“Welcome to Burger King, can I take your order?”
“Yes, can I please have a chicken sandwich meal with extra mayo and a Jr. Whopper with extra cheese and mayo please”.
This was the norm of my life as a 14-year old kid—two sandwiches and you better not forget to add extra mayo and cheese! After my meal, it was pretty certain that I would have a bowl of ice cream or a Little Debbie cake to satisfy my sweet tooth. I loved eating and could care less about the consequences. Eventually, it caught up with me and it’s been an up and down journey ever since. Some of you know my journey and others don’t, so I will give a quick overview and then share where I am at today.
In 2010, I became desperate. My skin looked terrible, it hurt, and none of it would go away. Cystic acne, which is worst kind of acne, was a constant battle of my life. I have always loved myself and had pretty good self-esteem, but looking in the mirror or taking pictures was my least favorite thing to do. To make a long story short, after some research led by Holy Spirit, I decided to cut out coffee….yikes!I was totally addicted at the time and drank at least 3 cups a day. I cut out all soda, juice, pork and beef. It’s been a crazy, but awesome journey since then.
It’s been 7 years since the journey began and surprisingly, I don’t miss pork (yes, even though I’m Puerto Rican!). I don’t miss beef either, but man do I miss coffee!Ugh,it’s still so hard! I quickly realized how much drinking coffee is an awesome venue for social interactions as well. Anyways, here I am 7 years later. After a back injury that has caused severe inflammation and fatigue and some random bad skin outbreaks, I’m ready to make another change. After doing some new research a few Thursdays ago, it hit me—this girl who is a total foodie, needs to go a little deeper with some changes. UGH…….some of you that are not foodies may think I am a bit extreme, but my foodie friends will totally get it! I was driving one day and the floodgates opened. I wept for the next 20 minutes, so much that I had to sneak in the back door at work and hide from all my coworkers till the redness around my eyes went away. The moment was so real.
I currently am cleansing my body from the following:
- No dairy (trying out plain greek yogurt since it has probiotics)
- No gluten (white bread, wheat, rice, oatmeal, crackers etc.)
- No sugary foods (cakes, cookies or chocolates)
- No fried food or processed foods
I started this process on April17th and I will finish my 21 days on Sunday, May 7th. I have to remind myself that I cannot celebrate finishing strong by eating everything I just eliminated for 21 days. Lol. I would love to celebrate with a slice of cheesy pizza, buffalo wings with extra blue cheese and a bowl of ice cream, but that would be just silly of me. Help me Jesus lol. I will ask the Lord what modifications I can make to incorporate healthy decisions in my lifestyle by limiting things I listed above. At the same time, I won’t live in bondage by freaking out cause I had one chocolate chip cookie. Halleluyah.
My dilemma has always been self control and self discipline. I prefer to cut it out completely instead of just learning how to have one or two scoops of ice cream instead of four or five scoops. Or instead of one chocolate chip cookie, I have 2-3. This needs to stop. I’m the same way with cheese. People, I LOVE cheese. Give me a loaf of Italian or French bread, some butter and a block of cheese and I’m good to go, forget the meal! Ha, I know some of you can totally relate.
Anyways, I’m excited, many people have inboxed, emailed and texted me sharing that they want to make some similar changes. I’m looking forward to sharing more updates through my blog on the specifics of my journey. The emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of this journey, that is. Holistic care includes all three of those areas and it’s super important to talk about each.
Feel free to ask any questions above or through my social media and thanks for joining me on my journey!
“A healthy outside starts from a healthy inside” – Robert Urich
Glory, Grub & Grind 