Some YAYs and some nays...

I do not have a scale at my aunts house where I am currently living and therefore I have not been able to track my progress, however I was home over the weekend and used my Mom's scale and discovered that in 10 days I had lost 4lbs. It has now been 13 days and I'm feeling pretty good. My arms are continuing to improve, once there's a noticeable difference via camera I'll post a picture. My hair loss seems to be diminishing and I finally figured out what has been triggering my IBS symptoms. I accidentally ate a processed food Sunday night, a hot dog, and I am still sick at 10am on Tuesday morning (the Nay part of this). Unfortunately it seems that the toxins in processed foods really do stick with us and I have felt a little sluggish today and yesterday therefore it appears that the foods we think are relatively okay, like a hot dog, really are not. Thankfully I've figured out that processed foods are definitely something I need to stay away from. I'll be interested to see what gluten free cookies with raw sugar taste like, hopefully good so I can at least have a treat here and there once this is over. For the time being I am having eggs although I'm really not supposed to. I'm sticking to it cooked because there's a gluten free bakery near my house and they have YUMMY pumpkin bread, my one yummy food I get to "sneak" but feel fine eating. I purchased some gluten free pizza dough and I'm excited to try making an interesting pizza with maybe some toasted nuts, squash and my dairy/gluten free butter with maybe some cinnemon and sage or something. It'll be another nice little treat. I'm already beginning to prepare material on the Clean program so that when I'm finished with the book (only 30 or so pages to go) I can just prepare everything I need and go. I'm planning on buying some incense and tracking down my yoga video, therefore I'll start doing yoga in the morning. I'll be able to turn up the heat in my room pretty high since it has it's own heating system separate from the rest of the house and be able to do my own version of bikram yoga and sweat and exercise like the book recommends, burn some incense, do my five minutes of meditation prior to doing yoga and start my day out the right way. I'll be excited to see how my body changes since my bloating seems to already be diminishing. Once I've lost a noticeable amount of weight I'll also post before and after pictures as well. As always I have to thank my best friend for potentially saving my life because I really think this is the answers to my symptoms. If I can grow back my gorgeous thick hair, have nice skin and be at my natural weight, this will all be worth it 10,000x's over!

Clean

I have to say I am absolutely in love with this book I'm reading called 'Clean' by Alejandro Junger M.D. In the past I've found it obnoxiously difficult to get excited about eating healthy, especially since to eat poorly serviced my cravings caused by the toxins in my body as well as the low blood sugar, which I'm sure has something to do with the toxins as well. I have been eating healthy for 6 days now and I feel amazing. Thankfully the book has made me so disgusted with the way Americans eat, I can't look at my old favorites the same way anymore. Even on the train yesterday when somebody had a big bag of McDonalds, usually my cravings would run mad with just the scent and I'd immediately become hungry, however with my new outlook, I actually felt sick to my stomach just catching a whiff of it. I am currently eating gluten free, dairy free products with no processed sugar, caffeine or alcohol. I already have more energy, my face has already slimmed down, my keratosis pelaris seems to be disappearing and my edema and bloating seems to have calmed down quite a bit. My fat rolls aren't nearly as bad when I sit, YAY! My vertigo seems to be dissipating which is HEAVEN and I haven't had any issues with low blood sugar despite the fact that I'm eating marginally less. My life no longer revolves around my food and what my cravings are telling me to go after next. This seems like something that will stick and I don't think I'll ever go back to how I used to eat, thankfully. The gluten free products aren't as horrible as I thought they'd be and almond milk is better than regular milk, something I never thought I'd say. Now as the dairy queen of the Northeast I thought I'd die without cheese but I have to say, now that my cravings seem to be washed from my body, I don't miss it. I'm actually looking forward to eating my roasted potatoes, beets and squash for lunch. Had it for dinner last night and it was YUMMY. I also thought I'd die without caffeine but I've found myself quite productive without it. It's amazing that I'm feeling this good already and I haven't even started the clean officially. These are just guidelines their support program in New York suggested to me. For all my PCOS ladies, I highly recommend this already and I'm not even close to being finished with it!

A Cheery Holiday Season Update

This 'Clean' program may just change my life and I'm very excited about it. Thankfully just in reading the book and being made aware of just how toxic the American diet is, I've already started to take measures to reverse my eating habits via the help of the people at Clean. I'm only a day and a half in but I can already see a difference. The edema that I tend to notice mostly in my stomach and hands seems to be disappating. Not that anyone really needs to know the following detail but my urine is almost clear almost every time I go to the bathroom which means my liver isn't processing toxins. I'm hoping to incorporate the garlic pills and one tablespoon of cold pressed olive oil a day over the weekend. In the past with most diets, I just have trouble sticking to them because who wants to give up all that yummy food? Certainly not me. After reading this book though and realizing how much of the food we in the USA eat is actually not supposed to enter our bodies because we were never meant to ingest such things is disturbing. Reading about what these toxins do to our bodies and what they cause is making me never want a french fry ever again. I think more than anything I'm just looking forward to losing that last stubborn 15-20 pounds that apparently the toxins won't let me lose as well as having a baby face no more! I want to look young and beautiful but I'd actually like to look 25 and not 17, I know, strange but it annoys me when I get carded at a rated R movie sometimes still. I suppose on top of all that, I'm looking forward to being rid of my symptoms forever. To have asthma, keratosis pelaris and alopecia be a thing of a past would be such an amazing thing, it's hard to imagine such a life...