Clean Eating Successes

One of the great things about writing this blog has been hearing about other people’s great results and successes – from weight loss (and gain), to improved health, improved behaviour in children and of course improved lifestyles.  So I thought it might provide some inspiration to others to hear some of these stories for yourself.  I’ll tell you my successes and I WOULD LOVE IT IF YOU COULD SHARE YOURS WITH ME TOO!

From a personal perspective, changing my diet has:

• reduced my weight and changed my shape – dropping 2 dress sizes and over a stone in weight.
• given me more energy – from the outset I felt a massive improvement in energy levels – actually waking up in the morning before the children and managing to keep up with them all day long!  Conversely, if I haven’t been eating well – like post holiday – I start to feel sluggish and lethargic, not having the energy to work at my normal pace.
• better skin, hair and nails – monthly blemishes have all but disappeared.  I have strong white nails and my hair grows like the blinkin’ clappers!!
• reduced gastrointestinal symptoms – now I always would have said that I didn’t have an issue with diary and gluten and even after the first and probably second times I cut them out, I went back to eating them and didn’t really notice much of a difference.  However, once I cut them out for an extended period, I noticed a HUGE difference.  Who knew it wasn’t normal to start the day with a reasonable sized tummy and end it looking 6 months pregnant; to fart 20 times an hour; and for your solids to be err, not so solid??!!  I’d lived this way for so long that I actually thought it was normal.
• reduced allergic symptoms and mucus secretions – I used to sneeze, cough and blow my nose ALL the time.  At one point I was counting over 40 sneezes a day – that’s pretty annoying I can tell you.  These days I rarely need to blow by nose and I maybe sneeze a couple of times a week at most.  I no longer seem to suffer from hayfever and pet allergies like I used to either.  My body is just less sensitive to stuff!

All in all, I feel healthier, slimmer, stronger, more energetic.  I feel like my body is getting all of the nutrients that it needs to live and function and hopefully to stay well!

My son’s story is one I hear often from mums in different forms.  From the second he arrived to pretty much the 10th month he screamed, and screamed, and screamed…  He would settle off to sleep and then startle awake with more screaming.  Nobody could settle him – not the midwives, not even my mum and her lovely nurturing, capable and calm ways.  We got little more than a few hours sleep each night, people told me he was just a ‘naughty babies’ and in my desperation I took advice from books; forcing him into 4 hour feeding patterns and letting him cry himself to sleep (this makes me so sad when I look back).

As well as the screaming, Bodie was also sick – A LOT.  After a few months, the GP recognised that he had reflux and colic and at about 5 months old he was referred to a Paediatrician.  It was only then that the question of whether he had a milk allergy was raised.  I was breast feeding so I had never heard anything like it; but I had been drinking lots of milk, thinking I was doing us both good and this was being passed to him through my breast milk.  Low and behold, virtually the day I cut out dairy, the majority of his symptoms stopped too.  We tested this a couple of times and there was a clear reaction.  At 10 months old we finally got more than 4 hours sleep in one go!!

At 18 months old, we were advised to start Bodie on a dairy re-introduction programme, seeing through the allergic reactions at each stage until they subsided and then carrying on until he was ‘tolerating’ milk, which we did.  All seemed ok, physically but there was another side to the story.  Bodie could be an incredibly challenging boy – with random acts of aggression, he was so ‘wired’ and high energy, he was a complete nutter!!  Then someone told me me that behavioural problems can be related to food allergies and  – low and behold – when I took Bodie off dairy again his behaviour calmed massively!!

When I had my 2 daughters I had gone back to consuming dairy and they both showed immediate and very clear reactions to dairy, showing significant improvements when I removed it from my diet.  However, they still weren’t quite right (struggling to settle after feeds, grunting and writhing through the night, endless trapped wind) and so I removed gluten from our diets and this seemed to do the trick.

I eventually learnt my lesson and we’ve now cut pretty much all diary and gluten from our diets.  None of us appear to have serious allergies and nothing has shown up on the medical blood tests that the kids have had, but we do have reactions and our diet is full and varied without it so really, whats the point??

The girls occasionally have small patches of eczema which we manage with natural oils, but if they have had some dairy or gluten it does appear to get worse so I’m convinced that if they ate more than they do it would be a bigger problem for them.

IF YOU HAVE A SUCCESS STORY THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE, PLEASE COMMENT BELOW – WE’D LOVE TO SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS!