How Understanding My Body Changed My Life!

THE BODY. We all have one. ONLY one. And it needs to last us until our last breath. But what if we are not well?

As a young person, I was pretty healthy. Sure I had small ailments like allergies and the occasional cold but in general, I was blessed to have a fairly disease-free youth.

But by the time 30 rolled around, everything had gone to pot! I remember telling my doctor, “I feel like my body has an expiration date and I am really close to it!”

I would wake up feeling like I’d been hit by a truck, have random hot flashes daily (like I was in the middle of menopause), felt exhausted all the time – some days to the point where I was barely functional. Waves of nausea would hit me throughout the day for no apparent reason. I had migraine headaches 2 or 3 times a week.  My body was so run down that I got strep throat 5 times in one year!  And in the midst of feeling crummy, I had to take care of my 4 beautiful kids (ages 6, 5, 2, and a newborn). Craziness!!

I remember expecting my doctor to find something really bad. All these symptoms must be an indication of something wrong…right? He took a battery of blood tests and…surprisingly…everything came back perfect! What? Yup…clean bill of health!! How could this be? “Oh” he said, “of course you’re tired! You have 4 kids under 6!!” But I wasn’t going to accept that answer. This was no ordinary tired.

Here’s the kicker: my doctor then decided that perhaps I needed to be put on…wait for it…Prozac! Are you kidding me?!

I politely declined and went on my way.

But now what? I still felt really crummy with no end in sight and no hope of feeling better. Was this going to be my new reality?

That’s when a friend of mine suggested I see a Naturopath…so I did…

and it CHANGED MY LIFE!

After a long conversation about my history and my ailments, she ran a few tests and found that my adrenal glands were not working well. She also explained a number of things to me:

1. The medical field is trained to pick up things when they are already broken. They can find disease once it has set in. But they are not trained to figure out what deficiencies you have NOW that may LEAD to disease if not taken care of…that’s what Naturopathic Medicine* does.
2. Having babies is very taxing on the body. I had 4 babies in 6 years. The growing baby takes all the good stuff from your body and if you’re not intentional about replenishing these nutrients, then you are likely deficient in some things–which, if left unchecked, will eventually lead to disease.
3. Our food supply is not as nutrient dense as it once was. It is virtually impossible to get ALL the nutrients you need from the food you eat. Therefore, you HAVE to supplement your diet in some way to remain healthy and strong.
4. Our bodies are wonderfully made. They are armed with the ability to self-heal, if we give it what it needs.
5. Our bodies also have filters** (liver, kidneys, lymphatic system…) and, similar to a car filter or furnace filter, we must regularly perform maintenance. Once in a while, we must detoxify our filters to make sure they can continue to do their job effectively and remove toxins from our bodies.
6. Our bodies are always giving us clues. We need to pay attention to these clues if we want our bodies to continue working optimally for as long as possible.

So, my naturopath put me on a liver detox and adrenal booster along with a supplement regimen. She also told me to stay away from my mother-in-law’s homemade chocolate chip cookies (which I had a slight addiction to) and wine…  (But I digress…)

Within a month, I was feeling better… not perfect but better. I was making progress. I had hope… I was getting my life back!

This was the beginning of my journey in discovering the impact of nutrition on my health and well-being.

It’s now 15 years later… my kids are older…and I’m still fascinated with the human body and how nutrition can help restore its ability to thrive and self-heal.

Therefore, I have decided to get formal training in this field through the NutraPhoria School of Holistic Nutrition.

More and more people in my circle are getting sick, struggling with ailments, and I want to know as much as I can so that maybe…hopefully… I can walk along side them and perhaps help them find their way back to a healthy and strong body.

That is my hope and my prayer.

What’s your story?

* http://www.cand.ca/common-questions-about-naturopathic-medicine/#what-is-naturopathic-medicine

** http://www.familyhealthchiropractic.com/organs-that-detox-your-body/