Nothing is impossible with GOD!

I realize this post was supposed to be about inflammation, but let's talk about something a bit more exciting, shall we?  Let's talk babies!!! Some quick facts about me: many visits to specialists, lots of questions, very few answers and a diagnosis of pcos over 17 years ago. The hubs and I never did fertility treatments and never felt led to. If you have, that's fine, it just wasn't for us. Adoption was on our hearts and we felt like if GOD wanted to give us a child, he would. Plus, I always questioned if treatments with the possibility of failure was being a good steward of his resources. Again, my ramblings...I don't judge if you have chosen a different road. 9 years ago, we were blessed with the most amazing child. She is wise beyond her years, loves The Lord, is super smart (gifted and talented and reads on a 6th grade level, holla), another area in which god has moved beyond anything we deserve.

We felt like our family wasn't complete, but didn't feel led in any particular direction. When I began the journey to renewed health, childbearing did not cross my mind. However, little did I know, God was orchestrating change in our lives. BIG CHANGE. for those of you who think diet doesn't change lives, ponder this for a moment... Fifteen years of marriage with no babies, 6 weeks of the Daniel Plan= a successful pregnancy.

Now, it's a lot for me to take in, but at the age of 34, I'm going to be a momma again. Why am I do passionate about the Daniel Plan? Because God used this plan to RADICALLY transform not only my life, but the lives of our little soon to be family of 4!

If that's not the epitome of Jeremiah 29:11, I don't know what is. Gods plans for us are to give us a hope and a future!  I praise him!

Getting Started

The last couple days have been especially hectic and I'm just now getting a second to post.  My draft has been sitting, just waiting for attention...sigh. Before going any farther with my thoughts on the plan, I must say one very important thing.  First and foremost, I have no medical training-- a fondness for learning, but no real training in nutrition or a health-related field.  If you are interested in starting this plan, please check with your physician first.  While I believe the plan is totally balanced for the average person, those with chronic disease may need to adjust.  My husband needed adjustments, as in more snacks,but he's always been a difficult one.  HA!

Now that I've got that boring little speech over with, I will go over some of the basics of the plan.  This plan basically cuts out all gluten, dairy, simple carbs and sugars, especially on the first part of the plan, the fast.  Caffeine is also very limited, although one to two glasses of coffee are allowed daily. I know y'all are thinking "hold the phone!"  It is difficult and does take some adjustment. The idea is this: by eliminating these factors from our diet, we can see if food allergies are driving our health issues.  We've all heard of people who are lactose intolerant and allergic to wheat, right? Some poor souls are allergic to both or even have mild allergies that haven't been diagnosed. The plan offers checklists to record all health-related issues before and after the cleanse.  This would be a good list to take to a physician for more thorough testing or just something to keep in mind in the future.  Weight loss has been a wonderful benefit of this plan, but this plan is not meant to be a DIET, it is meant to promote a healthy lifestyle/spiritual life...a life that has balance.  What's the difference?  It is meant to improve current health and provide balanced nutrition while highlighting what GOD says about our bodies, obedience and outlook.

My first step was  getting my hands of The Daniel Plan book.  This book can be bought at Lifeway, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.  The book should be less than $20.00 or you may even find it at your local library. Numerous different resources are available for this plan and you may be interested in them, but I've specifically used this book only.  Recipes are provided for the fast and maintenance part of the plan, an easy-peasy meal schedule, and plan for exercise is included for convenience.  I've challenged myself to recreate recipes for the plan (yes, I'm a dork), if this doesn't enthuse you, you may also be interested in the cookbook.

Some of the ingredients needed to prepare recipes were new to me.  I'm not going to say any ingredients are outlandish, but many I didn't have and yes, they can be expensive.  I'm not a wait a see kind of girl, I tend to go in full-force once I get my answer on something.  So, I had a 350.00 week at Kroger and Whole Foods before starting.  My suggestion would be to prepare over a couple, may even three weeks. 

A few ideas that helped me:

*Buying the very best quality products I could afford.  On this plan, I've eaten lots of apples and peanut butter for snacks.  Going to Bennett's Orchard and getting crisp, juicy apples really kept me on track at first.  Likewise for olive oils, balsamic vinegars, tomatoes, etc.  When you completely change up your routine, you don't want to be eating mushy, tough .99 per lb. roma tomatoe.  Sam's Club has Campari tomatoes and they are delish! Try them.

*Make sure you have a good, easy-to-clean blender or other product for making smoothies.  Smoothies are filling and so easy.  Some of these recipes are time consuming.  You will want some cheater recipes. 

*I took one day a week when I had the most time (ha, go ahead and laugh momma's), and created several dishes at one time.  For instance, I would prep a huge salad, make a cucumber, tomato and onion salad, make balsamic vinaigrette, cut up fresh fruit for smoothies, put overnight oatmeal in the crockpot, etc.  Thirty minutes of prep time saved my rear end during the week.  Promise.

