Or maybe thoughts on food… Anyway, food:
Food is the best. Food is the worst. I love to eat. I hate the way it can make me feel.
We are what we eat. Haven't heard that like a thousand times in your life and just thought "hmmpf"? But it's so so TRUE. Food defines what we are, what we look like, how we feel, how we act. I love food and I love eating. But I've also always been sort of angry at it, if such a thing is possible. Let me explain.
I feel like I eat pretty well. I stopped eating meat at 15 (and thus charcuterie too, and all those very fat french specialties!), ate lots of veggies and fruits at every meal, made healthy cereal based breakfast in the morning. I do love Coke and croissant and cheese and the once a month pizza, but overall my alimentation has always been very balanced. Yet I've always been a size bigger than what I knew I should be, shorts have always been to small for my thighs and I'd rather have died than be seen in a crop top. And no matter how much sport I did, I didn't lost a single kilo/pound in the last eight years. And that made me so mad. Like "this is not fair" kind of mad. I never felt good. I ate the "right things" and yet always felt that something was not working properly in my digestive system. My dad has a lot of stomach… issues and is definitely overweight. And he and I are so alike "genetically" that I think everyone has always assumed that I simply had the same bad digestive system as him. and that was it. But I'm curious. And there's Google. So I started looking around.
I don't do diets. I think diets are stupid because you can't live off two carrots a day or just proteins. But I wanted to know more. I started hearing about paleo but wasn't super convinced. Then I read a couple stories about girls whose life could seriously have been mine. I heard the term celiac decease, gluten, dairy and such a lot. And it made me think. I then grabbed a copy of It starts with food. I didn't like it very much. Way too much scientific facts told by people who are not scientists and that I felt were just meant to scare and confuse us. But some of it also made sense, and a small part of me felt like this could be it. I should try that.
It was the beginning of August, I was going to be alone at home for the next 3 weeks, which made shopping for food a lot easier. In the next 3 weeks, I completely removed gluten and milk from my diet. Added more proteins (mostly eggs) and even more veggies. First week was bad. I could tell my body was very confused. But I hold on, because I could feel something was happening. Something good. At the beginning of week 3, I made a hot chocolate for breakfast. Just to see. Five minutes later, I felt awful. My stomach was bloated, I felt weak and tired. In other words, I felt exactly like I had in the past 10 years, except I hadn't realized it was actually not normal to feel that way because I was so used to it. So I hold on. In the beginning of September my mom started telling that she thought I had lost weight. I said "no way, you know i never lose weight." An extra two weeks and she kept telling me. And I kept not seeing it. I did feel a lot better though. My digestion was PERFECT. I had more energy, my sleep issues disappeared. I felt good. I got on a scale and discovered I had lost 5 kg (that would be 11 pounds). In 6 weeks. I still drank Coca Cola, and ate Nutella every now and then. I was never hungry because I had 3 normal meals a day. I just stopped eating pasta and bread and milk and it changed EVERYTHING. So stupidly simple. I've been living with my body for 25 years, spent the last 10 years angry at it, but really I knew nothing about it. We are just getting to know each other, and it starts with food.
I feel like I eat pretty well. I stopped eating meat at 15 (and thus charcuterie too, and all those very fat french specialties!), ate lots of veggies and fruits at every meal, made healthy cereal based breakfast in the morning. I do love Coke and croissant and cheese and the once a month pizza, but overall my alimentation has always been very balanced. Yet I've always been a size bigger than what I knew I should be, shorts have always been to small for my thighs and I'd rather have died than be seen in a crop top. And no matter how much sport I did, I didn't lost a single kilo/pound in the last eight years. And that made me so mad. Like "this is not fair" kind of mad. I never felt good. I ate the "right things" and yet always felt that something was not working properly in my digestive system. My dad has a lot of stomach… issues and is definitely overweight. And he and I are so alike "genetically" that I think everyone has always assumed that I simply had the same bad digestive system as him. and that was it. But I'm curious. And there's Google. So I started looking around.
I don't do diets. I think diets are stupid because you can't live off two carrots a day or just proteins. But I wanted to know more. I started hearing about paleo but wasn't super convinced. Then I read a couple stories about girls whose life could seriously have been mine. I heard the term celiac decease, gluten, dairy and such a lot. And it made me think. I then grabbed a copy of It starts with food. I didn't like it very much. Way too much scientific facts told by people who are not scientists and that I felt were just meant to scare and confuse us. But some of it also made sense, and a small part of me felt like this could be it. I should try that.
It was the beginning of August, I was going to be alone at home for the next 3 weeks, which made shopping for food a lot easier. In the next 3 weeks, I completely removed gluten and milk from my diet. Added more proteins (mostly eggs) and even more veggies. First week was bad. I could tell my body was very confused. But I hold on, because I could feel something was happening. Something good. At the beginning of week 3, I made a hot chocolate for breakfast. Just to see. Five minutes later, I felt awful. My stomach was bloated, I felt weak and tired. In other words, I felt exactly like I had in the past 10 years, except I hadn't realized it was actually not normal to feel that way because I was so used to it. So I hold on. In the beginning of September my mom started telling that she thought I had lost weight. I said "no way, you know i never lose weight." An extra two weeks and she kept telling me. And I kept not seeing it. I did feel a lot better though. My digestion was PERFECT. I had more energy, my sleep issues disappeared. I felt good. I got on a scale and discovered I had lost 5 kg (that would be 11 pounds). In 6 weeks. I still drank Coca Cola, and ate Nutella every now and then. I was never hungry because I had 3 normal meals a day. I just stopped eating pasta and bread and milk and it changed EVERYTHING. So stupidly simple. I've been living with my body for 25 years, spent the last 10 years angry at it, but really I knew nothing about it. We are just getting to know each other, and it starts with food.
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| me in purple tights and jean shorts, feeling good. also, switched to soy milk at Starbucks <3 |
Thank you for sharing your experience. I was interested about it ever since you mentioned no dairy/no gluten in a previous post. I recently heard about the It Starts with Food book and, for a different reason, I was telling my husband about it (he deals with chronic inflammation) - I am not a fan of diets and that book/movement seemed too drastic for us but reading about your success might help us... thanks again! Looking good in those purple tights! ;)
ReplyDeletethank you! I'm really not into diets either but the main thing I took from the book is how food affects everything and not just our weight. mood, digestion, sleep, chronic illnesses… i do think it's worth it examining what we really consume and what a simple change can do
Deleteso pasta I can give on. Milk I can give on.....Bread....uhg oh....maybe I'll try it. And keep on with my 10000 steps a day
ReplyDeletepizza is the worst for me, I'm not sure I could live in a world that doesn't have pizza. bread is tough too seeing as I'm french and bread is like a religion here. but there is a lot of gluten free products available too if giving up on everything seems too hard!
DeleteReally interested to read your story, Lea - I stopped eating gluten and milk ( though I eat and can digest fermented products like yoghurt) about nine months ago and have been grain-free for the last five and can truthfully say I have never felt better: lots of energy, disappearance of gut problems and feeling good in my skin. I am sure that chronic inflammation is linked. Wishing you continued energy and robust health.
ReplyDeleteEvery body is different and it's always wonderful when someone finds what their individual needs are! I'm so glad you feel good! And thanks for sharing your story with us. I'm in the process of trying to figure out my best diet. I took it to an extreme a couple years ago and became underweight and malnourished--so do be careful that you are getting enough nutrients! ;)
ReplyDelete