“I lost 150 Pounds. And Then I Got Sick.
It feels nothing more than a Moon Pie Murder Mystery. How someone could lose 150 pounds in 25 years and then become sick.
Imagine with me a moment. A child grows up with a mortifying weight problem topping out at 270 pounds at age 21. “She” finally takes control of the problem and identifies precisely the delicatory disillusion after years of sugar addiction which was set off by dozens and dozens of sweet cakes a month.
Fudge Rounds.
Ding Dongs.
And to name a few other fancy meals which took this child’s glucose levels by storm, consisted of fast food fish sammiches and french fries and fudge.
Do you see a pattern here? Sugar, Fat. This child down right ate crap for 21 years. And well, yes, that girl was me.
Fast forward 25 years later and I am weighing in at 135 pounds, looking great on the outside, but it chronic pain in my joints and connective tissue on the inside. I now suffer from chronic inflammatory issues and food irregularities.
So, how did I loose the 150 pounds? I did everything right! I exercised. I did Yoga. I ate Kale. I lifted weights. I gave up sodas and fast food windows and 98 percent of anything that shows up as a genetically modified food and/or is devalued on Mother Nature’s green list, except for a few visits to some dark chocolate, an occasional cheese wedge or two and my weekly ice cream fix. It is a date with my boyfriend and it’s what we do to not kill each other. :)
So why in the hell do I feel like shit? I gave up 98 percent of the shit foods I ate for the first 21 years of my life. Although, in all honesty, I did not give up the processed foods, wines and rich desserts made in a more conscious deli, until around age 38. It was then my eyes and my intuitive gut lining were opened.
Inflammation. It is a buzz word and I want to talk about it for just a moment.
Many Reason for The Addictions in the First Place are Listed Here:
- My mom and dad were both hard working parents in the late 1970’s and 1980’s and my GOD, the latch-key kid syndrome and the fancy new microwave generational benefits were well under way! Leave a kid to come home hungry after 8 hours of brow beating brainiac elastics and rubber ducky mucky systemic scholastics, and so half of box of cereal and milk after school was a banquet. There was no one to stop me and so why would I not eat the entire box down. The box said it was full of vitamins and minerals but I was actually to young to read the nutritional facts on the back that exposed me to BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) which is a chemical also used to treat the virus herpes and HIV. What the hell?
- My innocent little imaginary friend, Debbie. Little was her first name and I am sure that her parents named her Little Debbie for fear she would eat all her crafty creations and become fat. So, I guess her mom and dad just KNEW by calling her Little Debbie, she would not manifest an umpa-lumpa’ figure like I did by eating all of her rolls from Switzerland, her rounds of fudge and her creamy oatmeal cakes. Oatmeal is so good for you and when you smear it with 100 percent confectioners sugar and it also Contains Carrageenan! Carrageenan is an additive made from seaweed.It is used as a thickener in products such as ice cream, jelly, chocolate milk, infant formula, cottage cheese. It is a vegetarian and vegan alternative to gelatin. It has been used for hundreds of years in Ireland and China, but only made headway into modern food processing in the last 50 years. The processing steps after harvesting the seaweed include drying, grounding, filtration, treatment with potassium hydroxide, removal of cellulose by centrifuge, concentration by evaporation, drying, and grounding. Interestingly, the Philippines account for the vast majority of the world supply of carrageenan.In some animal studies, carrageenan was shown to cause intestinal lacerations and tumors. A 2001 meta-study of 45 peer-reviewed studies concluded that carrageenan consumption may result in gastrointestinal malignancy and inflammatory bowel. The FDA has approved carrageenan as safe, basing its decision on industry funded studies. European agencies and the World Health Organization have also deemed carrageenan safe, with the exception of infant formula. The fear is the a baby’s gut may be unable to handle the large carrageenan molecules. In some individuals carrageenan may cause intestinal discomfort or worse. Need I say more about my little friend Debbie? She stuck around a long time. Especially on my hips!
- Now Ronald mind you, (McDonald not Regan) had quite the influence on my eating habits. Ronald was so exciting! His big red nose and his big feet were the most exciting but I had no idea back then what the nose and feet on the guy really meant. I was innocent in my gawking of the enormous impact his Big Mac had brought to our culture. What an icon! And the Filet of Fish! My, Oh My what a time spend ordering extra tarter sauce and dunking my hot, salty french fries into the sweet and sour mecca. And washing it down with a delightful coke and maybe even another hot fudge sundae or apple pie a’la mode. The good old days. Where the Golden Arches had put great hope into my worries about hunger. How could I ever go hungry with a menu the size of a murder hornet colony. Just the thing for my waistline and my swollen ankles.
Need I go on? I could. I could go on for days and weeks and months and years over the mountain of data I now have access too that says, all that convenience, all that fat and sugar and ersatz was just the thing that young child needed to build strong and healthy bones that would carry her through her old age.
Bullshit.
It created a chronic disorder in my digestion and it completely destroyed my delicate gut lining after all those years and now, after thousands of hours of gym time and jogging, elimination diets and dancing, I am in chronic bowel pain.
My dear reader, the moral of the story is this. Not everything you are told about everything is true. Or, even better, not everything that is true is really ever told up to you. Up Until Now…….
To be continued.
Eleanor
