Food, glorious food!

One of the many suggestions given to me by people has been for me to change my diet.  Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, cookie diet, becoming a vampire, you get the picture.  I have briefly skimmed over this before but I do want to stress the importance of each person finding out for themselves through an elimination diet or cleanse for 30 days.  I promise this will not kill you!!  I'm on day 30 of my second elimination cleanse.  I did it again because I feel great when I'm on the cleanse...not that I'm climbing mountains or running marathons but when I am not eating preservatives and yucky hormones and GMO's the 'machine' which is my body runs efficiently.  Is it easy?  Yes and no. It's even easier when you have a buddy (isn't this how it is in life though, right?!).  Giving up your favorite foods for a month may seem daunting but it's worth it in the long run if you find out what is making you sick, right?  The hard part for me was when my head and jaw were hurting so badly and I  couldn't even chew I just wanted saltines for my nausea but alas, not on the plan!  I made do with homemade and quite yummy chicken bone broth.  Flexibility is key when you have a chronic illness!

My point is cleanse then slowly add food groups every 4 days to see how your body reacts (beans, gluten free grain, dairy, all grains, soy, sugars/alcohol).  When I looked up fibromyalgia online and what foods not to eat I got so many different answers.  There are some similarities like MSG, nitrates and artificial sweeteners but aside from that I think everyone is different.  That nasty GMO laden corn really flares me up and it's in EVERYTHING!  Another thing that makes me worse that just makes me want to cry are...sweets.  Like cakes, pies, and cookies, oh my!  Please excuse me while I retrieve a napkin to wipe the drool off my chin.  Hey, a girl can dream I just can't partake :).  I also have read about the adverse effects of soy and personally choose to stay away from it, caffeine and gluten.  Not always easy with the gluten but I try :)

When it comes to supplements I find I need to regularly take B complex, Magnesium, D3, and fish oil.  A friend who is studying nutrition suggested I drastically increase my fish oil and start taking turmeric and nettle so I'm going tomorrow to buy some and I will report back in about a month.

Making changes is never easy especially when you don't feel well.  Heck that's an understatement for those of us with FM, right?!  I feel like $@&?!!  Yes, it was hard for me to prepare a healthy lunch instead of popping that meal into the microwave.  But I found it got easier once I got into my regiment and I found many recipes that made me lose my yearning for junk food!  I challenge all of you...yes even YOU!  You're in charge of your body, not the fibromyalgia do this for 30 days for YOU!  Keep a journal of how you feel.  Remember, if you don't ever make changes then nothing ever changes.