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Ep 8 :: Health Journey - Gluten, Gut Health & Learning to Heal
65 Plays1 month ago
Megan shares a "brief" health history, where she developed a love of food and how that turned into a love of nutrition. From fast food to birth control, it's so hard to know what the genesis of our health problems lies, but it's worth the investigating.
Links from today show:
Mentioned Sue Becker's online class - HERE
Clip of Alex Clark's MAHA Round Table Speech - HERE
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For more go to: MySeedsOfHope.com
Music:
The Success by Keys of Moon
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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Diggin' In'
00:00:02
Speaker
Hi friends, welcome to Diggin' In. I'm your host, Megan. This is a place where we discuss the things that really matter in life. We cut through the surface to dive deeper. So pull up a chair because here we're Diggin' In.
Megan's Health Journey Begins
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome back everyone to the Dig It In podcast. Thanks for joining. It's just me this week. And I figured I would start um kicking off some of diving in deeper with different topics by giving you a little background to my health journey and why I care so much now about health and wellness and just truly the desire to get back to the way God created things Um, whereas before, in my youth and even as I was a younger adult, didn't quite care as much. Um, there's a lot that goes into it. And so I'm going to do my best today to just kind of break down a little bit, my personal health journey, growing up, how we ate, uh, that kind of thing. And then why i decided to go down a path of,
00:01:08
Speaker
nutrition and trying to get my body well. So we'll touch on several different topics because it all does tie together. And then as always, I don't feel like I'll be able to do it justice to dig into every single one you like minute details. Yes, there we go. Minute details, all the minute details. of my health journey. And I'll probably fly over a few things and then we'll come back in later episodes down the road, dig in a little bit more, get into some of the science and those
Childhood Food Memories
00:01:37
Speaker
types of things. So pour cup of tea or a cup of coffee. And if you're going for a walk or a drive or whatever it is you're doing, welcome. I'm glad you're here. Let's get going.
00:01:48
Speaker
um I'll just start start off by saying i grew up, my parents got divorced when I was eight. And I really don't remember a ton before that as far as, you know, meals go and eating and things of that nature. I do remember, so I know like as an infant, I was nursed only for a little bit. My mom worked and ran her own company And so she went back to work very soon after I was born. And therefore, I grew up on formula. And it wasn't like it is nowadays. She didn't pump and then put that into a bottle. It was just, okay, either you nurse or you use formula. So I was a formula-fed baby. um and i do know that, like I said, my mom worked a ton when I was growing up. And
00:02:35
Speaker
And when I was an infant, you know we I was in the church nursery from, i think, six weeks old and beyond. So as I said, my mom worked during the week. And so I would be in the nursery. And then we went to daycare. I mean, I remember up I grew up in the same daycare. I entered that daycare when I was, i think, two and a half or three years old.
00:02:56
Speaker
And I like, quote unquote, graduated from that daycare because I aged out. I was just ah too old at that point. I believe it was up until 12. And my mom made some sort of arrangement with them so I could stay on for one more year because my sister was younger. And at that point, she wasn't ready to have us come home together. you know, on the bus by ourselves.
00:03:17
Speaker
um And so I grew up in daycare. And so during the summer, and that's probably where my earliest memories of like food begin. um I grew up during the summers, just we we went to daycare, we would get up, get ready. my mom would go, we would go by McDonald's on the way to daycare. i would usually get a big breakfast with pancakes and hash brown and some eggs. And then we would, oh, and a sausage patty.
00:03:47
Speaker
And then we would go to daycare and they served lunch there. We didn't have to bring our lunch with us. They served a hot lunch there. And then, and they even did breakfast too at some points. Cause I remember having, you know, like you, you know, that book, um, Good Night Moon, that bowl full of mush. At one point, we definitely had a bowl full of mush, you know, like at a regular basis. And it was oatmeal. It was oatmeal, but I remember looking at and being like, what is this? You know what it really felt like now as an adult and reading the Bible? It was like manna. the Literally the Hebrew word for manna, means what is this? um
00:04:25
Speaker
And that's what it looks like. What is this? It was a gooey substance. I do remember it being somewhat palatable though, because I i looked forward to it. And and maybe it was just because it was a hot meal. I don't know.
00:04:37
Speaker
Um, anyway, so we would pick up McDonald's, go to daycare. We'd be there all day and they would serve lunch. And then on the way home, we would either get, you know, carry out. Um, usually our go-tos were like Hardee's, Long John Silver, um,
00:04:53
Speaker
Taco Bell every now and again, but not really. but ah Burger King, Arby's. When I grew ah like as I grew up a little bit more, we would go to Subway some because I thought that that was a healthier option when I was you know a young adolescent girl and wanted to care about my weight and my figure. Um, but I remember in the summertime, I would help in the kitchen. There was Miss Betty. i will never forget her. Miss Betty, Miss Ellie Hale and Miss Mary Hale. I remember all three of those ladies.
00:05:24
Speaker
They were so dear to me, still are in my memories. And it's so funny. I've actually tried to find them on Facebook. I would love to reconnect with them. I have no idea what Miss Betty's last name was. But I spent most summers in the kitchen with her and I loved it. It was so sweet. It was just sweet times. I would help open those big, massive cans of food. You know what i'm talking about? Like the big, maybe you don't, but like you go to your grocery store and you have the little cans of food. I think there are about 16 ounces.
00:05:51
Speaker
So like a can of corn or a can of green beans or whatever. I was helping out in the daycare with these big like, you know, cafeteria style cans of green beans or corn or whatever it might be. Baked beans I remember we would have. And then I don't even remember what the hot dogs. I do remember hot dogs because the whole kitchen smelled so bad all day. But i loved it. It was so sweet. And it's so funny because I'm such a foodie and that there are so many things that go into that.
