Where Do You Start, So You Can Feel Better?

You’ve started eating gluten free. That’s what you’re doctor told you to do. That’s all he told you to do. He said you’d be fine.

But it’s not enough. You still have headaches, diarrhea / constipation, stomach aches, bad skin, lethargy, brain fog, exhaustion, etc. You’re frustrated, and overwhelmed, and no one is really taking you seriously.

What are you supposed to do? Your health care provider, family and friends simply have no good or useful answer for you.

Let’s look at a few things from a different angle so we can gain some perspective on what might be going on. Then we can talk about how to get you starting to really feel better.

A Different Perspective

If you’re normal diet is what would be considered the Standard American Diet, then this may be one of the major causes. You may not even know that much of what makes up the diet of the average American is anything but healthy. If that’s the case, you’ll need to learn more about why that is, and how to fix it.

If health food has never been much of a concern in what you eat, it’s very likely that a good portion of what you’re eating is what’s causing some of your problems. You’ll want to learn about what is and isn’t healthy.

If you eat a lot of packaged food, and don’t really pay much attention to exactly what’s in it, you’re likely eating a lot of ingredients that are quite harmful. This is like a silent secret of the food industry.

If you’re like many people, you don’t make much of a distinction about the form that your food takes. Maybe you think salad dressing is all about the same, whether it’s store bought or made at home. Maybe you believe that jarred sauces are pretty much the same as homemade sauces. Maybe you think the homemade version if just too “fussy.” Why spend all that wasted time when you can just buy the “same stuff” in the store?

When a type of packaged food is brand new, and a novelty, we usually recognize it as junk food, or as a poor substitute for the real thing.

But, when it’s been around a while, when you only know the packaged version, the distinction that’s it’s actually a poor quality product gets lost.

In reality, this is the case for almost every single packaged food in the grocery store.

All of this might shock you, or make you get defensive, or want to call me a nut ball. That’s fine. Yell at my blog, call me whatever bad names you want to throw out there, shake your fists in the air... When you’re done, and you’ve got that off your chest, I’ll continue.

What Doesn’t Serve You, Hurts You

If you’re serious about really wanting to feel better, it’s time to be open to the fact that what you eat, even without eating gluten, is not serving you, and is in fact making you sick.

However, it’s important to make another distinction about that statement.

There are thousands of non food substances that come along with our food: herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, BPA, plastic, drug residues, heavy metals, chlorine, fluoride, food additives, and more.

The main stream media absolutely will not cover this. Why? Think about what is the number one source of income for the media… Advertising. Advertising for packaged commercial food, snack food, fast food, etc. is a huge source of income for them. It therefore is reasonable that they would not be pursuing any stories that would bite the hand that feeds it. (I don’t like it, but that IS the way it is.)

You may have heard many people talk about the fact they can’t eat some specific food, or follow some special diet, such as a SIBO diet, or an AIP diet, or that they are also allergic to milk or tomatoes or a whole host of other things. Many of those people are still struggling, and still trying to find the solution to their health problems.

Yet, you really don’t hear too many people talk about the fact that what really made them feel better was getting off of processed food. There are some, but too many people just don’t want to face the fact that processed food is junk food. All of it (or at least 99.9% of it).

For many, just the thought of not being able to buy food that’s almost ready to eat sounds impossible. If you’ve never cooked food from scratch, this idea of cooking from scratch can feel like scaling Mount Everest.

There is a Solution

As an immediate solution, you can start really simple.

Here’s a simple plan you can put in place right away. As you gain more knowledge, you can add more to this simple plan. This can form the base of every meal until you learn more.

Breakfast:

• Have a couple fried eggs
• Fry some of the meat from the night before
• Have some cut up fruit
• Have some PLAIN yogurt, with raw honey or maple syrup

Lunch:

• Use leftover meat from the night before
• Make a simple sandwich with some gluten free bread, or gluten free tortillas, with some mustard, sliced tomatoes and lettuce
• Alternatively, make a simple salad, and add some of the meat from last night’s meal to make it more filling
• Have some fresh fruit, such as a banana, apple or orange

Dinner:

• Pick a meat or bean as your main dish, with some salt and pepper, and cook it
• Pick a starch, such as potatoes or rutabagas, and cook them and serve them with some real butter
• Pick a fresh vegetable, and steam them
• Pick a plain lettuce, and 2 extra veggies, and make a simple salad
• Make a simple salad dressing using extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper

Planning Begins with Simplicity

The key at the start is simplicity. Though these are broad enough that you’ll have enough variety as you learn more.

You can have an oven baked chicken one night, a beef roast another night, steamed fish another, etc.

This also takes less initial planning. This will free up a bit of time so you can learn as you go.

Here on our site you’ll also find some of the core condiments and seasoning recipes that you can start to make right away. This will add some variety to your simple starting plan above, and these will form the base for more advanced dishes, that you’ll learn over time.

Here a few that you can add to this first simple plan, that are super easy:

• Fresh Herb Sprinkle for Vegetables
• Beef with Fresh Rosemary
• Yellow Mustard
• Shake and Serve Simple Salad Dressing

These next ones can come after you’ve tried the above ones. They are just a bit more involved, but still suitable when you’re new to cooking:

• Almond Crusted Baked Zucchini Crisps
• Homemade Mayonnaise
• Ranch Dressing
• Nut Butter and Banana Pudding

Key Take Away

Getting away from packaged food will do wonders for your health. You really will start to feel better. And if you still have problems, it will be much, much easier to track them down. You can also feel good that you’ve taken a positive step, and that now you’re starting to remove offending substances that will not contribute to your wellness.

Let us know in the comments below what you found was your favorite “back to basics” meal!

Cheers!

Thora Toft