My Substitution Journey Part 1

One of the reasons I am in nutrition today is because of my own health journey. I was diagnosed with juvenile Fibromyalgia when I was 15 years old. Even before that, I struggled with chronic ear infections, upper respiratory infections and ‘asthma’ (I used quotes, because I’m not sure that it was an accurate diagnosis). Many times in my life I’ve seen doctors about my health, and they just shrugged their shoulders and sent me home with a drug, or very vague advice. My mom took on the mission to seek out alternative options to help find better answers and tried to find what she could to relieve my suffering. I didn’t always appreciate what my mom did for me back then, but being a mother now, I have a much greater understanding and appreciation for her.

My first major dive into changing my diet came after my diagnosis when I was 15. As a child, I was restricted with dairy as it was suspected that I was lactose intolerant, but that faded into the background as I aged. At 15, my mom took me to see someone who did food sensitivity testing, using the muscle testing technique. After that seemingly strange appointment, we walked away with a laundry list of items that I needed to either cut out or reduce significantly. This happen around 2000/2001, making alternatives limited. So I resigned myself to giving up some of the good stuff including dairy and wheat. This was back when the best dairy alternative you could get was Rice Dream and most of the wheat alternatives were ‘crunchy’ at best…. I was just grateful for the options we did have.

Eventually, as it can be with many things, these guidelines faded into the background as my health improved. I hit my late teens early 20’s and did a little make up for the lost time in my teens. Beer, pizza, fast food, you name it. Things seemed to be going fine, but then my body said enough. My Fibromyalgia symptoms started to become more noticeable again, and I went into a full relapse. It was now 2011, and I was out of my parents’ house and living on my own. This time it was my responsibility to make decisions and work on finding solutions. I looked into traditional pain specialists, and waited but they never called. I was resigned to having a new normal in life, and that I was unable to do many things for myself. This put a great deal of pressure on my relationships and on my own self esteem.

Then one day just before Christmas in 2011, I was working on a craft and skipping through radio stations and I stopped on a show speaking about health. I listened to the whole thing and at the end they had a plug for their natural health clinic, right here in my tri-city area. I wrote down the name of the place, googled to get their contact and sent an email asking if they had any experience working with people with Fibromyalgia. Since this was right before Christmas I didn’t expect a response until after the holidays, but by God's grace I received a reply from one of the receptionists expressing that the Doctor of Natural Medicine had great experience and success helping those with Fibromyalgia. They told me when to call back after the holidays, which I put right into my calendar so I would not forget. This was the moment when things started to change. Even the hope of someone that could help lifted my spirits immensely.

Christmas came and went, and I made that call as soon as I could and was scheduled for an appointment for assessment. My first appointment and assessment paper work was very thorough and a little overwhelming. I left with a long list of dietary changes, supplements and an idea of how I might find my way back to my health. I was so encouraged by having a plan, but when I got home and shared all the changes I needed to make to my fiance (now husband), and he wondered how I would do it all. That’s when the research started for me. My new doctor had some resources for me, including a cook book full of recipes free from all the foods I was now to avoid, but it had lots of new ingredients or items that I knew nothing about or how to use. As my health improved my passion to bake and cook started up again. By this point I had bought a great deal of items from the store that fit my new needs, but most of them did not taste great, or they were too expensive to maintain. So I started to experiment making my own better versions. This gave me lots to do. Many of my first attempt results gave me something that didn't look so great, but the taste was good, others that looked good, but tasted not so great. I remember one batch of cookies that I took a bite of, immediately spit it out, threw out the whole batch and scratched out the recipe out of the notebook where I was tracking my experimental recipes (and all the subsequent changes).

I have learned so many lessons over the years, perfected some of my own recipes that have become staples, and continued to improve on items, especially as new ingredients and ideas come. All this fostered such a love for food and nutrition that only a few months after starting my journey with the doctor of natural medicine, I enrolled in a course for holistic nutrition.

This was the beginning of my journey into natural health, nutrition and food substitution. A passion that continues to grow with each passing day. I am delighted to share my journey and discoveries with you all, in hopes that it can inspire, educate and support you.