I cut out the gluten, but I was still feeling lousy. What gives? My gastroenterologist was very little help, he said eat gluten-free and that was it and be on your way.  I felt like I was eating gluten free, was I missing something?? I later realized that eating my daily oatmeal may have triggered this or made it worse which I will dive into here. Thinking back, I know I always had it due to a number of “accidents” that I’ve had, I won’t get into that but anyone that knows me, knows, HAHA. 

Going gluten-free didn’t solve it for me.  One of my aunts was seeing a Doctor through The Wellness Way and so I figured, I will give it a shot and found one that was closest to me at the time in Jan 2018. They’ve since grown. I loved their approach to health. Test, test, test, no guessing.  I didn’t want a band aid approach like many conventional doctors, I wanted to understand the why vs mask the problem. This goes for most medications a person is given instead of figuring out Why am I having this symptom and solving it. 

My Wellness Dr did an x-ray to see if my spine was out of whack as your posture plays a large role in gut health if you weren’t aware. And we did blood work on food sensitivities.  Once I did a full blood panel of food testing, I started to have some sense of relief to some real answers.  With the help of The Wellness Way, I took my health into my own hands, if not me, who would do it? It certainly won’t be your regular doctor, your spouse, your mother, etc.  You and only You have the power to make changes in your health whether its physical or mental or both.  If you’re not going to put in the work and get to where you want to be and feel better, it simply will not happen.  There is NO quick fix.  Something The Wellness Way taught me was, “Look at how many years it took for you to get to this stage? It will take months and possibly years to get better.” That really hit home for me, it was so true. We are so ingrained to wanting a quick fix now a days and don’t want to do hard things. Well, healing is hard, but it is so worth it! Even having the answers of the causes, you could take all of the herbs and supplements in the world and still feel like shit if you do not cut out the problem! Getting healthy takes work, especially into today’s world of toxic overload and constant bombardment of toxins. Mindset is another crucial piece to the puzzle for overall health and plays a large role in the physical as well. 

Number one was to cut out the foods that were my triggers. For me it was the obvious of everything gluten and I had a rather short list of no dairy including lactose and whey along with eggs.  I thought, now what?! Haha. I eat eggs and dairy daily. There are soooo many things that contain gluten, it was astounding and any baked goods or processed goods which aren’t good for you anyway contained dairy and eggs. And the items I wanted to eat had dairy and eggs. I felt as if there wasn’t much left. But I was determined to not feel like crap anymore.  The hardest thing for me was to cut out dairy.  It took me almost 9 months to detox from dairy alone and I knew it was that long because I longed to eat cheese daily and then one day the craving stopped.  Don’t make the mistake in blindly replacing non-dairy items or gluten-free items as they are typically loaded with a lot of processed items and tons of sugar. I had initially started out that way until I started understanding food labels. The amount of sugar in processed items is astounding. And most if not, all non-dairy ice cream is jamb packed with sugar, you may end up gaining weight which will not help your state of mind.  

Once I fully cut the foods out, added in healing herbs, whole leaf aloe juice first thing each morning, I slowly started to feel normal again. At least in my gut. I was eating whole real foods, finding new recipes to try and feeling a bit empowered. It was a long road, it wasn’t quick, and it overall took me years to reduce the inflammation and leaky gut.  But it was so beyond worth it!  And you can do it too! With the right information at your fingertips, know where to look, where to find some help, it truly is possible and I hope you do, because you’re worth it! 

My gut was still healing, I felt better and knew that part of my healing was finally under control. But the last piece of the puzzle for me which didn’t go away, was the joint pain. The pain in my knees and overall joints was indescribable.  It hurt to just walk and I was living off of large amounts of herbal liquid turmeric. Which cut that pain and inflammation down but didn’t solve the actual problem for me and if I missed a morning it was painful to do easy tasks.  My Wellness Doctor when I first met him told me something that was nagging me in the back of my mind. He had mentioned that my breast implants could be causing some of my inflammation. At the time I scoffed at it, how could they be causing me problems? But the thought kept eating at me. So, I went down another rabbit hole and discovered breast implant illness. My mind was blown, I watched a documentary on the topic and found a facebook group dedicated to women like me that were having similar symptoms and some with symptoms so severe they were bedridden.  This group honestly was a Godsend.  I truly believe God brings people and information into our lives when we need it and when we are ready for it. I believe there was a reason for the nagging and this group was an answer to a lot of my outstanding symptoms. In this group I discovered what procedure to have in order to remove those symptoms and found an incredible doctor local to the Chicagoland area that was able to perform this surgery. I will tell you I was terrified to have them removed because I was a small chested woman when I got them and I’m even smaller now after removal but to have my health back and to not have joint pain any longer, I don’t regret it! I had the surgery in Dec 2018, almost a full year since my start with The Wellness Way and the surgery was a success! My eyes were instantly clearer, and my joint pain was non-existent.  More on that story can be found here.  This is the body and life that God gave me and I’m trying to live it the best way I can, which has led me to this blog.

I love to research and have many family members and friends that will ask for advice on a topic or product or something health related and thought what better way to spread awareness then to have a library of sorts in one place!  Bloom2Wellness is just that.  It’s all of my passions of what I have learned over the years and how our environment that we live in today is so toxic compared to when I was growing up (I’m an early 80’s baby).  This blog is just a sliver of what is thrown at us daily and ways we can overcome that toxicity and lead healthy lives for ourselves and for our children.  God gave us a voice and if we don’t use that voice to help spread awareness then how can we help others to see a different side or perspective?  This blog will have some sensitive topics. If you come across something you're unsure of or don’t believe, that is fine, we can disagree or feel free to move on (I wish you the best). But, try to have an open mind and start to research into these things yourselves.  We’ve been fed many lies throughout our lives to keep us complacent and run through the machine, but if we start to use our God given critical thinking skills the veil will thin and hopefully you can protect yourself and your family better.  If not for You then do it for your Children! We have one life to live, let's live a healthy one! 

Lastly, I’m in the works of pursuing my health coaching practitioner and holistic health practitioner certifications to hopefully help others that want to do a deeper dive into their personal health journey and how to achieve the best versions of themselves.  More to come on that!  If you read this far, THANK YOU for sticking with me.  I wish you the best, I hope you find something useful. God bless.