My First Nugget of Healing Through Food

I mentioned the Richfield Pool in the last post for a reason.  It is where I sat most of the summer.  I felt extremely uncomfortable in my skin because I felt big and was in excruciating pain, but was surrounded by so much laughter!  My pool friends are the best!  We met th a few years ago.  each summer we pock up where we left off the fall before:). Thank goodness for those long days in the sun hanging out, my leg elevated and icing in the hot sun.

I started to share my woes with my pool friends.  I'm sure they loved hearing the same thing over and over and over again.  The one thing that kept coming up was the fact that my leg was so swollen with inflammation.  At the time, I had no clue how the body worked.  Kelly mentioned that wheat can cause inflammation.  We probably talked about this for a few weeks before I started to google and it really sunk in.  Kelly wasn't pushy sharing the information.  I joked about what she shared with me.  How could going GF help anything?  At the time I thought it was a silly idea, until I started reading up on it.   Wheat can cause inflammation.  I stopped eating wheat the first week in August.  It wasn't all that hard.  I was buying and eating the GF products sold in the stores.  I found it super easy to give up gluten.  I started to read the Wheat Belly book and loved learning what wheat can do to a body.

Unfortunately for me, the inflammation did not change one bit being gluten free.  I did start to feel more relaxed and was sleeping better, but my knee was still considerably inflamed.  The physical therapist would measure how big it was.  The surgeon told me I needed to lose weight.  He also told me I had Rheumatoid Arthritis, although that was a diagnosis by what he saw during surgery and no blood work was performed.  At my post op, post op, post op visit Dr. Asp was very pleased with all the work I was putting into recovering and even called me a "Trooper", which made me feel good because I know I was working hard, but I was frustrated because the pain was still so horrific.

I continued to stay Gluten free even though it didn't seem to have an immediate impact on my inflammation.  It was now the end of October.  The weather was extremely gloomy.  I had a sarcastic face book status regarding the need for a case of vitamin D and a light box (for SADD).  One of my friends saw it and offered me her light box.  The light box is one of the greatest gifts I have ever received!  It has done amazing things for my sleep cycle.

Still, the inflammation continued.  I really started to read the Wheat Belly Book and decided to give up sugar and processed foods the week before Halloween.  I'm pretty sure everyone thought I was nuts!!!!  Guess what?  The inflammation was completely gone within 36 hours!  GONE!  I was in total shock.  This was not an easy step, nor was it hard either because the results were so shocking.

I had to turn to some serious cooking when I took processed foods out of the equation:).  I will share more about this when I return to my blog in a few days:)

P.S.  I have had several health improvements due to being gluten free, just not infammation reduction.  I will need to devote an entire post to the benefits.  It has been LIFE CHANGING!