Around this mid-afternoon time (3pm) everyday, I get an urge end up to write whether that be on paper or on here. I usually journal every morning in order to get aligned with my goals and intentions for that day.
Today I've been doing a lot of internal reflection as to what I want out of my life and really trying to define my purpose. I've overcome a variety of obstacles that life has thrown at me, but I know there is more to come. Whether that be dealing with my condition (another earlier post on that), job hunts, or defining what it means to live in a new city - there is always something that I have the ability to learn from.
Over the last 6+ months, I've been going through a lot of digestive changes. It was about four years ago during my freshman year of college where I started to have these issues. I had a lot of brain fog, food sensitivity, pain, bloating, and more. I thought that I had celiacs disease which came back negative. I talked to my primary care doctor numerous amounts of times to try and figure out: why is this just occurring now?
Since those avenues did not really help me, I spent the next few years going back and forth between gluten and dairy free. I knew that those foods alongside others really bothered my stomach, but I really did not the reason why. It wasn't until I finally switched to a doctor that looks at each patient from a holistic perspective that everything began to change. We dove deep into every aspect of my life, from how I was as a child, to the different antibiotics I took over the years. It all came back to my gut health. It was out of wack. I remember having a hamburger bun with a burger on the fourth of July one year after going at least eight months without gluten in my everyday life. Within an hour of consuming the gluten, I fell asleep. I wasn't tired earlier in the day, I didn't drink a lot - so I thought, there MUST be something going on behind the scenes that I'm not seeing.
Finally, the why question was answered. After a series of tests and sessions understanding my track record, the results showed how highly sensitive I was to anything related to dairy (cow's milk, goat's milk, casein, whey, etc.) and eggs! Who would have thought eggs. I had been eating eggs everyday for breakfast and not realizing their impact. For the longest time, I thought that gluten was my issue. But there are so many small ingredients that I would not pay attention to that had traces of dairy and egg. I was cutting out the wrong foods and not finding the right ones to fully nourish myself. Since then it has been hard to completely cut out the foods I love. But overtime, I have found the right foods and alternatives that work for me without having to sacrifice!
When I eat with intention and fuel my body properly, I am prioritizing my health and taking care of the one life I get. I'm constantly learning more about my body and the best ways to care for it. I am grateful for getting some answers after a long journey, and its not over yet. It's only the beginning!