*When starting the plan, my Vera Bradley purses had to work overtime.  I always carry fresh fruit, water and whole nuts with me in case I get somewhere with no food options OR I decided I'm so ravenously hungry I can't wait till I get home to eat. 

*Perhaps the thing that helped me the most: reading through the book slowly.  I poured over the meal plan until I had the basics, but only read 2 to 3 pages of the book per night.  For me, it was a daily dose of encouragement...the included scriptures always seemed timely and spoke to me.  As I continued to read about the benefits of taking care of my health, even on my most discouraging days, I felt renewed to my commitment.

This plan specifically mentions that those with allergies, diabetes, and inflammation will benefit.  I've mentioned inflammation a few times, and will go into a bit more depth on my next post.  Inflammation is what has driven my health problems and many don't understand the connection between this process and what we eat. Also, look for a sample recipe so you can see what you may be getting yourself into!

Backgrounds and Beginnings

Welcome to my blog...this is not my first experience with blogging, but certainly my first "public" blog.  Sharing personal information is hard for me, but honestly, with the help of GOD, I've had a life-changing experience, and feel like I need to share. So, here's a bit of background...

 

I come from a line of women who can COOK.  I'm talking about stick-to-your-ribs, buttery, creamy, cheesy goodness at every meal.  Cooking is a past-time, a hobby, and a way of life around here.  Like my momma, I can cook and bake with the best of 'em.  In fact, I consider hospitality and sharing food with other's one of my gifts.  I mean, it can't be all bad right?  Taking a good meal to someone who is ill, or breaking bread with friends is a good thing, but what about the consequences?  To be honest, these same women who are amazing cooks, are also living, breathing autoimmune and blood disorders.  These disorders are spurred on by obesity and (drumroll) inflammation...cousins, aunts, sisters, we all suffer from excess weight.  We live in the South and supposedly extra weight is expected, what's the harm? We can pop our pills and swallow it down with sweet tea with a smile :)  All joking aside, during the last few years, I have noticed just how detrimental our lifestyle was becoming to our health. 

 

Personally, I've had a long list of health problems for years.   Thankfully, I didn't inherit the serious blood clotting disorder, but I am full of autoimmune problems.  Most of which started in my teens.  Here's a partial list:

 

 

Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (Autoimmune)

PCOS (Endocrine related, probably Autoimmune)

Endometriosis (Endocrine related)

Rosacea (Autoimmune)

Dermatitis (Autoimmune)

 

And, various other random things that come and go, or frankly, things I don't want to share.  Creams and pills were a part of my life.  So was fatigue, weight that was impossible to get off, horrible looking skin, various issues due to thyroid...I was a mess.  I remember turning 33 and having blood work done, which was also a mess.  I was almost pre-diabetic, thyroid antibodies were through the roof, lots of markers off on my blood work...not good.  It was scary to think about my life in 5 years.  Looking at family members, I could see the writing on the wall...diabetes, lupus...the list goes on and on.  Helpless is the only feeling I can express.  I began a half-stitch effort to improve our eating habits.  Slowly, but surely, I was buying more organic foods, using lower-sodium products, etc., yet the reality was a typical dinner for us was still chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes and fried cornbread or biscuits.  We love veggies, really do, but I would boil the fire out of them (sorry, dear broccoli) and cover them with butter, cream them or make a cheese sauce.  Surprise, surprise, no real change took place.

 

In August of 2014, my wonderful, handsome, awesome (lol) husband, who has always been active and fairly slim, found himself moving beyond his typical pre-diabetic stage into full-blown diabetes.  What a wake-up call.  For some reason, I found it pretty easy to abuse my body, but when it comes to someone I love, well, momma sprung into action.  Nutrition has always been really interesting to me.  In fact, it was my favorite class in college.  The benefits of a plant-based diet were not beyond me, yet I had NO idea how to make this happen with my "meat and potatoes" household.  I began to pray. Proverbs 3:6 was constantly on my mind.  "In all your ways submit to him and he will direct your path." You see, I have this little issue in my life...it is called OBEDIENCE.  Knowing and actually DOING the right things can be a struggle for me.  I knew GOD wanted to give us life and give us life abundantly.  That clearly doesn't mean surviving on prescription drugs and still feeling horrible at all times.  But again, what to do?

 

One night, we were at church and I was casually talking to our pastor and his wife.  The Daniel Plan was mentioned.  Truly, I knew nothing of it and shrugged it off.  The next week, I saw the book at our local library and picked it up. The moment I started reading, I knew change was coming.....

 

My next post will share how we got started, not too exciting, but will hopefully begin to answer some of the questions you all have.  Please feel free to post questions in my comments and I will try to answer the best I can.