00:06:20
Speaker
But I remember having like this little clipboard and I would roll my little cart down the hallway and I would give them their little oatmeal mush bowls and everything to the classroom. And there's usually 20 to 30 kids in the classroom. And i mean, it was all the way from two to three years old up to 12 years old. And so i would go and I would see how many kids were there for the day and how many would be there for lunch and take rolls so that we knew how much food to make. And then when we would go back, we were picking prepare it she did all the math so i just helped i was just this extra set of hands and we would prepare all the food and then i would help her like ladle it into these square plastic containers and i remember we would put foil on them and then we would write the classroom number and the number of servings in it and then i would put them all back on the little cart and i'd have my little blue apron with the little you know daycare logo on it and i would wheel my cart down the hall and i'd deliver all the food
00:07:14
Speaker
And it was just such a fun memory. And I loved being in the kitchen. I just always have. And so that was definitely one of those like core memories, if you want to call it that for me, for sure. But I also would be with my granny in the kitchen sometimes. I learned really to start cooking by her. um She would always make what I call angel degs. Yeah.
00:07:39
Speaker
family gatherings like it didn't matter if it was a christmas thing an easter thing or just a sunday supper there was always angelled eggs which i absolutely loved and then they would have all kinds other random things but she taught me how to do those eggs and she taught me how to preach your cookies and it was you know she was she literally was a preacher's wife And the whole thing about preacher cookies were, you know, you could look out your window and see someone coming down the road and the preacher cookies you could throw together. And by the time that person got to your doorstep, they would be ready because they were just super simple.
00:08:10
Speaker
So anyway, those are some of my earliest memories of like food and how I got to, you know, get interested in helping prepare
Early Cooking Adventures
00:08:17
Speaker
food. I remember going to a um in my home ec class in in middle school. we did these cakes. I remember talking about the cakes before. I loved that part of it. And then we would make, we made a couple of other random things, but that really wet my palate. I remember in second grade doing a ah unit on Laura Ingalls Wilder. And so we had to make gingerbread as part of that. I don't, or maybe we had to, I don't know. I did. There was a recipe in the book and I remember making it, or they're molasses cookies, not gingerbread. And I remember making them and being like, oh
00:08:53
Speaker
I think I must have done something wrong because now molasses cookies, they're delicious. But i did not I did not like them back then, to be honest with you. But then i got a wild hare and was like, I'm going to brownies for my class. i It must have been, i want to say probably fourth, maybe fifth grade. So I made brownies and praise the Lord, my mom tried them at home before I took them to school because I mismeasured when I was making them. She was like, oh, shit when she took a bite of them.
00:09:22
Speaker
And I, after that, I was like, what's wrong? And it was, it was not a box. Like it wasn't, you know, Betty, whatever it is, Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines boxed we brownies. It was from scratch, like the cocoa, the sugar, the butter, the oil, all the thick eggs. And so I, remember making him and my mom made this horrible face. I was like, what's wrong? And so I tried them and I was like, oh no, I knew immediately I measured,
00:09:48
Speaker
The salt as the sugar measurement. So whatever it was, like a cup of sugar, it was a cup of salt. They were so disgusting. The whole pan had to be pitched and I was devastated because I was so excited. I'm sure I had told classmates like I was going to bring brownies. This was back in the day when you actually could bring food into places. But anyway, so i've i just always loved being in the kitchen and making food. I don't know why. I think it's probably, i mean, now I love sourdough. I love making sourdough. I know that there's the creative aspect of it, the creative side of things. I enjoy working with my hands. I mean, that's the case being outside and in the garden. This past weekend, I'm looking out the window right now and it's snowing. It's absolutely beautiful. But it was
00:10:32
Speaker
I think it was like 65 degrees on Saturday, which is crazy. And it's supposed to be 80 next Saturday. Anyway, i digress. So this weekend, we were just burning. We had burn piles and just breaking up sticks and throwing them in the fire and building extra little fires on the side to get certain things burned around because we've got some stumps we're trying to burn out of the ground. You know, I just have always enjoyed working with my hands. And so now with sourdough, it truly is like creating this art with your hands that you actually then get to enjoy in your stomach. So anyway, I remember doing that. And then I remember watching cooking shows. Emeril Lagasse was big at the time. And I remember watching Emeril Lagasse and I, you know, you couldn't, there was no DVR. There was no pause button. It was just on. So I remember getting ready for Emeril Lagasse to come on and I would have my little notebook beside me and whatever he was making, i would try and scribble the notes down as feverishly as I could to get all the ingredients And then go to the store and get stuff. And I remember the first like ah dish that I made repeatedly, which is so funny.
00:11:35
Speaker
you know, back then my palate was not diverse at all. You know, we ate a lot of to-go meals, a lot of frozen meals. You know, one of the things that my mom did make, which was always funny because she was not a big cook, was lasagna.
00:11:48
Speaker
Very rarely though. She would make that every now and again. But really we would eat like crumbled up um ground beef with diced onions. And then she would make that and we would either eat that, just that, um or she would have that and then add like a tomato sauce to it to do with spaghetti. um And then we'd have like frozen broccoli from the freezer, a block literally, like you open it up in this like wax paper cardboard box type thing. And put it into a pot with a little bit of water. And put the lid on it. And it steamed. And I mean i can't even. I don't know how that's even called broccoli. It just.
