Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional and in no way am I saying this is what you have to do to improve your health. This is my story and the steps I took on my own road to health.
Just like a dipping facet will cost you hundreds of dollars before you realize it if it’s not fixed, so my health was slowly ebbing away without me realizing it was a serious problem. I started 2012 with a desire to lose my baby weight (after all, the Princess was going to turn three!) and exercise more. That was what had worked before pregnancy and I was confident that it would work again. I tried walking more, doing exercise videos, changing my diet, and even attempting to track my food through sparkpeople.com as a substitute for Weight Watchers which I could no longer afford–all without any visible success. In fact, some days when I worked out that took all the energy I had for the day! I would overdo it and end up not able to get off the couch for the rest of the day. I felt discouraged as it seemed I was gaining weight even with all of my efforts and I was quite depressed about my energy levels. My Princess was a very energetic toddler and she wanted to be up and doing things and I just couldn’t!
Around April I had my yearly checkup and it was a real eye opener. I found out I had gained 20 pounds in a few months. This was surprising as I hadn’t been overindulging or pigging out on sweets. My midwife’s suggestions included doing blood work and of course the Pill. I wasn’t sure how the blood work would really help (it might tell us WHERE the problem was, but not WHY the problem was) and of course I still had no desire to start on the Pill. I figured it was close enough to a year since I stopped nursing so I went to my chiropractor and asked her for help. She suggested that I try her machine that (in an oversimplified way) is an electronic acupuncture machine. It is hooked up to a computer and gives feedback on what is happening in your body.
My first treatment found that I wasn’t breathing (deeply—oxygen levels in my blood were low), my B vitamins were nonexistent, and that my hormones were unbalanced. After trying to bump up my B vitamins and still feeling no increase in energy I went back for an adjustment and voiced my concerns about possibly being sensitive to wheat. My chiropractor used Applied Kinesiology (AK) to test a piece of bread. She said that I was extremely sensitive to wheat!
Now I had my answer, although it was not one that I wanted!
Photo courtesy of flickr.com through Randy son of Robert
Read Part One here!
You can find Part Two here!
Part Three is here!