Some answers for ME...

I don't talk a lot about myself here on this blog. Most of my life centers around my family and their activities, or the appraisal business. As a typical Mom, I tend to measure my success based upon them, rather than my personal achievements. I always kind of figure that "my time" will come again when the kids are gone. Until then.....my family is my priority.

With that said, I will admit that in the past year (particularly in the past 3-4 months), through Jennica's trials and tribulations, I've gained a lot of knowledge about nutritional impacts on the general health of the human body. I took a nutritional course in college, and I thought I had a pretty good understanding before now of how important nutrition can be. However, I wasn't living it and I didn't truly understand the ramifications of foods and vitamin and mineral deficiencies upon everything we do. In fact, I admit to be totally and completely annoyed in the past by people that "preach" naturopathic treatments. I wasn't against naturopathic medicine in any way. I just didn't necessarily embrace it. In some cases, I still don't. But through Jennica, I'm becoming a believer in "integrative medicine," where conventional doctors work side-by-side with naturopaths, therapists, and nutritionists to develop "whole body" plans for their patients.

Well......in reading about nutritional treatments for children with neuro-developmental disorders and becoming aware of the depths of success far beyond conventional medical treatments for the same conditions, I started seeing and noticing things in my own life that I had refused to recognize before now. For example, my exhaustion, that I had simply chalked up to having four active kids and being self-employed with little time for relief from our wild schedule. My joint pain, which comes and goes but seems to be worsening over time. Could it all possibly be tied to my diet? Could I be allergic to foods, just like Jen? Could I have vitamin/mineral deficiences that were causing my symptoms? I decided that I wanted to know.

So I found a really great naturopath, in the process of looking for a new naturopath for Jennica. She's easy to talk to, she's funny, and she instantly grasped what I wanted to accomplish. A whole bunch of blood later, I got my results. Today.

I'm wildly allergic to everything under the sun that is related to dairy foods. Yogurt/cheese/whey/casein/milk/lactose.........that whole entire food family. AND I'm horribly allergic to cane sugar (which is going to be the real killer for me). I'm also suffering from a really severe B12 deficiency, and a pretty standard deficiency of Vitamin D. Otherwise, I'm actually a VERY healthy person.

So, believe it or not, I actually learned today how to give myself Vitamin B12 shots. I've given shots to dogs and horses for years, so it doesn't really bug me, but its still a little weird to give myself shots. The dairy and sugar will have to be eliminated from my diet. Totally. I might have to have a grieving period for pizza. And don't give me any BS about "cheese-less pizza". Pizza without cheese is NOT pizza. Just let me grieve......

But my new friend and doctor is pretty convinced that my joint pain and exhaustion is all treatable with correcting my diet and re-building my vitamin deficiencies. All in all, I got off rather easy. I still get to eat chocolate. And very shortly, I should be bouncing off the walls with newfound energy. I'll keep you posted....