I have always been a healthy person, enjoying making and eating healthy food, loving active lifestyle and being conscious what I put onto my body and into my body.
However my own health challenges have encouraged me to seek information in so much more detail to learn how can I support my own healing journeys and not be reliant only on conventional medicine.
LYME DISEASE
In August 2016 I developed severe headaches, 'steel neck', photo-sensitivity, fever and in general aches and pains throughout my body. At first I thought it was flu as the symptoms were very similar apart from the weird neck stiffness. I was advised by my family doctor to go and have the lyme disease test done. The only tick bite I knew off was in April 2016 and there was no symptoms after that and I managed to remove the tick though it had attached itself on my body already. I did however get a strange red blotch on my stomach in August when I developed the symptoms. Unfortunately the infections doctor did not want to do the test for me but said we should rather wait for 2 weeks and then do the tests to make sure body has developed antibodies. Next day as I felt the same, very bad, I thought I can't bare these symptoms for another two weeks as I need to take care of my family, I decided to go to the lab and get the blood test done. I was phoned back the same day and told I need to start to take antibiotics immediately as both the Borrelia burgdorferi IgG and Borrelia burgdorferi IgM were very high. I was prescribed antibiotics, which I had to take for three weeks. These were very strong and literally killed the bacteria in my gut despite me taking pro-biotics at the same time. I started to develop daily joint pains which made it difficult to get out of the bed in the mornings.
GOING GLUTEN-FREE
Three months after my diagnosis, a friend of mine, who was also diagnosed with Lyme disease in the past, recommended me to stop eating gluten containing foods and see whether this would improve my condition (joint pains). In January 2017 I did exactly that, I stopped eating any food containing wheat, rye, barley and spelt. It did take couple of weeks, but I started to notice how it was much easier to get out of the bed in the mornings and a month or two later I noticed, the joint pains were gone.
Now 3.5 years later I can say it was the best decision I could make for my health. I have eaten twice during these following years white bread, once in Barcelona on my way to Rolling Stones concert with my dear twin-sister and this was simply because there wasn’t anything to quickly grab on our way to the concert and we were truly hungry. Wrong decision- always be prepared! And second time in Portugal, when I attended a cooking lesson with my South African friend and we made bread from scratch and I thought, ‘I will just try it and see how successful were we with making our own bread’. I really struggled couple of hours after that with such tiredness- all I wanted was to sleep. So for me, I know it’s just not worth it anymore to try and test whether gluten works for me or not. I just stay away as I want to feel good.
Since I stopped eating gluten I started to get more and more interested in understanding how food affects our wellbeing and what else can I do to support my wellness, so I can show up to the world at my best, whatever is the best for me.
Over the 3 years, I have read most probably over hundred books on nutrition, spiritual health, listened to over 600 health podcasts and regularly listen and follow some of my favourite wellness and nutrition experts, doctors and people who are passionate about health like myself.
There are many people I enjoy reading, listening and following on a regular basis.
These are the people I have gained my knowledge from and who have inspired me to make many changes in my daily life and habits. I have listed them in order of when I started to read their books and/or listen to their audiobooks and podcasts.
Kelly LeVeque- Body Love
Jessica Sepel- The Healthy Life and Living the Healthy Life
Sarah Wilson- I Quit Sugar, I Quit Sugar: Simplicious, I Quit Sugar: Simplicious Flow, First We Make the Beast Beautiful
Julie Daniluk- The Detox Plan
Julie Daniluk- Meals that Heal Inflammation
Dr. Mark Hyman- WTF Should I Eat
Alisa Vitti- Woman Code
David Wolfe- The Beauty Diet
Steven R. Gundry- The Plant Paradox
Dr. Axe- Keto Diet
Leanne Vogel- The Keto Diet
Pedram Shojai- The Urban Monk
Jason Wrobel- Eaternity
Nadine Artemis- Renegade Beauty
Dr. Joe Dispenza- Becoming Supernatural
Becky Campbell- The 30-Day Thyroid Reset Plan
Dr. Mariza Snyder- Smart Mom's guide to Essential oils and Essential Oils Hormone Solution
Dr. Alan Christianson- The Metabolism Reset Diet
Shiroko Sokitch- Healing When it Seems Impossible
Dr. Izabella Wentz- Hashimoto's Food Pharmacology
Will Cole- The Inflammation Spectrum
JJ. Virgin- the Virgin Diet
Dave Asprey- Game Changers
Anthony William- Medical Medium
Sara Gottfried- Brain Body Diet (currently reading)
Dave Asprey- Super Human (currently reading)
Sarah Ballantyne- Paleo Principles (currently reading)
I am truly happy to have ended on this never-ending journey of wellness and that I have taken the time to read, listen and learn about health from the many experts in their fields. I understand my body much better and know about many tools I can use to support it when it's out of balance.
I know there are many similar wellness blogs out there, but I feel I need to share the knowledge I have gained with the people around as I do hope that there are relatives, friends, friends of friends who can benefit from the information to use for themselves or for their closest ones.