Aimee’s Story

Aimee's Coconut Chicken

In response to article posted yesterday Aimee shared the following:

Thought I’d share this since it’s relevant to the challenge and paleo.

So, as you know, my mother passed away about 2.5 years ago.  She had Crohn’s disease for most of her life, and was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer in may of 2007.  She was in and out of the hospital yearly, operations seemed to never end, and inflammation and the pain incurred from it was something she learned to just live with. She was really bad about controlling her diet, mostly because everything seemed to make her sick.

So after she passed, my brother and I talked about our lives a lot and things going on in them.  We discovered that each of us had been dealing with bouts of illness related to digestion (or indigestion as the case may be) but mostly ignoring the problems since they were nothing in comparison to our mother’s problems.  We both agreed to go and be evaluated by our respective physicians.  I stepped up and went first (men will always wait to go to the doctor — any kind of doctor), and we both were seen within months of the other.  We both had an EGD (esophagogastroduodenoscopy) and colonoscopy, and blood work.  The results were shocking to us.  I was diagnosed with chronic gastritis (inflammation of the stomach), GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease), IBS, and tested for celiac which resulted in a wheat/gluten sensitivity issue.  My brother was diagnosed with all kinds of allergies – corn, wheat, soy in addition to his peanut and bee allergy, gastritis, and is borderline celiac with a more severe wheat/gluten sensitivity.  I was told a whole list of things to avoid; red meat, onions, too much caffeine/alcohol, nitrates (the list went on and on)…thus why I stopped eating beef (among other things).  We both tried a series of elimination, re-introduction diets.  I tried various strict diets, which ultimately failed.  my brother did really well while living in Colorado, but has lapsed again since moving to Atlanta and traveling for work so much. But during our “testing,” we both found that gluten, wheat, processed and other crappy foods, etc are the  REAL culprit.  One of the “doctors” (whom I no longer see) essentially told me to eat sourdough bread before every meal to tame my stomach issues… needless to say, that didn’t solve anything.  I was prescribed all kinds of medications, some of which were filled, and the majority of which have not been taken.

It was devastating to lose our mom, and even more devastating to think that some of her pains/illnesses could maybe have been prevented/solved with diet alone.  I am thankful for this “challenge” at CFED because I am truly looking at it as a chance to change my life and lifestyle and hopefully prevent some of the same fate my mother endured.  I’ve dabbled in the past and it’s something that’s always on my mind…but having a community to take the plunge with makes it palatable (so to speak…).  I’m clearly not perfect, and i am certain there will be some lapses along the way…but learning that lifestyle changing “dieting” is possible is really exciting for me  (and necessary) and at the same time, kind of difficult to talk about!  Most people look at me and say “you’re athletic – you shouldn’t have these health issues.”  I guess it’s unfathomable for some people to realize that the food produced in our country may really be killing us … and yes, someone as seemingly healthy as me has been going through what really shouldn’t be happening at my age…but is.  It’s so scary.  I’ve had the knowledge, and have gone on and off with various “diets,” but now feel more in control than ever.  And I’m really looking forward to the remaining weeks of this challenge.

So thank you. thank you for owning the gym and putting together this challenge including the nutrition portion. Especially the nutrition portion.

I will now lay off the sap! thanks for reading! hopefully, I didn’t ramble too much…I know we all have our stories, just thought I’d share mine.

See you in the gym!

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~ by Admin on January 28, 2010.