00:12:25
Speaker
Fall apart in my mouth. this I mean who even knows what else I ate like that. No wonder I didn't like certain things for a long time. Because I didn't have them cooked fresh. Or like really enjoy and experience what God created for us to eat and taste on our palate.
00:12:45
Speaker
So anyway, the first thing i didn't circle back to that. The first thing that I remember making several times was Emeril Lagasse's lemon chicken. Like how random. I remember you had to get ah chicken breasts and you would have to pound them out, which was like, I mean, these are some serious kitchen skills that I was doing it.
00:13:04
Speaker
I think I was 12, 13 years old. I mean, i was younger. um And so I remember making that being like, this is so good. And whether it was actually really good at the time or not, I'm not sure. You know what I should make that because I have – I had a a recipe box that my grandmother gave me. It was hers. And we would write these things down. So I had my chicken scratch from watching TV, and then i would go back and clean it up and put it onto a note card. So I still have my note card from – When I used to make that check-in, I should go back and make that and see how it is. Look out, family. Lemon check-in is coming your way, which is good. Noah loves lemon, and so does Adam, so that'll work out.
00:13:42
Speaker
um I'm so thankful. They are both, although Noah has gotten a little more picky as he's gotten older, but Adam's always so wonderful. He's very appreciative of anything that I cook. I don't know if he's ever really told me that something was not good, so very thankful for that. um But anyway, so I enjoyed cooking as a kid, as a young you know adolescent, I should say. It was just an enjoyable experience. And then I've always loved to eat. So obviously that was an enjoyable experience as well.
00:14:12
Speaker
So as we got a little bit older and we were involved in sports and things like that after school, you know i did dance all through elementary and beyond you know into high school. um And then i remember doing track and cheerleading in middle school and high school. So we were always on the go in the afternoon and evenings. And sometimes i' would ride the bus home with a friend, go to their house, we would do homework. And then we would go to, you know, practice or whatever it was that we needed to to go to for the evening. And then on the way home, we would pick up fast food. So it was very much like I grew up eating ultra processed foods. And then sometimes I remember eating the school lunches because that was just the most convenient thing. um But I remember looking around and seeing my friends, they would have like these sandwiches made or leftovers from the night before where it was like,
00:15:01
Speaker
looked like yummy food. And i I remember my one girlfriend, her mom would do chicken and rice a lot and it was so good. And I remember being like, are you going to finish that? Can I have the rest of it? Cause it was just so yummy and it was fresh and it was homemade.
00:15:17
Speaker
But I would often, mostly, i would do the school lunches or i would try and come up with my own thing. Like, okay, I'm going to pack my own lunch. And I would do like a bologna sandwich or whatever, which seemed healthier at the time. But now thinking back, it's like all the deli meat that I – and it was not good fresh deli meat from the deli counter. It was like Oscar Mayer, you know, whatever from the refrigerator. But I really – I've always had a desire to pursue good food. So fast forward into, you know, living in New York and um as a young wife, we still, I mean, when we first got married, well, I'll pause and go back to New
New York Food Frenzy
00:15:59
Speaker
York. When I was in New York, I mean, I've always loved ethnic food. We've always loved Japanese Japanese. Indian food and all the different flavors. And so I ate out a ton. um We do, I remember we did have a good cafeteria at my school in New York. um It was on, you know, I say campus. we I was in Manhattan, so we didn't really have ah a campus, but our campus was a building. And um it was really good. But I will say every morning I would get a bagel with extra cream cheese and either an Americano or, you know, something else, like an espresso drink. And then some days, if I really loved the taste of that bagel, or maybe I just didn't get enough, I would have a second bagel with extra cream cheese. And then I'm sitting there. I'm like going to classes. i was pretty sedentary because, i mean, I was in the city, so I was walking a lot. But other than like to and from classes, but I was sitting so much because you're in college, you're sitting, studying, reading, doing all the things. And so I just was not getting that output. And then i would eat out a lot too because, again, you're in York City. It is a food oasis, all kinds of things, um which were delicious. But now at the same time, looking back,
00:17:13
Speaker
they were deep fried or cooked with seed oils, you know, and all these things that I'll get into down the road. But um I just did not have a healthy relationship with food. And I will just be honest, I still struggle with having ah a healthy relationship with food. I remember in college, i had definitely gained weight from what I just explained to you. And I remember being so upset about it because I was like, I i told myself I wasn't going to let that freshman 15 happen. And so I remember taking like TMI, i would take laxatives because i wanted to like shed it as much as I could. I tried to be bulimic. I could not, I couldn't do it. I only, you know, I was only successful a handful of times, but I remember being like, this is awful. I cannot even imagine doing this on a regular, you know, regular thing.
00:18:04
Speaker
And, um you know, i tried limiting food and i I just couldn't because I like food and I didn't have discipline to not eat. So that was not a problem for me, the anorexic part of it. um But definitely like stool softeners, like I mean, all kinds of things to just try and shed weight. And again, remind i like, mind you, I was in New York to pursue an acting modeling career. So your your physical body and image was everything. And I should probably go back to and say like in high school, I definitely really struggled as well because i was pursuing acting modeling. I was a cheerleader. I was a dancer. You know, you feel every part of your body. Like i have always my stomach has always carried a little bit more weight than I would like for it to. And this all now down the road, I have learned plays into trauma as well.
00:18:55
Speaker
um There's a book that I read 2020 and it changed my life um in a lot of ways. um It's called The Body Keeps the Score and how when there are traumatic events in your in our lives, stress, PTSD, things of that nature, it traps in different areas of of our body. And so I have learned now that my stomach carries a lot of that and it's been fascinating. But again, we'll come back to that. So all this to say, i have always loved good
Marriage and Motherhood Food Choices
00:19:25
Speaker
food. So I started cooking food.
