(Food is a subject fraught with different opinions. All I can say is that the following is based on my own experience, and regardless of anything, I feel better now that I've felt in the past two years.)
About a year ago, I went on a serious health kick; I was eating clean and exercising, and for a while I was feeling excellent. However, after a few weeks I was feeling awful: I had a host of stomach and digestive problems, I was exhausted, couldn't sleep...It was extremely confusing (not to mention frustrating!) to think that I was doing everything that I thought I should in order to be healthy and yet feel worse than ever. And so, I temporarily shelved my clean eating and weight loss plans (and subsequently gained about 15 lbs).
Fast forward to this spring: my mum recommended that I read The Plan by nutritionist Lyn-Genet Recitas, and it kind of changed my life. I had already begun to be more conscious about what I was putting into my body (reading ingredients more than ever and being quasi-militant about not eating chemicals), but this book opened my eyes even more. In the past, I'd considered that I might be lactose or gluten intolerant; I'd cut them out of my diet, hadn't noticed much of a change, and resumed consumption. After reading The Plan, I embarked on a twenty day elimination diet, and lo and behold, found that I felt AWFUL after eating gluten (and, surprisingly, corn!).
I've been gluten and corn free (with a few slip ups) since about May, and I can't believe the difference in how I feel; most notably, my mental state has done a complete 180. It's embarrassing to say, but I used to cry almost every day, and usually over the most insignificant non-issues; since I've cut out corn and gluten, I'm happy to say that this girl has ceased to be a weepy mess! I've also been sleeping at night (I used to have the worst insomnia), I'm free of brain fog, and I've been steadily losing weight. I also find that I don't crave junky foods like I used to, and I've stopped nervous, comfort-eating (YES!).
I've been making the majority of my meals from scratch at home, eating a ton of veggies and drinking about thirteen cups of water a day (one of my favourite meals up there is poached eggs on gluten free toast with spinach!).
People seem to always feel sorry for me when I tell them that I've stopped eating the aforementioned foods, but really, it's not so hard to stay away from foods that you don't want to eat. Yeah, it's a bummer sometimes when I think of how I can't just order a pizza or eat churros, but the positive effects really outweigh it. There are so many tasty foods out there to try that have great health benefits and I'm excited to keep exploring them!
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