Getting Back Our Health

I always have these goals, dreams, desires, wants and never seem to actually follow through.  My goal of being healthy and having a healthy family is not something that I can afford to not follow through on!  I need to get back to buying healthy foods, cooking healthy meals and snacks, and not giving into temptation.  I need to not give into the kids' wants for unhealthy foods.  I need to make sure that we have healthy snacks that can take care of certain cravings that we have i.e., salt or sugar.  I need to have healthy juices and mostly give the kids water.

My health, my husband's health, and my oldest son's health depend on me, my shopping, and my cooking. My twins health also depends on me to, but they are healthy and I just need to keep them that way.  My husband has high blood pressure, I have had issues with pregnancy induced and stress induced blood pressure as well as food sensitivities, and my BRCA2 positive status, and my oldest son has food sensitivities that seem to cause him to have spacey, behavior issues as well as sleep issues, skin issues and others.  Sometimes, I think I may have spacey issues related to food.  I want to make sure that my twins have a good foundation with food so that as they get older and have more temptations, they will have a good foundation to know what choices to make.

My goal is to start to research what food does to all of us.  I know that we need to have gluten out of the house, sugar out of the house, and dairy out of the house.  I am fearful that my oldest son has signs and symptoms of autism and I really want to make sure that what we eat is not contributing to those signs and symptoms.  I want to teach my children how to make healthy choices as well as re-teach myself and teach myself some new ideas on health.

This is not going to be easy on any of us, but it is something I need to do.  One of the hard things is going to be to allow my kids to refuse meals because they want to eat unhealthy foods.  My biggest issue with this is that they are all on the low end of the weight scale.  I don't want them to lose weight, but I don't want that to be a reason that they have poor eating habits.  They say that kids will eat and will not starve.  I just need to remember that I need to stay strong and offer healthy foods for all of us and deal with some of the potential withdrawal symptoms so that we get to the healthy place that I want us to be and crave healthy foods, not foods that are bad for us.  I want to be able to listen to my body and give it what it needs.  I want my kids to be able to learn this too.  Day by day and even moment by moment, is how I need to look at this.  I need to get us all on track so that we can move forward and be healthy!

Amy

The Gut Brain Connection

The more I research, the more I realize that there is a gut brain connection.  The problem is that I can't seem to make the necessary diet changes to see if there is a food connection to certain issues that I am facing.  One specific issue that I think may be a result of my diet, is my inability to concentrate and feeling spacey.  There are certainly more issues, but I won't go into them now.  Part of the issue is that I really believe that certain foods have a hold on me and that they some what act in the same way as a drug acts in our bodies.  With that being said, I really need to just stop eating the foods that I think trigger certain symptoms in myself.  The hard part about food addiction is that you need food to live.  Some of the foods that are triggers may be around all the time, unlike drugs and alcohol which you can get away from most of the time!

As a social worker, I truly believe that there are time when medication and therapy are the only way to deal with certain brain issues, but as a social worker I also know that there is more to a person than just symptoms.  There is a whole person to look at and just because you stop the symptoms, doesn't mean that you fix the problem.  This is where I think social work and holistic health can really work together. 

Since I think that there is a problem, I need to look at the big picture and try to figure out what i can do to really fix the problem, not just mask it by covering up the symptoms.  I also think that in reality, changing my eating habits, such as eliminating sugar, gluten and gluten containing foods, and dairy, will in the long run benefit my whole life.  I  am truly hopeful that by changing my diet, I will become a healthier person all around.  I also think that changing my family's diet is going to be really important and also really tricky.  My kids are already picky eaters, but at least my husband will eat anything.

As always, I am going to try to move forward and eat the way I need and want to eat.  Iam hopeful that I will soon be writing more positive things about the way I am feeling and I am hoping that my mental clarity will greatly improve!  I am hoping to write about the different types of foods that I will add to my diet and the different foods that I am eliminating.  Any information regarding diet changes and these triggers is greatly appreciated!

Amy