00:19:28
Speaker
And when Adam and I first got married, we came back from our honeymoon, think I said in earlier episode, episode what we came back from our honeymoon to me not having a job and him very soon thereafter losing his job. We really didn't have a lot. We had to scrape by. And so we were certainly not buying high quality products from the grocery store. I definitely wasn't shopping for organic at that time. Like, I i mean, I remember hearing about organic and being like, well, that must be what hippies eat. like i don't I didn't even know There was no context for it. You know what I mean? And so I very frequently, at least once a week, we would have spaghetti. And once a week, we would have fettuccine Alfredo.
00:20:12
Speaker
Oh, thinking about it now, part of me is like, oh, it tasted so good. But at the same time, we would go through a box of pasta, the two of us in one sitting with bread that was like I would get those. What are they? Sister Schubert rolls, ultra processed that are in the frozen section. You just throw them in the oven. 20 minutes later, you've got fresh bread. Oh, my gosh. If I can't even ah imagine what's actually in those now, if I were to go to the grocery store and look at the back of that, o it would make me sick.
00:20:40
Speaker
um But that's what we were eating. And so I definitely carried more weight than I ever should have. um I got really fit and like lost a ton of weight for the wedding.
00:20:51
Speaker
Oftentimes brides do. But um then after with the stress of like the job situation and just the way that we were eating, I put on some some weight. And then when I did eventually get pregnant with Noah, i it was funny because when I was pregnant, I craved healthier food. It was so bizarre. I craved like, um, Oh, what was it? Oh, Froyo was a of a new thing at the time. it was like sweet frog, you know, it's like frozen yogurt, and but I would go and I would get this teeny little dollop of frozen yogurt and then I would load it up with fruit. Yeah.
00:21:26
Speaker
Kiwi and strawberry in particular and sometimes pineapple, but I just craved like healthier things. I was working in a country club at the time and if the staff got served lunch and then if you're working dinner, you got served dinner. So we had like the staff buffet and you could, they always had salad, like make your own salad.
00:21:45
Speaker
And then they would have, you know, ah proteins and stuff like that. But I remember I would make these enormous salads and just devour the salads. But I was consuming a lot of calories. And so I still – I gained a good and healthy amount of weight, I would say. But I'll tell you what. We're going to get into this down the road. –
00:22:02
Speaker
loved my birthing experience. I had no no medication, no help, none of that. i had to They forced me to do an IV in case I had to do an emergency C-section for whatever reason. But other than that, it was all natural. And i tell you what, my body bounced back like that. I mean, it was amazing. We walked. and like I wanted to be active and It was incredible. And I after, you know, post baby, was healthier than I've ever been up until, you know, up to that point. Like I shed all the weight. We were eating really healthy and fresh things, um which was great.
00:22:38
Speaker
Fast forward then. And, you know, when – when we had Noah, – again, going back to what I shared with you earlier, my growing up experience with just the fast food, the processed food, knowing how it made me feel, you know, I've learned so much now. And looking back, I can see, you know, I was always lethargic. I was always like – It was hard to focus. I remember being in school and, you know, obviously it's school and depending on your personality type, I'm very, my son is very much like me. I was not interested in what I was being forced to learn. and so I really struggled to pay attention, but then couple that with being fed and constantly fueled, i you know, I put fueled in air quotes by ultra processed food. And just, I mean, my body was, woof
00:23:30
Speaker
fighting. I mean, it was fighting for survival. And so when Noah came along, I was like, I am going to, first of all, my goal is to nurse for at least one year all the way. Um, not solely, obviously when they were at the time, the recommendation was wait until they were six months and then you can start feeding solid foods. Um, so I nursed like solely nursed all the way. He never had formula.
00:23:55
Speaker
nursed for six months. And then when we introduced food, I started with avocado. Actually, that's not true. I started with ah rice, the little rice cereal that you would mix with breast milk. So it was like a mush. Again, protocols are different now, people. But at the time, that's what it was, like soft foods and whatever.
00:24:12
Speaker
But I made every single puree. I made every single food that that child consumed until he was about one. i remember being with my mom and sister at Chick-fil-A one time and I had all of his foods. Like I brought them with me. I'd always have a cooler with me with all the, you know, little purees that I had made that for that week or you know, and I would freeze some, I would put um some in the fridge. I had a whole planning situation that I did. And I remember in my either my mom or sister, i think it was my mom, was wanting to give him a French fry, and I about lost my mind.
00:24:47
Speaker
was like, are you kidding me? He can't have that. It's going to ruin him. I will say I've gone a little overboard for sure. And I'm sure if Noah listens to this, he would agree. And it's a struggle now.
00:25:00
Speaker
I'll be honest. um The things that we are consuming, though, I mean, I'm 40. When we drank a Dr. Pepper back when I was a kid, you know, five years old versus a Dr. Pepper now or ate French fries from McDonald's versus French fries from McDonald's now, they it was a different experience.
00:25:20
Speaker
scenario entirely. the The food now has so many more additives and so many things that you cannot even pronounce. It's like, why is it in there?
00:25:31
Speaker
That's a whole other story for another day. But all that to say, it does make it addictive. It makes your brain want it more. It's all by design. um i have a lot of resources on this. So if it's something you're interested in reach out to me and I am happy to provide as many resources in whatever direction you are interested in. But um Sue Becker, if you have not followed her, gone and listened to anything that she's put out there, i will definitely link some of her things here. There was one podcast in particular. She does a whole, i mean, she does classes and everything. She's down in Georgia. But she has one on YouTube. That's the one I'll link here. It's a three and a half hour course. Not only is it about she was a food scientist. That's what how I got to talking about her right this second. But she goes into the science behind how food was made to be addictive. It's absolutely fascinating, like just completely fascinating. Not only that, too. Her class in particular is also a Bible study, and it is amazing. I highly recommend it to so many people. I send it to people all the time.
