“The future is no place to place your better days” -Dave Matthews lyric

Where to start? There are so many different reasons why I am starting this blog, but mainly I want to share with my little corner of the internet what I am thinking and feeling right now at the beginning of the road (I hate the term “journey” but I guess that’s really what this is).

On April 24, 2015, I started down my current “twisty” path. In the weeks previous, I had a mildly scary endometrial biopsy result that prompted me to finally take action. That along with my fasting blood glucose sitting at around 108 (pre-diabetes). With the help of a naturopathic doctor, I started a plan for healing. I am going to be writing a series of posts to fill in the back story, but for now those are the key points to the “why” of why I am here. This whole thing is not about weight loss for me, it is about seeking health and wellness/feeling better about myself. With that being said, reading people’s stories, weight is always what people want to see, and so I will use it as one of the parameters to gauge my progress. There is SO much more to this than an number on a scale though, and I want you to be aware of that. I am 5’4″ tall and on that day I weighed in at 230.8lbs. I seemed to have misplaced my measurements from that day, but I know that my waist was a whopping 45in and my hips were ~42in. Bust was 42in. I was wearing the sizes 20 and 2X in most clothing.

I had the following “diagnosed” medical conditions, PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), GERD (acid reflux), allergies, frequent yeast infections, and acne. I caught almost every germ that my 4 and 2 year old brought home from daycare. I had no energy and was often depressed. After the biopsy results came in, it was the epiphany moment that made me realize I needed to change. Change is hard, but cancer would be a lot harder, so I dived in.

The Plan: The naturopath suspected I had Leaky Gut, potentially SIBO, and put me on a strict Whole30 style Paleo diet for 90 days at minimum. For those of you who don’t know, this type of diet would eliminate all grains, all dairy, all processed food, and all refined sugar (basically all sugar except for fruit). She added in the supplements of a multivitamin that had bio- available forms of some of the B vitamins, chromium, Vitamin D, and the herb Berberine. I will most likely be posting about all of this stuff individually, but for now, I wanted you to have the bones of the plan.

Is it working?: Currently, I am a few days shy of those original 90 days. My weight today is 213.4, and I haven’t measured myself, but I know I have lost at least 3in in my waist and 2in each in my bust and hips. I’m currently fitting into sizes 16 and XL. I feel SO. MUCH. BETTER. My brain fog has cleared, I have more energy, I am generally more upbeat about things (most days lol). I have stopped taking my acid reflux medication, which I had been on for 10+ years. In the past three months, I’ve been to the gym, tried Crossfit, started doing Yoga, tried Zumba, and actually WANT to be physically active. For anyone that knows me IRL (in real life) that right there is just plain amazing! 🙂

I have been reading Paleo/Primal/Ancestral Health blogs for the past 5 years, and to me the beginning/where people start is always the most interesting. It was always those posts that I could relate to the most, and is what inspired me to start this blog. I also think it will be a benefit to me to keep track of my story and feelings to look back on and adapt to different things that are working or not. In doing this, if I can help myself that will be wonderful, but if I can help just one other person, it will make all these words worth it.

I love comments, so if you are here reading, tell me about it! Even if just to say hi.