When I'm Sick For Five Weeks....

When I feel like I can't go on, God reminds me He allowed me to marry a GREAT example of a non quitter, no matter how sick he is.

So I've been dealing with being sick for about 5 weeks now. It started with the flu, moved onto more stomach issues, continued down the path of a terrible cold and has finally ended with this week of sickness free!
It's allowed me to look into my husband's life for a bit. How he is sick every day and doesn't complain. He goes to work and works hard, he comes home and works hard, he attends functions such as church and lifegroup and doesn't murmur a peep.
Let me tell you that being sick for five weeks has been tiring, exhausting even. Going to work and coming home to everything that needs doing here has almost gotten the best of me more than once. I have not been complain free. I have cried, whined, whimpered, used my illnesses as an excuse not to pull my weight around the home and my husband, for the most part, has been understanding and picking up my slack.
I want to take this time to publicly thank him for his high standards for himself and his sacrifice and good example to me. He is tireless and works diligently until the job(s) are complete. He works first and rests at the end of the day. He is such a good leader and is also very patient and kind.
Thank you Raymond for showing me how to be self controlled, ordered, patient, kind, diligent, hard working and a non complainer. There are so many other good qualities I could add but I just wanted to do a little shout out for the things I've been noticing these past few weeks. And for the lessons you have been teaching me even when I didn't know it. I'm glad my eyes have been opened and that I can see all that you've been doing and teaching me even in my blindness, selfishness and stubbornness.

Today I made soup from scratch, baked chicken, fried fish and am about to put cookies in the oven. I managed to do all this because my husband needs to eat tomorrow and even though I'm tired (mostly from recovering) he would have done it for me. I love that when he's home I can count on him to make delicious dishes for me when I get home (even though he rarely feels top notch). I am also working on finishing up the laundry and the dishes I have recreated in my cooking ventures.

6 Feet, 8 Inches at 177 pounds....

What to do When the Disease Seems to be Winning?

When I married the man of my dreams I knew he was sick. I had looked up the disease and had listened to him talk about it. What I didn't comprehend is how stressful it could be as I watched him waste away as I got heavier and heavier.

Ulcerative Colitis is a debilitating disease that strips you of your health and dignity. My husband has it, and I am so proud of the way he handles himself and strives to live as normal of a lifestyle as he can. If any of you know him, you may not know that he is taking a lot of medication or that he's even sick.

When we got married back in 2010 he had no body fat, but lots of nice muscles and so I wasn't concerned about the fact that he was very light in the pounds department for his height. I also didn't put the two together, that if he was doing well then he was closer to 182 lbs and if he was having a relapse that he was hovering at the 177 lbs mark.

Once things got stressful for us (as new marriages often can) he began dropping (stress is a huge trigger for a relapse) and I began gaining. The more he dropped the more anxious I became. When you are 6'8, one hundred and seventy-seven pounds isn't enough weight to keep you going. He was telling me that he was getting tired at work, his legs were giving out - there wasn't any energy left.

When he came home one day and told me about his work-friend's son being on the "Specific Carbohydrate Diet" and that he thought it might work for him I cleared out our old food and went grocery shopping.

A little while ago he had a surgery that enabled the specialist to take pictures of his intestines and take samples as well. The pictures showed intestines, free of inflammation (except one tiny spot that the doctor wasn't worried about) and we are still waiting for the results of the samples.

I'm writing to say that my husband has been following this diet without cheating once for 15 weeks now and he is currently 186 pounds. And that's with him currently not feeling well and thinking he is having a relapse. The book said at about the 3 month mark a relapse is common and that you shouldn't give up.

So here we are at the 3 month mark, my husband is sick but miraculously has also gained weight.

I'm so grateful for this small sign of hope and health!

Don't give up no matter your journey. I'm continuing to lose weight, with God's help my husband will be healed and continue to gain. Whatever you are going through you aren't alone and someone understands!

God Bless,
Laura

AMAZING RESULTS!

Can Food REALLY Help My Body Heal?

Well, it's Saturday again, February 2, 2013 to be exact and so I had my morning weigh in as usual. I was super excited to see the numbers have once again lowered and I'm currently at 158 lbs! I am so excited to be in the 50's again!

Now a little life update that has me really excited.

My husband and I took a trek to the UBC hospital last week as he had a small surgery scheduled. The results were fantastic! Last time he got results from this surgery about 75% of his intestine were inflamed and he was put on the max dose of his medications. This time he had one small red spot on his intestine that the doctor wasn't concerned about at all and he was told that he could slowly begin to reduce one of his medications. We are still waiting for the biopsy reports to tell us whether he is moving toward recovery or if the disease is laying dormant for now. However if the biopsies are normal then I believe we will be able to also cut down on the really bad medication that he is currently having to take. Now the only thing we have changed is our DIET.