00:26:32
Speaker
So she is just awesome. And that really helped open my eyes even
Whole30 Diet Transformation
00:26:37
Speaker
more. You know, you learn a little here, learn learn a little there, and you just, you pick up stuff along the way. But really for me, starting to understand health and food and how it's supposed to provide sustenance and nourishment for our bodies really started 2016 for me I shared before on a previous podcast, couple of them actually, that that was kind of the year of the pit of our marriage, like at the very bottom of it. But right before that happened, we actually had done one of our friends and our friend group was like, let's all do a whole 30 together. And i had no idea what it was when she suggested it, had never heard of it before.
00:27:24
Speaker
And without hesitation, i was like, sure. Because again, i had no idea what it was, but I started reading about it and I was like, oh no, what have I gotten myself into?
00:27:34
Speaker
i had no idea that this was like a complete and utter elimination diet. And i was really in for it, to be honest with you. So if you don't know anything about Whole30, like the whole idea is that you're going to be eating whole foods for 30 days. So nothing processed, nothing packaged, essentially, if you're doing it the way that you really should, even though there are now, um because this has been going on a little while, they have partners that they...
00:28:02
Speaker
ah different companies that they will partner with and they've got, you know, like whole 30 approved items. And so back then when we did it, that was not the case. And so we got our books, we did all kinds of reading and I think this was probably about a month leading up to when we were going to do it. And we did it in the month of May, um, leading into June.
00:28:23
Speaker
it was kind of like the motivation behind it was like get beach body ready, you know? And so basically no legumes, no grains. So like no rice legumes are, are things like beans and, um, yeah, beans. Um, there's something else. Oh, legumes, peanuts fall into legumes. So no peanut butter.
00:28:46
Speaker
Um, so what else are the no-nos? No dairy, no gluten. Um, and I feel like there's something, i well, obviously no alcohol and no, oh, no sugar. And gosh, I'm trying to remember what else, but those are kind of the big ones. So the dairy and the gluten, like we lived on bread and pasta and definitely milk and cheese. Cheese is like cheese is a meal, right? I mean, at least it is for me. Going back to what I said a long time ago, i there's got to be Italian in my blood.
00:29:20
Speaker
We love cheese. so um that was really hard, but I tell you what, it was effective. And the whole idea behind it, again, the the motivation with this friend group was to lose you know like our winter fat, if you will, and to get beach and summer ready as far as our bodies go. But The purpose behind the Whole30 diet is for 30 days to strip out anything that could be causing inflammation or any other things that you didn't even know was going on. And so for us and for me in particular, at that point in my life, I had been just going about my business and not really thinking a whole lot about
00:30:01
Speaker
you know, like the deep impacts of health. And so I went to bed every night with a headache and I woke up every day with a stomach ache. And I just thought that that was normal. You know, like, I don't know, I'm in my thirties at this point. and'm like, I guess that's just how things are. And so I didn't think like i this needed to get figured out. And so when we did the whole 30, there's something that happens in the middle of it.
00:30:26
Speaker
like day, they always say day like 15 to 19 is when your tiger blood kicks in And the tiger blood is pretty amazing. I'm not going to lie. It's like this rush of energy because at that point, everything has been shed.
00:30:42
Speaker
it's oh so to back up coffee, had always drank my coffee with cream. um And I think we had switched over to heavy cream at that point instead of just half and half. So we were learning some health things along the way. And again, like I said, this is going to be, even though it seems very in-depth, a flyover of all the things that will go back and go in a deeper dive of like taking things apart and understanding. But at that point, I had learned that like...
00:31:08
Speaker
Whole fats are better than, you know, fat-free or low fat. Fat-free and low fat basically means that there is a sugar content because sugar is actually, it's fat-free, believe it or not. um But so if they inject things with sugar and they take out the real whole fats, which actually is not good for you.
00:31:30
Speaker
Your body needs those good whole fats to burn. um and so, Coffee was a huge one. I remember getting ah coconut cream at Wegmans and I went and it was like in this little carton and that's all it was. It was just the cream of coconut. um Not cream of coconut, the ingredient cream of the actual coconut. So it was like coconut and water. And i tried that in my coffee and it was awful. And so it was like, all right, black coffee it is. And guess what I drink today, 10 years later, black coffee. Every now and again, as a treat, I will do heavy whipping cream.
00:32:05
Speaker
in my coffee or I'll do like an almond latte. Actually, I've gotten away from the almond. The more and more I've learned about almond, unless it's organic. Um, there's a coffee shop here locally and they make their own cashew milk and it's absolutely delicious. And so sometimes I'll do a latte there, um, or a Royal fog. Oh, it's an Earl gray tea with, um, lavender honey and the cashew milk. Oh my gosh. Delicious. Anyway, I digress as usual, right? um So we do this Whole30 and I don't know because i I, going back to like high school days and everything, it was just really unhealthy for me to keep up with what my weight constantly was. So I have for the longest time, I've never bought a scale to have in our home. Actually, my husband got one recently because he wanted it for himself. And I'm like, keep it over on your side of the bed away from me. I do not get on a scale. Like when you have to go to the doctor's office and get on a scale, I just try not to pay attention. um Because for me, it was a struggle for a long time. And so it's not healthy for me to get caught up in what the scale says, because honestly, it's not a good indicator of what's going on inside of your body.
