Today is also my 60 day milestone following the autoimmune paleo protocol.
I am proud of the fact that I have not fallen off the wagon so far. Sixty days of no dairy, no sugar, no gluten, no processed food, no pop, no bread, no junk food at all. No coffee! The only mistake I have made is by occasionally (and by accident sometimes) eaten a vegetable or fruit that was not organic. And last night we had steak and decided not to get the grass fed, since this was a leaner steak. I thought I would be ok since I've read that the grain the cows eat settles more in the fat. Apparently that's not all true. I won't go into details (thank me) but I will just say whatever they fed that cow did not digest well in me.
But here is my biggest fail over this last two months. While I was feeling better overall - no digestion problems AT ALL! (well until last night) my RA was still flaring. Painful frequent flares in my hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders. Any kind of wrong twist, or overuse of one of these joints caused a flare. And by overuse, I'm not talking about moving furniture or painting a house or anything like that. No, I would flare from something like carrying a bag of groceries from the car to the house. Or playing on the floor with my granddaughter. One time I flared from lifting a pitcher of water from the refrigerator!
I kept telling myself that everyone heals at different paces, but I was still getting frustrated that after almost 60 days I was still in this much pain. And after not cheating! After all, I might have been able to accept this delay of healing if I had gotten a doughnut or something out of it! So, I
Here comes the epic fail, "how can I be so stupid?" DOH!!! moment that happened on Tuesday of this week. I pulled all of my vitamin bottles out of the fridge and started reading the ingredients again. Mind you, I bought many of these at a health food store and the others from the organic section of other stores. And I still read the labels carefully when I bought them (or so I thought) making sure there was no corn products, sugar, or soy products in them. I thought that I was on to the sneaky way some manufacturers label their products by calling these things different names. I had learned to read labels and avoid things like "maltodextrin" and "xanthan gum" (both corn based). I was actually getting a little smug thinking I was beating the manufacturers at their game with my vast knowledge.
But then I pulled out the complete list I have from "The Paleo Mom" book with all the different names of ingredients derived from corn or soy and compared them against the labels on my vitamins.
There was corn products in all of them. Every. Single. One. Terms I somehow missed in my "vast knowledge" (insert high roll here) like cellulose, ascorbic acid, citric acid, calcium stearate, glycerin, hydrolyzed vegetable protein. There was at least one ingredient in each of the supplements I was taking that was compromising my healing. And, although I bought many of these in "organic" sections, they did not have the organic seal on them. So heaven only knows where the corn came from that made these ingredients. I might as well have plucked a chemical soaked ear of corn from a Monsanto field and eaten it raw right there.
Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration. But needless to say, I tossed every one of those bottles of vitamins. I think a total of ten bottles of different supplements! And in case I started thinking that that tiny bit of corn product in a tiny capsule could not have possibly caused by body to flare I'm documenting right here - I have not had one flare since Tuesday. Four days. This cannot be a coincidence. And it helps to resolve more than ever to stick with what I'm doing. I can't let myself get frustrated over the "waste" of these 60 days when I may have been symptom free by now. It took me this long just to get used to eating this way. But I have so much more hope now!!
One interesting thing I'd like to point out. When I was taking the biological drugs for my RA, I ate corn all the time. Not just the local non-GMO farmers market corn either. I would buy it canned, frozen, or order it at a restaurant with no idea of it's origin. I also ate soy quite a bit - in soy sauce, Soy milk, tofu and many things containing MSG. I also ate regular store bought chicken, beef, pork, etc. In my opinion then, grass fed beef and free range chickens were for people we called "granolas". And while I always admired "granolas" and their convictions, I never felt the need to take things that extreme. Although my digestion was always a little "messed up" when I was taking RA drugs, there was never flares triggered by any of these things. And I always attributed the digestive issues to the drugs, not to the way I was eating.
But once I got off the drugs and once my "leaky gut" has started to heal, my body has gone crazy with "new" food sensitivities. I have done some research on this, too, and apparently many of these sensitivities were always there, they were just masked by my immune suppressant drugs. The pathogens were already in my system (through the leaky gut) and my body was attacking itself trying to get at these pathogens, thus the symptoms of RA. The drugs were just suppressing those cells that were trying to attack my body. Now that I'm no longer on the drugs to suppress the attacks, they are going on the attack to go after those foods I can't be eating. Which is why I'm still flaring when I eat them. The more my gut heals, the less and less any pathogens will "leak" into my system and the less and less my body will have anything to attack. Whew, I think I have that all right! Science has never been my strong subject, so I have to keep going back to read how this all works!
The question is - why not stay on the drugs while the gut heals so at least I would be symptom free during the healing process? While this actually might be a good decision for some people, I chose not to for several reasons. One being that the current immune suppressant injection I was on wasn't working. I was flaring anyway. And every time I took a shot, I felt like I was injecting poison into my body. I just felt "sick" all the time and the side effects of MS, cancer, respiratory diseases, etc. was getting too scary. The other reason for me was that I think I would have been too tempted to "occasionally" eat something off the protocol if I didn't have the major side effects when I did. And it would have taken so much longer to heal that way. My body has had almost 60 days to get used to no meds at all. I really want to keep it that way.
I am off all of my supplements right now until I can order some that do not have any "hidden" ingredients in them. One other change I'm making this next month is to purchase a good juicer and start drinking some organic juice every day. I currently use my NutriBullet, which I love. But it's better at making smoothies because you use all of the pulp. I've learned that your body has to digest the pulp, taking it longer to get to the actual nutrients of the veggies/fruits you are drinking. By juicing, the nutrients absorb into your body faster (as long as you don't eat right before or after you juice). Tony and I are researching juicers right now! :)
There is no doubt that buying organic and grass fed is expensive. And I am struggling with the feeling that I am being self indulgent and just all around "precious" with this way of eating. But I keep telling myself that I am investing into my health and my life and what better thing to invest in than those things?? And when my gut heals, I may be able to indulge a little and eat more straight Paleo which allows for some things that are not allowed on the autoimmune Paleo.
So there is my 60 day summary. Be back in 90 days for another update!
No comments:
Post a Comment