My Fundamentals of Joy: #1 - Food

I'm so excited to be sharing this story and opportunity with you! View this email in your browser Joy (R)Evolution On Food A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the rippling effects of my period of post-partum depression. The biggies were financial and physical. More on that here. Cast back a few years, I was 40 pounds over weight, depressed, and seeking a whole new way of being. I didn't want to "go back" to the way things were. I wanted something completely different. While my husband and I are working on the final pieces of this completely different picture, the foundation is solidly laid for this part of our journey. Over the next 3 weeks, I'm going to share the fundamentals of the foundation of my new life. I'll have gifts for you to easily incorporate any of my fundamentals that you want to pick up and place into your life. FUNDAMENTAL #1: Food One of the biggest contributors to me reclaiming my health was radically changing my diet. The catalyst for me was that my weight would not come down after my second child was born. I felt so sluggish and uncomfortable. Frances was almost 2 years old and I was still in my maternity clothes. Bleh! They were getting so worn out. I didn't want to buy new clothes because I was sure that I would lose the weight. Well, it wasn't happening. My awesome neighbor and nanny is a super star. She's full of energy, lives a very full life, and is super strong and thin. She eats simply mostly from her garden that she keeps going almost year round. In the winter of 2014, she was getting ready to have her hip replaced and did a 3-week detox diet as part of her preparation. This meant: gluten free, dairy free, soy free, sugar free, caffeine free, corn free, alcohol free, and for one week, vegan. That felt so radical to me. So I joined her. Little did I know that I was about to discover some very critical information about myself. First, Vegan is not for me! While my plate is now 2/3 vegetables for most meals, I include a protein with every meal. It's the only way that I can keep my blood sugar stable which keeps my emotions stable which keeps me sane. I'm very particular about the source and quality of my animal protein for a multitude of reasons. The bottom line, a healthy animal means a healthier me. Second, losing weight is difficult when I eat my meal then polish off my kids' plates. Doing the detox diet completely removed me from the normal fare of our kitchen. I was gluten free, dairy free, soy free, sugar free, caffeine free, etc. No more meals after meals for me! Third, Dairy and Gluten were out! At the end of the 3 weeks, I slowly added foods back in. I got to dairy in the second week. And oh baby oh, it was horrendous. After 2 days in a row of eating dairy, I got and attack of the gal bladder that left me writhing on the floor. At the same time, a huge calcium deposit formed at the base of my right ring finger. It happened in an hour. I'm telling you, it hurt like a mother until it was fully formed! Bye, Bye Dairy! Gluten didn't have that affect on me. But I found that wheat products can be such a "go to" that we miss out on other, more nutritious grains. And I just felt more energetic so I went with it. The bonuses were great too. I had a long term battle with eczema on my face. After I eliminated those foods it became really easy to test other culprits. I found that coconut was the catalyst for my skin condition. I had jumped on the coconut train and was eating it, drinking it, using it as body oil. Well, my body didn't like that. Doctors will tell you that it's not proven that food causes eczema because there aren't any studies that can support that conclusion. That's where a good self-experiment can come in. A year later we took our kids off dairy and gluten. Why? Liddy, my oldest, had an extreme and chronic case of eczema on her legs. It was so painful looking. We tried moisturizing it but that didn't help. The solutions my doctor offered up were trying an elimination diet or use a steroid cream. We didn't use the cream but it took us awhile to get on board with going through the pain of taking away Liddy's cheese. The tipping point for us was that she could be emotionally volatile. All kids can, I know but it was frequent enough we had to try something new besides patience and discipline. It took 2 months. Her legs are now totally clear and her disposition is much more even keel. No steroids. No extensive and expensive allergy tests. No drugs to balance her emotions. Yes, she misses her cheese. And sometimes we do give it to her now as a treat when we go out to dinner. But that is very rare. And it's obvious when she does eat it but it clears her system quickly and we are back to normal within a day or so. Back to me...I didn't lose the 40 pounds in those 3 weeks of my elimination diet. It took me several months and more diet tweaking to do that. But here's what happened. I was no longer triggering an immune response every time I ate my food. It was like I had this huge battle going on inside that caused inflammation every time I ate! Every time! For Years!!! It's important to note that I don't feel deprived or restricted on this "diet." I don't even view it as a diet. I eat a wide variety of foods that I really enjoy. I've been making food selections and putting them in my cart for years at the grocery store. Now I just choose different things. And for the first time I'm never hungry. Never thirsty. Always satiated. And I'm my natural size. (By the way, I didn't exercise my way to my natural size. I ate my way there). Eating this way is a lot easier than it was even 10 years ago but it still has its challenges. One is on the pocketbook. The other is making sure that if I buy processed foods that they are made with quality ingredients. The gluten free/dairy free style of eating can be no better or even worse if I don't read the labels. That leads me to Gift Time! If you are interested in exploring this way of eating further, I'm here to help you cut your research time and to save you money by sending you directly to the best sources. I made two awesome discoveries that have made shopping and eating easy and fun. I'm delighted to share them with you! First: My go to cookbook: Nourishing Meals: Healthy Gluten Free Meals For The Entire Family. The recipes are really nice and they work as written. This link takes you to the Nourishing Foods web site. There you can find an elimination diet similar to what I did along with loads of information on eating gluten and dairy free. On a personal note, I find content rich sites like these can be overwhelming if I don't have a specific question in mind. If you are of the same mind, just buy the cookbook. It has as great introduction to why to eat this way and how to go about doing it. Second: Thrive Market. This is the first socially conscious online marketplace offering best-selling natural and organic products at wholesale prices. It Rocks!  They have everything from household goods to my favorite foods for a fraction of retail cost. Think Costco meets your favorite natural and organic grocery store. I like it so much, I affiliated with them. If you haven't discovered this fantastic market, check it out! I included a link below. Now it's your turn. What tweaks have you made to your diet that support your energy? What have you tried that didn't work? There's a lot more I could share about this journey. Is there anything else you would like to know?Reply right now and let me know. Joy (R)Evolution Home Updates: www.KateEskew.com I'm feeling very full of myself this week because I have figured out how to turn these letters into blog posts! Yahoo! So, if you accidentally delete an e-mail or want to return to a story, from now on you can find it on my web site. And the best part is that now we can have a conversation! Pop on over to my blog at some point and let me know what you're thinking. I'd love to hear from you. Kate's Blog. I have 2 spaces remaining for my private, one-on-one, custom coaching. If you're thinking about it, take the next step and schedule your free discovery session. Get In-Joy in your way. It's pretty awesome. You'll see... The Joy (R)Evolution is in full swing! Join me on this journey. Invite your friends! Go to www.KateEskew.com comment on my slowly growing blog! Join me at Denise Dee's Brouhaha. Coach with Me! Your Joy is waiting. Share Forward Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? 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