Health Kick

Hello Beautiful.

This post is a bit lengthy. My apologies. But let’s talk healthy cooking + living.

I love a lean toned bikini bod just as much as the next girl, but health is a HUGE thing for me. To me, skinny fat is not a thing. It should never be a ‘thing’. Health is extremely important {the inner RN is coming out}. I have learned a ton about healthy living throughout my four year degree, but I took it above and beyond the classroom. I am very interested in trying new recipes, workouts and lifestyle changes {not diets}.

Currently I am what people call paleo. I will admit, this interest DID begin as a journey to a fit, fab body. I was heavier a few years ago… {pics to follow}. This was not a bad thing, BUT I was not as healthy as I am now.

You’d never know it but I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was 2 years old.

My parents were hella freaked out. I mean I couldn’t even peddle my brand new tricycle on my birthday. I just sat there with a massive smile on my face and these huge, red, hot joints. Finally, after multiple doctors, I was correctly diagnosed. To keep my body moving, my parents put me into gymnastics ASAP. The arthritis went into remission at 4 {thank GAWD} and I grew up a normal kiddo.I now have some restricted range of motion, but my closest friends would have had no idea…. Not until my most recent flare up at 23.

This autoimmune disease has kicked my ass and tested my mentality. This is why I am what some friends call a “health nut”. But as I’ve described, I have my reasons.

When I was 20 I experienced a mild arthritic flare up. Luckily we treated it very fast and it did not get bad. During this episode, I visited a naturopath. After screaming at me for taking birth control, he suggested we do allergy testing. I’m like, ummm… I don’t have any allergies….. BUT he explained you actually could and not even realize it.

Went ahead with the testing and SURE ENOUGH, I am severely allergic to dairy, wheat, green beans, pineapple, almonds, and a couple other random things. Basically the two most important were dairy and wheat. After researching more on the topic, I learned that dairy and wheat are actually not the best foods for anyone. It sparks the inflammation process in ones body and wreaks havoc on the immune system.

Let me tell you, I was the girl who would sit at home with mom to eat Brie and drink wine on a Thursday night. Dairy was my thing. I was good at it. So I didn’t take Mr. Naturopath very seriously.

My dad {your friendly neighborhood pharmacist} was the one who said, “You know, if you want to lose weight so badly stop doing these crash diets and cut out the dairy. 10 pounds will fall off”.

Fine. I decided to venture down that path and voila; I am currently a happy, healthy, dairy-free and wheat-free lady.