far too soon was due to a lot of the medications and damage the disease did to her poor body. I was NOT LETTING THAT HAPPEN TO ME!!!
I called my Aunt is Arizona whom for years has been living a healthy and all natural lifestyle. At this point I was open to anything. I shared with her my fears and that I wanted more for my body and spirit that what fate had decided to give to me. I was not letting medical science destroy my body. I will go into her role in my life more later, but being the loving aunt that is (and always has been) she felt my pain and had a great idea. That is when she sent me to AJ.....................