Happy New Year and welcome to the first Meatless Monday linkup of 2017. Join Annmarie and me every Monday as we kick off the week with a delicious meatless recipe! This week I’m doing something a little different. Since it’s the second day of the year and we all have a brand new, clean slate, I’d like to share my intentions for 2017 in terms of healthful eating, cooking, and baking.
Intentions for Health and Happiness in 2017
Living with Inflammation
It seems almost everyone I know is afflicted with some sort of inflammatory ailment or another. IBS, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, gluten sensitivity or Celiac disease, arthritis in its many forms. And those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Unfortunately, I’ve been battling an autoimmune, inflammatory disease myself over the last several months.
I have what’s called psoriatic arthritis. It’s been clinically diagnosed by my dermatologist and my rheumatologist. I’ll be getting x-rays of my SI joint this week to confirm the diagnosis. While I was being diagnosed with PsA, I was simultaneously diagnosed with hypermobility, which I will discuss more in-depth later on. For now, let me tell you about psoriatic arthritis. PsA is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease. It’s not as severe as RA (that I know of), but it can be debilitating if not taken care of. I’m sure this topic will come up every now and again in my posts going forward. But for now, I’ll keep it in terms of my diet. I have been recommended to look at medical marijuana to help with my arthritis and the pain it brings to my joints. It is something that should be looked at and discussed with my doctor. My friend uses it for her chronic pain and considering it is as easy for her to get a weed delivery sacramento ca, she found that the use of certain cannabis products has helped reduce the pains she feels from living with arthritis. There may be a dispensary close to where I am, but I’ll have to see what my doctor says on that front.
Dietary Changes for Health
Just before MCM, I was given a sample pack of prescription pills to ease some symptoms of PsA. Here we are three months later and I haven’t started the medication yet. To say I’m terrified of the side effects is an enormous understatement. But I also don’t want to do any further damage to my joints by waiting too long to start it. I do, however, want to give myself one fair shot at helping myself before going the drug route.
My intention for the month of January is to detox 100% from sugar.
Going sugar-free will be incredibly hard for me. I’m a sugar fiend through and through. But I also know through my own research and brief experimentation in the past that sugar is a huge contributor to inflammation in the body and is also highly addictive. Since I don’t particularly want to be shackled to scary prescription drugs for the rest of my life (at least not yet), I will be diligent about what I’m eating to see if it makes any difference for me. And if it works, I’ll continue this course forevermore.
Therefore, my intentions are to make a lifestyle change, stick with it, and hopefully stall or possibly even reverse my condition.
Healing Through Food
What does this mean for you? I’ll still post many of the same types of recipes I ordinarily post. But I’ll be trying a lot of new recipes and making healthy swaps for things like sugars, oils, and salts. In reality, my detox from sugar will likely benefit you as well!
As well as just detoxing from sugar, just giving your body and colon the much-needed detox that it requires could be important for you living a healthier life going forward. I’ve known so many people who have gone through this process when they want to improve their overall wellness as well as wanting to lose some weight. So much so, they’ve even looked for capsules available from SupplementRelief.com to aid them when it comes to making the change they want to see. And let me just tell you, it’s definitely worked. They look and feel amazing, and it all started by simply detoxing from sugar. Who knew that such a small change could make a big difference? If that doesn’t persuade you to give it a go too, I don’t know what will.
I’m very much looking forward to the positive effects the changes in my diet will have on my body. I’m hopeful this experiment of one will be a huge success. There will likely be a learning curve but since I’m already a relatively clean eater it shouldn’t be too hard to manage. I look forward to trying and creating new recipes and dishes.
If you’re on a specialized diet and have any tips and tricks, I would love to hear them. I’m determined to change my life without the use of man-made prescriptions if possible. And of course, if this doesn’t work, I will happily take advantage of the scientific advances of our species. I would be a fool not to.
Do I wish I wasn’t afflicted with this ailment? Of course. But since it’s the start of a new year, it’s time to take hold of my fate and move forward in a positive direction. I look forward to a delicious and healthy 2017 with you! Happy New Year!
xo
TALK TO ME!
Do you suffer from an autoimmune or inflammatory disease?
What is your favorite swap for sugar in baked goods?
Loading InLinkz ...Linking up with Confessions of a Mother Runner and A Whisk and Two Wands for Meatless Monday, and Marathons and Motivation for Fitness & Food.