00:33:17
Speaker
So through the Whole30, though, I did drop a ton of weight. um I think a lot of it was probably just like retention weight from water due to you know, the other things that we were eating. You know, obviously pulling gluten and dairy out of my life in particular really was effective. Yeah.
00:33:39
Speaker
And what I discovered through the whole thing, so after you do the whole 30 for 30 days, you slowly add in one food group back at a time to try and identify what it was that was your triggers. Like what was it that was causing whatever issues you may be um experiencing? And so – I added back in gluten and noticed some things, but then added back in um dairy and started really noticing like, wow, I get bloaty. And so i don't think that I have a gluten intolerance or a dairy intolerance. I definitely have a sensitivity though, obviously, because my body responded to it. um The other things, you know, didn't really, we try, we
00:34:24
Speaker
when we've gone back and forth, that was 10 years ago, but we really do try and stick to mostly a whole 30 diet, eating whole foods, even if there are some sugars, like at the, uh, doing a true whole 30, you're not supposed to use like honey and things of that nature, even natural sweeteners, because the whole idea is you're removing all of the food triggers in your body to, to completely clean yourself out.
00:34:48
Speaker
And so now, you know, I use honey. we use agave syrup if we're doing something that needs like a, or maple syrup too, needs like a sugar sweetener in it. You know, I have a a great local honey source from a girlfriend of mine who keeps her own bees and she has delicious honey. Um, that's always the way to go, even if you don't. And I also so did that for allergy purposes. And also that goes back to doing the whole 30. That was the springtime. i have terrible, had, I should say terrible spring allergies, not so much in the fall, but I got allergy tested ended up doing shots and everything, but ah going whole 30.
00:35:25
Speaker
my system not being inflamed and being triggered by all the things and then also by the exterior or environmental, excuse me, the environmental triggers plus the inside of my body in fly or flight because of all the inflammation. ah I was really able to get through that spring better than I ever had any other spring that was prior to doing shots. And it was like, huh,
00:35:50
Speaker
I never really thought about this. And then I ended up, I did end up doing shots um several years later because I got stung in my garden. And the first sting that I had it was, you know, it was on my hand and it swelled up probably about a quarter size around the um sting.
00:36:10
Speaker
And then it happened about a week later on my other hand and my whole hand blew up like a balloon, like a water balloon and was puffy. And then I got stung one more time, discovered, unfortunately, there was a nest of um wasps up under one the eaves of one of my raised garden beds. And so it was the same wasp nest that they were coming from. And so I got stung one more time, a couple, i don't know if it was the next week or whatever. And then that time i swelled almost all the way up to my elbow And I was like, you know, and I was having some chest things, but I was thinking more that that was like adrenaline, like some chest, not pains, but tightness in my chest. And I was like, you know, I should probably get this checked out. So I went and I had allergy testing. And sure enough, I was ah ah allergic to five stinging things. so you know, honeybees, white face wasp.
00:37:00
Speaker
um I can't remember what else. It was all kinds of things. And so when you're allergic to something like that, that you can't control, um and you're having an anaphylactic reaction to it, they highly suggest you need to do allergy shots, which is just a mixture of the venom from that stinging whatever that you're getting at a very, very micro dose. And then they up it, up it, up it. And then you eventually, it's not that you're immune to it, but your body does not see it quite like the threat that it was before.
00:37:33
Speaker
So at the same time, my allergist, who I love, she was wonderful. um She was like, you know, while you're doing these shots and you've got all these seasonal allergies and environmental allergies, maybe you consider doing all of them at the same time. And let's see if we can get you to a place that's better. Um,
00:37:52
Speaker
to cope. I was like, that sounds great. So I did it and I've been, I won't say allergy free, but I have definitely been better than I ever was. So I'm super thankful for that. And I think there's a combination there of like getting the inside of my body healthy and then also doing this whole regimen of desensitizing my body to the things that it saw as such a threat before. So all this to say, getting back to Whole30 in 2016, that really was the kickoff to open my eyes to, wow there's so much else going on.
Gardening and Holistic Health
00:38:27
Speaker
And around that time as well, I've shared before, we were starting our garden, which I was super excited about. And i just got really into it and was outside in that garden and as much as I possibly could. Like Noah would go down for a nap. I'd go out in the garden, you know, and I worked and worked and worked. And I will just say it was the most one of the most healing times in my life because I was outside. i was getting vitamin D. I was working my body, you know, just in natural movement. I didn't need to, you know, exercise per se. It's what we call around here getting farm strong.
00:39:03
Speaker
And so I just felt really, really good. And so that really opened my eyes, as I said, to seeing we are tied the the food chain, the food supply chain so much. And also, well, what ah what is in our foods? Why am I having this response when I eat this or that? And so one of the questions that I did get, I tried to answer some of the questions earlier in what I was sharing, but one of the questions I got was, now how do you live? Like, do you live on a strictly gluten-free diet? diet. And no, I don't. So um back in I'll share this story and then tie that back around, but back in, i think it was probably three years ago now.
Dietary Changes and Allergy Management
00:39:50
Speaker
I got an injury on my hand when we were moving and it was from a cardboard box. And and this had happened about 12 years prior when we had moved before. It was the most bizarre thing, but I got a cut on my hand. It was in between my fingers, my, my pointer index finger and my middle finger. And it was from cardboard. and I didn't think anything of it. I mean, I cleaned it up and got some Neosporin on it and it was fine. At least I thought. And then it kind of, as it healed, it kind of still had this like redness. And then there was kind of like this scaling around it. it was very strange and it just got more and more exacerbated. And I didn't know what was going on. That's a whole nother like realm of my health journey.
