Elimination Diet: Days 39 & 40

Wow, 40 days of cleansing the body of toxins, resetting taste preferences, making healthy choices...it has been a fun and educational journey! What has this experience taught me?

Lesson 1: Developing healthier choices and disciplines in my life has helped to renew my focus on Jesus as first and foremost my Lord, but also as my healer, redeemer, protector, and guide for life. With the food changes, I was seeing marked improvements physically in my digestion and in the clarity that was returning to my face that over the last year had been attacked with acne, as well as mentally in clarity of thought. But, it has been in the last couple of weeks, where I have returned to my first love, Jesus, and began again to set my clock to rise early and seek His face, to seek His plans for each day and spend true quality time in His word. I had drifted to a place of merely reading devotionals that others had written or scanning a brief passage of scripture and was not diving deep into His word regularly enough with ample time set aside to wait to hear from Him as well. I believe the greatest improvements have come during these last few weeks as I have sought Him more fully.

Lesson 2: Sugars and grains offer little to no benefit in the daily diet. Refined sugar actually takes healthy cells and turns them into cancerous cells. And we eat this every day! It sneaks into our diets in packaged, processed foods. Wow, I want to be an informed consumer, I want to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible and avoid the white stuff...sugar, flour, white rice, etc.

Lesson 3: Foods that do not digest well for me are: nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes (except sweet potatoes), eggplant), dairy, and corn. I will avoid dairy and not knowingly consume it. Tomatoes, peppers and corn will make rare, cameo appearances in my diet. I can tolerate them in small doses, so an occassional Mexican-inspired meal will definitely be on the menu!

Lesson 4: Making changes takes discipline, determination, support and time. I am so blessed to have my mom. I am thankful to her for taking this journey with me and for being so committed to shopping for healthy foods, spending countless hours washing kale and collard greens, and preparing delicious, nutritious meals for our family. She has blessed me tremendously!

There are numerous other things I have learned about health and nutrition that I will continue to apply to life. I hope to continue the refining process and growing in knowledge and truth.