I am so excited about these results and am so happy that we have made this diet change together. I am moving toward better health, more energy and getting my beautiful self back and my husband is being able to take back control of his body, health and moving toward recovery! This was such a great start to my week last week and has given me that extra boost to keep moving forward with this way of preparing food and eating it!

I hope this update encourages you and helps you keep pushing on with your own diet and fitness goals!

Starting Out

So for anyone who has been going through life, eating whatever and whenever they wanted, a serious diet change for specific health reasons can be quite daunting. It's not easy to no longer be allowed to satisfy that craving for refined sugars (donuts, cakes, cookies, pop, juice etc), delicious starches (baked potato anyone), melt in your mouth grains (fresh cinnamon buns or baked bread), or cold, creamy dairy (ice cream, milk shakes, cheese). But I hope through my experiences, stories and recipes you will find that you don't have to be deprived of desserts and great cooking; you just have to be creative, and creativity needs inspiration and motivation.

Eleven weeks ago I ate cookies, cakes, donuts, ice cream, dressings, tarter sauce, breads, corn, chips and dips etc. I love food! Then my husband started talking about this restricted diet that could change his life and help his body to heal itself. I couldn't say no to the possibility of his being healed and whole; the strong, energetic, outgoing man I know he can be. So that weekend I got rid of $1000 worth of groceries both canned and fresh and we started all over again.

It wasn't easy saying goodbye to all that food that we had stock piled, especially since I come from a poor family and part of that was we didn't always have enough to eat. Food is important to me and if it's there I feel as if it will all be ok. You don't have to have a big fancy house, you don't have to have fancy cars or hundreds of different outfits, you don't even have to have the highest paying job. You do however HAVE to have food and clean drinking water!

So in saying all that, here's why I'm doing this. I began this journey in 100% support of my husband. Can you imagine your significant other or child being deprived of all their favorite things while you go ahead and munch on whatever you want every meal and snack? Or when you are out, if you want to go into a restaurant for a quick bite because you're hungry, but there is nothing on the menu that they can eat? I mean if they cheat, it could really mean life or death. They didn't "choose" to do this because they want to get healthier (at least not for the reasons most of us diet and exercise). No, they chose this way of life to try and get off medications that are destroying their bodies or because it's a last hope or attempt at being able to live a normal life. I couldn't just go on the way I was without him. I felt compelled to not only start this journey for him (giving away all our food and researching what he could / couldn't have) but to also start the journey with him.

Now that we are eleven weeks in I am so grateful for this change. There have been many changes beginning to take place in my family which include a career change, going down to one income and planning for our future children. The first two are givens, we cannot have the one without the other and we want to do this debt free! The third really relies on ME.

About a year ago I started thinking about getting pregnant (seriously considering all the factors) and the biggest thing on my mind was my body. I had gained 50 pounds and was living in depression, sadness and poor eating habits. I knew I didn't want to house my baby in the body I was currently supporting. I knew I had to make changes but I just couldn't seem to do something drastic enough for the weight to drop or the eating patterns to change and it was a vicious cycle of frustration and anger toward myself and my body. But when my husband started talking about this diet that could change his life forever I new I could do this for him and with him. So I did.

I have lost 20 pounds as of today, I feel so much better physically and my energy has gone way up. My joy has returned and my self confidence is seeping back in. Everything takes time. All we have is time, and as I thought about that question, "why not?" squeezed its way in. If all I have is time then why not do what I want with that time. If I want to lose weight and get a healthy body to cary my babies in, why not start today? If I wait until I'm ready to get pregnant and haven't done anything to change I will be in the same place I was 3 or 4 or 5 years ago but I won't have time to change what I should have been working on all that time ago.

So in conclusion, yes, I am doing this in support of my husband and that won't change. What has changed is my appreciation for what this way of eating is doing for me, what I couldn't do for myself. It's changing my life and I'm so grateful that my husband and I are going through this together and that it's something that is impacting our lives now and will have future blessings and benefits as well. So even though it didn't seem like a great thing at the beginning and it felt impossible (learning to cook and bake all over again) at times I am so glad and grateful to be eating this way and making these choices one day at a time.

I hope you can get to a place of peace about what you can eat and why you are doing it as well.

Have a wonderful Saturday!
Laura