00:40:35
Speaker
i I was going to the allergist at the same time and getting my shots and everything and asked her about like, is there something I could do? And she said, you know you can take steroid cream. And I had done a lot of reading. And I'd also talked to a friend who had had a really bad experience with her son. um ah getting, i think it was a, I don't want to say it was a staph infection, but it was her her son's body was rejecting the steroid. And I can't remember off the top of my tongue right this moment what that's called, but there is a term for it where your body rejects the steroid cream. And so it it like comes back with a fury and it was even more inflamed and aggravated. So her son, poor little guy, he was like two at the time maybe, his entire body was red and inflamed.
00:41:22
Speaker
So I remember hearing about that and I had done some other reading and I was like, you know, I really just would prefer not to have a steroid. And so she was like, okay, well, these are the suggestions that I would make. And that is to remove anything that has parabens or phthalates in it.
00:41:38
Speaker
um Sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium lauryl something else, SLS and SLAs maybe or SLF. I can't remember. um So in any of my cleaning products, my hand soap, my shampoo conditioner, anything that was going to be touching my skin, remove all of that from you know coming into contact with my skin and see if that helps. don't like No lotions, nothing. If I need a moisturizer using coconut oil, olive oil, or um think Eucerin has one as well, but what I used was the Cetaphil.
00:42:14
Speaker
It was a specific Cetaphil that was just a cream and no nothing in it, no fragrance, nothing. And it definitely got better. Like it it was getting better and then it would get inflamed. I would get into something. I would go out in the garden and put my hands in the dirt. It just like was constantly – I had to wear gloves every time I did the dishes.
00:42:34
Speaker
um But it was just this constant roller coaster. And I remember at one point in the springtime being a bet at a baseball game – And I was sitting next to my husband and it was so itchy too That was the other thing. It was just like, oh, I would scratch and scratch and scratch. And it would feel, i would feel a relief while scratching. But as soon as I would stop, it would just burn like crazy. And I remember sitting next to my husband at this baseball game and I was like, I literally want to amputate my hand right now. And I was in tears. I was like, it hurts so bad. I'm just so done with this. And I don't know why. And maybe it was just like it was springtime. And so i like i said, I've done Whole30 before. And I was like, I'm going to eliminate gluten and dairy for my diet and, you know, lose some pounds and, you know, whatever.
00:43:20
Speaker
and I did that. I did Whole30 and my hand cleared up. It was amazing. Like within 10 to 15 days. And I was like, oh my goodness. And And then I added a little bit of gluten back in and immediately it inflamed it up again. and I was like, okay, take that back out. And it started to get better.
00:43:38
Speaker
And so i was like, all right, six months. I'm going to commit to six months strict, no gluten whatsoever. And I did that and it fully healed completely. Like now I do dishes and don't have to wear gloves. um I do eat. So to tie that back in, I do eat gluten, but – I will say, and especially recently too, I've noticed I, so I, I do sourdough. I bake sourdough all the time. I use strictly organic bread flour or organic whole, um, sorry, organic all purpose flour.
00:44:12
Speaker
I will not ever again buy regular flour. i just can't do it. um Because what I've even noticed with that is it's not just the gluten. It is specifically the gluten from flour that is non-organic, which what does that mean exactly? Well, what that means is the flour that is non-organic is being sprayed with glyphosate because glyphosate is approved in the US. s And this is a whole discussion right now. And we can go into this with further detail.
Organic vs Non-Organic Food Concerns
00:44:42
Speaker
Suffice is to say, it's the glyphosate, which by the way, just a quick rundown of what that is. Glyphosate is Roundup, essentially. It is, so Bayer, the company Bayer, like is an aspirin, they own Monsanto. Monsanto is Roundup. They spray on the crops, Roundup, to kill bugs so that they can grow their crops. And And what happens is you can't just wash that off. I mean, obviously, if it's flour, that means you're spraying it on the crops, which is growing grain, the grain sprouts. you You're not washing your flour, right? So however they process it, you can't wash grain.
00:45:23
Speaker
Also, not to mention, it's getting in the soil and then it's going into the plant. You can't get away from it. I think with the flower, for me, the the fact that it's on there, it can't be washed off, was what was so um what was so bad for my gut because what would happen is not only with the skin situation, it would manifest there. and continue to um you know have that erupt again on my skin, i would immediately get bloaty. So this actually happened two, three weeks ago. We had a women's event at church and they had crumble cookies. And i was like, oh, I love a good snickerdoodle. I'm like one snickerdoodle. I'm going to be okay. Okay. I ate the snickerdoodle and I kid you not, I was doubled over walking to my car less than 20 minutes later, like the most excruciating pain. And i eat flour nearly every day at home with sourdough and I don't have any issues. And so that's when I was just like, all right, I can't do it anymore. And there are
00:46:27
Speaker
Things that I've noticed, you know, if you go to a restaurant and it's not a like strictly gluten-free dish, um sometimes I'm okay and sometimes I'm not. So it's just one of those situations where I have to ask myself that night, am I willing to reap the consequences of what this may turn into?
00:46:45
Speaker
So all of that to say, do I eat gluten-free 100% now? No, I don't. um i Like i said, if it's um organic, then I'm pretty much okay. But if if it's something that looks really good, i just have to weigh that. And sometimes I go for it and i regret it later, to be honest with you. like ah But that goes back to the whole unhealthy relationship with food.
00:47:13
Speaker
i i eat for comfort a lot of the time. I really do. um And I'll get into that another episode in like our relationship with food and like sins that we see in the church that are more, you know, what we would justify and say that are okay versus sins that aren't. So um that is like a ah very quick...
