I have found the secret to quick weight loss, lose 25+ lbs in 3 months!
Just get sick for months on end 🙊.
I am just kidding.
But that is what happened to me.
Recently, others have been commenting on my weight loss. Although I appreciate the kind words, the truth is that I have been miserable for months, and the weight loss was not intentional. While I have wanted to shed some pounds for a while, this wasn't how I planned.
I have been very miserably sick since April 29th.
Before April, I remember praying for God to help me with my health and weight loss. I prayed for Him to give me the self-control I needed to get my see-food diet in check. I knew my actions were destructive to my health and the lbs. that kept showing up on the scale. I was beyond frustrated with myself and my lack of self-control, but that is exactly what I lacked: control of any sort over the situation or myself. The once fitness & health fanatic quickly faded. I went from fat to fit, then fit to fat, neither focusing on overall health and wellness. I think I got the wake-up call I needed when I was praying to God for help.
I prayed to God without knowing how He would answer, but He proved to be faithful. His ways are often mysterious, and his answers may initially seem unpleasant. However, ultimately, they are for our benefit and His glory.
I'm sure you've heard this advice before - trust your gut!
I know I have, and usually, more often than not, my "gut" is right. As I have matured in my spiritual walk with Christ, I learned it's NOT my gut talking to me.
It is the Holy Spirit guiding me.
A few months ago, I got pretty sick due to food poisoning on a date night with my husband, and honestly, it's never entirely gone away. After about a week, I went to the doctor, and they said (as doctors usually do), "It's just a virus. Let it run the course. Here are some anti-nausea meds. Keep up your fluid intake. You are probably dehydrated." Yes, I am probably dehydrated because I can't keep anything in for a long period of time. Drinking and eating both upset my stomach.
The medication didn't work. I would eat, get nauseous and be in the bathroom. Nighttime was horrendous! I would lay down in bed and beg God to let me fall asleep fast so I could avoid the multiple trips to the bathroom and, so I could sleep away the nausea. I knew in the morning I would be better. Some nights He answered. On other nights I had to deal with the symptoms until late. Exhausted the next day and barely functional. Many nights I would take sleeping medications to knock me out quickly, but even that only lasted about a week or two.
So after another week, I returned to a different doctor, and they said, well, let's put you on Omeprazole, give you another anti-nausea med, and start taking a probiotic, do that for a month and if it doesn't work come back. All my bloodwork was coming back to normal. They said if that didn't work, it was possibly my gallbladder, and they would do more testing. In my mind, those tests would be ultrasounds, scopes in places I didn't want, anesthesia, time off of work, and more medical bills—none of which I wanted.
I decided not to go back to the doctor and went on a rampage of cleaning all junk out of my diet and house. No more processed foods, no eating out, cutting sugar out, and eating VERY clean. I didn't even eat this clean while on my fitness kick a few years back! I went as far as changing all my hygiene products from face wash to deodorant to cleaning products. Another thought that came to mind was the mold in my bathroom due to a slow leak from our toilet, so we ensured to get that all fixed and cleaned out.
Nothing was helping. Each night I would get nauseous. Each night I would spend hours in the bathroom. Each day, each meal made me sick to my stomach. I refused to return to the doctor to medicate the problem and not solve the underlying issue. My trust was gone, and my guard was up. I even began to think it was all in my head, I thought it was only anxiety, and I was working my guts up into a fit.
I became scared to eat, but I knew I had to eat. So when I eat, I am sure to scan every item into my Yuka app (look it up. It's incredible), and if anything has high-risk additives, I avoid it.
⚠️ Just as a warning, this Yuka app shows you how bad our food is and how broken our food system is. The good stuff is truly so expensive, and the bad stuff is cheap. It is no wonder we have such a problem with obesity, gut health problems, mental health issues (yes, our gut health and mental health affect each other), Type II diabetes, etc., but I digress.
I used to eat because I loved food. Now, I eat because I have to. While I pray for God to give me the balance to live a healthy lifestyle, but not paranoid all the time either.
After a couple of months into the agonizing, sleepless, and miserable nights, I prayed to God and asked what I should do, and God kept placing a specific name on my heart of someone I knew for a while in the "ex-medical field." I have been following her for a while on social media and knew she takes a holistic/natural approach to gut healing and is knowledgeable in that field.
So I finally got the guts (no pun intended) to reach out to her, and I am happy I did!
She quickly got the ball rolling and had me take a GI Map test and a food allergy test, and the GI test came back last week with more problems than I had even realized was happening. The allergy test at this time is still pending.
I am NOT contagious; nothing is life-threatening, but plenty is going on that is making me feel miserable. Here's the list of my diagnosis:
E coli ( the nasty one...enterohemorrhagic)
H-pylori
Parasite
My pancreas and liver are sluggishly producing.
I have basically no good gut bacteria and all bad.
My intestinal tract (small and large) is inflamed.
No wonder I have felt miserable for so long! It's not just in my head! I am not crazy... well, that is still debatable, but ya know 😉
I KNEW there was something more. I knew it was more than just a virus. I knew that I wouldn't get the answers I was looking for without extensive testing that was not necessary, and my healthcare lady confirmed this.
Instead, I took two simple tests at home, mailed them off, got the answers, and now I am on the road to fixing ALL my gut issues, not just one, through natural supplements, diet, and lifestyle changes. Not medications that only mask the symptoms without truly healing my gut.
She suggested that I go and get my Vitamin D level drawn, so I went to the on-call doctor and told him everything wrong with me, and he acted as if he could care less. That careless attitude was the confirmation I needed that. I obeyed what I felt God calling me to do, and I feel I have made the right decision listening to my gut. Literally 😉. I believe that the past 3+ months have been vital in propelling me forward on my journey towards better health and wellness with the help of God. He has opened my eyes to many things over the past few months, and what seemed like misery for 3+ months will become God's glory.
I know it because I trust Him.
I want to clarify that I am not attempting to criticize the medical field entirely. However, I've noticed that they often focus on treating symptoms rather than addressing the root cause and promoting healing. Many individuals struggle with undiagnosed gut issues that could be resolved naturally without excessive medication. While it may require effort, the best things in life are worth working for. Although there are undoubtedly excellent physicians, I have reservations about overprescribing unnecessary medication.
I want to share my journey and experience of healing my gut. My hope and prayer is that by sharing, I can help someone else who may be struggling with gut health and not finding the answers they need. It is important to listen to your body and advocate for your health. It is okay to be your own advocate. I want to share updates on my healing journey, including changes I make to my diet and lifestyle to help heal my gut. I plan to share how the process is going overall. But give me grace. I may not be able to update weekly, but my goal is monthly.
Listen to your gut. It just could be (and more often than not is) the Holy Spirit helping you make the best possible decision for you. God truly wants what is best for us and to help us through the Holy Spirit in many ways. He speaks to our hearts and lets us know when something isn't quite right. He drops names into our minds to reach out to. He encourages us not to take no for an answer when there is more to the story that He wants to reveal to us.
Listen.
Trust the Holy Spirit.
God cares for you, even for your overall health.
Trust Him. He loves you more than anyone ever could!
God bless,
𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝒶𝓇𝓂 𝓂𝑒, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒢𝑜𝒹 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝒹.
𝐻𝑒 𝒷𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝒾𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓈𝑜 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓈𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒. 𝒢𝑒𝓃𝑒𝓈𝒾𝓈 𝟧𝟢:𝟤𝟢
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