All of my life I have battled with being food healthy and in High School I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Those who have been told that they have this same thing will understand the difficulties of having it. The doctors continued to change my medications...which literally led to messy situations. They finally gave up and basically said, "we don't really know what is going on." Oh good I thought...this is what we pay you for?... So needless to say I learned to deal with the constant pain and for lack of better words...constipation. No joke...before going on trips my family would have to wait for me in the car for about 40 minutes so I could try to do my business. Many of my youth days...when our youth group would go on trips... I would find myself in a gas station bathroom...and the whole van load of crazy teens waiting on me. This became a way of life..and I tolerated it. I have tolerated it so much that about 2 years ago I started to develop a pain in my stomach. This pain continued to get worse... and it started to hurt when I would lay on my stomach. I continued to tell myself it was nothing until about a little over a month ago. I needed to move a microwave from one side of the kitchen...well when I went to lift it... I kneeled over in so much pain I could barely stand straight up. I finally decided that it was time to go to a doctor. Little did I know that I would soon find out I was allergic to food... literally! It was the end of the world as I sat in the doctors office as she named the food: corn, grains, rice, yeast, wheat, egg whites (moderately allergic. The next sentence was the worst... "I am putting you on the GAPS diet." Oh dear LORD... I thought... What is this crazy diet... I mean really The GAPS diet?... Well it was exactly what I didn't want to hear.. You can't have potatoes, bread, pasta, cookies, cake...HOW AM I GOING TO SURVIVE?!!! There goes my Little Debbies, pizza... SUSHI...SWEET SUSHI!!! I thought my life was over... but little did I know...my life had just began.
*Confession #1:... I am a survivor... of what you ask...well this little bit of information that I am about to give to you was something that took me days to mentally process...I honestly could not believe for one minute what the doctor said to me... You have parasites! EXCUSE ME... come again?! Listen to me... I am not a garden... gardens have parasites... I am a human being for goodness sakes! After I let the shock of this horrible news soak in my doctor gave me some stuff to kill the parasites. I am proud to announce that all of my parasites will be gone soon! And well yes... they are being passed through well... we don't need to go any further.
*Confession #2:...This confession is kind of an embarrassment to me because it is unbelievingly crazy how far I had really let myself go. All my life I feel like I have served others and I am grateful that God has allowed me to do this but in the long run... I have failed to take care of myself. I started coming to the realization that how can I fully care for someone when I can't totally care for myself. As of January 21, 2013 I weighed in at 205lbs. It startled me to see that number on the scale... I can't believe that I have allowed myself to get to that point. With discouragement comes encouragement and as of today February 12, 2013 I weigh 190 lbs. In less than a month I have dropped 15 lbs!
This goes on to say...as I was saying earlier you are what you eat. It was nothing for me to run to a local fast food joint to grab something quick for dinner. I was literally eating myself to death. My body has been made up of nothing but garbage. I am starting to feel whole...and the best part is that I have no more pain in my gut. I am starting to feel better about myself and about my life. I continue to pray that I can stay focused and be self disciplined!