00:47:36
Speaker
I say quick, you guys, it's been almost an hour flyover of my health. But one of the things too that I wrote down and I forgot to talk about in the high school years is birth control. And that goes into a whole nother a discussion. And so I'll just save that for a different time. But I did, i was on birth control.
00:47:57
Speaker
um I say briefly, it was probably about two and a half, maybe three years in high school where Why was I on birth control in high school? Well, because we were all told when we were having these cramps and we were having, you know little pimples and zits pop up here and there, that that was just going to be the magic pill to cure everything. And, oh, you won't have the cramps anymore and that will help and this and that and the other. Little did we all know.
00:48:21
Speaker
back in the, you know, late 90s, early 2000s, that we were guinea pigs. And now that is all manifesting and coming to the surface with all of the infertility that we have going on in this country. And again, that spins off into a much deeper conversation for a different day. Uh, but I am going to have my friend on soon. I'm really excited. She actually worked in the Trump administration, um the first time around and we connected again recently. and I was just like, I had no idea you do did all these things. Like she was an epidemiologist before that. Like, She's done all these incredible things, but she ah put it very succinctly with the birth control um conversation and just like having kids and our hormones. And she she's talked about the hormonal symphony, you know, like there truly is our body as women.
00:49:16
Speaker
It's an incredible thing. I mean, obviously it's God's creation, but as women in particular, it is amazing how our bodies operate. And so i think I'll just leave it there for right now. There's so much more I could say, but I will just throw out this one statistic that I heard the other day. And I've got so many things, you know, written down and um things that will come to eventually when we get there. But this one thing that I was listening, I went back and was listening to the Maha round table that I went to in September of 2024. Um, It was incredible. And I was listening in particular to Alex Clark's um portion of that that roundtable discussion, and she was just so fired up that day. i was so thankful. I was sitting right behind her.
Impact of Food Additives on Health
00:50:06
Speaker
And just to hear the statistics that she was spouting out and the passion with which she spoke, it was amazing. At one point at the towards the end of it, she said, you know, we were... We we live in the land of the free and we never consented to co-parenting with the government and we want a divorce. And i was like, yes! I stood up and immediately started going nuts and crying. And then when I listened to it again the other day, i started crying again because it was just so powerful. And it's like...
00:50:36
Speaker
So amazing to see the discussions that are now becoming more commonplace, which I'm so thankful for because it's been hard for me, I'll say, to take a step back and really like unknow what I know because I just assume like so many people know what I know because why wouldn't they? um so to be able to slow it down and really explain things, that's why when I put out there on social media like, what questions do you have? It's really helpful when you do send them in because I'm like – I don't know. what What do I need to share? you know, what don't you know that I know?
00:51:08
Speaker
And that's tricky too, because you don't know what I know that you don't know. So this is why conversation so important. um And so we'll keep doing this. And I'm so thankful for you being here. oh but the statistic that i was going to share. Hello. um Okay. So ultra processed foods today make up 70% of the calories that kids eat these days. And you wonder why we have all these issues. I mean, obesity rates in this country have been skyrocketing over the last couple of decades. um And to just like to know my own personal experience and then to see so many different things, you know, after my eyes being opened up, like... I love that the the food dye is a in a conversation that is in the forefront now. um I remember going to we were invited to a friend's son's birthday party. They rented like a suite at the monster truck, like monster jam um at Capital One Arena. And this was, gosh, this was like six or seven years ago now. And when we went, it was it was wild. Yeah.
00:52:17
Speaker
I'll say that much. But I remember walking around and seeing these kids and they were like basically carrying these bucket drinks. It had a handle on it, not to mention like the skulls and, you know, whatever, just the, yeah that kind of stuff I don't like. But all that to say, it was like a bright blue drink or a bright green or bright red drink. And I'm like, oh my goodness, like that has got to be driving them crazy. And you see these kids like dropping on the floor, having meltdowns.
00:52:45
Speaker
Several years later, then come to find out all of these food dyes, they make you nuts. They rewire you your brain. They contribute to hypertension and ADHD and all these things. And you wonder why kids can't sit still when they have like gushers in their lunchbox for lunch or snack. like They're being fed incredible amounts of sugar and processed stuff that's truly messing with their DNA um at the end of the day, which is a scary thing. And for me as a mom, I carry like such a mantle of responsibility to steward what God has entrusted me with. Well, I just want to do a good job
00:53:26
Speaker
in the lord's eyes with caring for not only my son but also my husband and our family and i want to good by my community and my friends and help them as well um and i know sometimes i'll just say i can come across as extremely impassioned and perhaps judgmental. And I never want to come across that way. I i really don't. I always want it to be a conversation. i never want to come across as preachy. And so this is me giving you permission to ask questions and um you know hold me to account as far as a conversation goes, um because I always want to be an encouragement and never come across as
Episode Wrap-Up and Community Engagement
00:54:04
Speaker
judgmental.
00:54:05
Speaker
With that having been said, I think about five minutes ago, I said, I'm going to wrap it up. And I've finally done that. Thanks so much for sticking around this long. If you did something I need to start saying is if you liked this content or found it helpful, please share it with a friend, like, comment, subscribe, hit the little ding button. um If you're listening to this on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, you can leave a review, five-star review. That would be wonderful. And you can do that every now and again. It's not just a one and done. So if you've done it before, feel free to do it again. i would appreciate it. ah Yeah. So to God be the glory in it all. I'm so thankful to be able to do this and just share what little knowledge I feel like I do have. So thanks so much. And we'll see you next time.