Happy New Year and welcome to the first Meatless Monday linkup of 2017. Join Annmarie and me every Monday as we kick off the week with a delicious meatless recipe! This week I’m doing something a little different. Since it’s the second day of the year and we all have a brand new, clean slate, I’d like to share my intentions for 2017 in terms of healthful eating, cooking, and baking.
Intentions for Health and Happiness in 2017
Living with Inflammation
It seems almost everyone I know is afflicted with some sort of inflammatory ailment or another. IBS, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, gluten sensitivity or Celiac disease, arthritis in its many forms. And those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Unfortunately, I’ve been battling an autoimmune, inflammatory disease myself over the last several months.
I have what’s called psoriatic arthritis. It’s been clinically diagnosed by my dermatologist and my rheumatologist. I’ll be getting x-rays of my SI joint this week to confirm diagnosis. While I was being diagnosed with PsA, I was simultaneously diagnosed with hypermobility, which I will discuss more in depth later on. For now, let me tell you about psoriatic arthritis. PsA is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease. It’s not as severe as RA (that I know of), but it can be debilitating if not taken care of. I’m sure this topic will come up every now and again in my posts going forward. But for now, I’ll keep it in terms of my diet.
Dietary Changes for Health
Just before MCM, I was given a sample pack of prescription pills to ease some symptoms of PsA. Here we are three months later and I haven’t started the medication yet. To say I’m terrified of the side effects is an enormous understatement. But I also don’t want to do any further damage to my joints by waiting too long to start it. I do, however, want to give myself one fair shot at helping myself before going the drug route.
My intention for the month of January is to detox 100% from sugar.
Going sugar-free will be incredibly hard for me. I’m a sugar fiend through and through. But I also know through my own research and brief experimentation in the past that sugar is a huge contributor to inflammation in the body and is also highly addictive. Since I don’t particularly want to be shackled to scary prescription drugs for the rest of my life (at least not yet), I will be diligent about what I’m eating to see if it makes any difference for me. And if it works, I’ll continue this course forevermore.
Therefore, my intentions are to make a lifestyle change, stick with it, and hopefully stall or possibly even reverse my condition.
Healing Through Food
What does this mean for you? I’ll still post many of the same types of recipes I ordinarily post. But I’ll be trying a lot of new recipes and making healthy swaps for things like sugars, oils, and salts. In reality, my detox from sugar will likely benefit you as well!
I’m very much looking forward to the positive effects the changes in my diet will have on my body. I’m hopeful this experiment of one will be a huge success. There will likely be a learning curve but since I’m already a relatively clean eater it shouldn’t be too hard to manage. I look forward to trying and creating new recipes and dishes.
If you’re on a specialized diet and have any tips and tricks, I would love to hear them. I’m determined to change my life without the use of man-made prescriptions if possible. And of course, if this doesn’t work, I will happily take advantage of the scientific advances of our species. I would be a fool not to.
Do I wish I wasn’t afflicted with this ailment? Of course. But since it’s the start of a new year, it’s time to take hold of my fate and move forward in a positive direction. I look forward to a delicious and healthy 2017 with you! Happy New Year!
xo
TALK TO ME!
Do you suffer from an autoimmune or inflammatory disease?
What is your favorite swap for sugar in baked goods?
Loading InLinkz ...Linking up with Confessions of a Mother Runner and A Whisk and Two Wands for Meatless Monday, and Marathons and Motivation for Fitness & Food.
28 Comments
Cutting out sugar and eating healing foods really has made all the difference for me. I also found that a certain medication that I was on was contributing to some issues so healing through food has been all the more important for my body.
Are you 100% sugar free? I think it’s going to help me immensely.
I will be detoxing from sugar ( again) too it’s very hard isn’t it? Not sure I can give up chocolate completely but I will be cutting it down for sure. Happy meatless Monday
It is SO hard. I love chocolate. It’s my one major vice.
I use dates or bananas in goodies and bars. The biggest tip I have is to not buy the stuff. Pinterest is amazing for random recipes with the things you have on hand. If I don’t have all the extra sugar filled things, I won’t eat them. 🙂
That’s how I am too. I made a million cookies over the holidays and felt terrible. And I remembered why I don’t bake much anymore!
I always forget how sweet dates are. That’s a really good tip. Are bananas as sweet for baked goods?
I don’t have an inflammation disease but I do have asthma to require a slew of daily meds and monthly visits to the doctor for a shot. I hate to be on the meds but they made it where I can function like normal so it is worth it!
So sorry about your diagnosis! Hope these things help you!
Right, I’m all about modern medicine if it will help me. I definitely won’t turn my nose up. But I want to give this a legit fair chance first. 🙏🏼
I have autoimmune issues, and I really do think keeping an eye on my refined sugar intake has been helpful. My go-to sweeteners are fruit, honey, and pure maple syrup.
I’m sorry about your diagnosis– best wishes to you for a healthy and happy new year!
I was talking with my friend about honey this morning. I’m in the camp that it’s a natural sweetener and therefore won’t cause the same reaction in the body as refined sugar. She claims the high GI could be a trigger even though it’s natural. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Everyone can benefit from cutting out sugar. I’ve cut it out in the past and after this past year of family donut dates and just seeing on those days and over the holidays how much it effects my body I’ve been ready to cut it. While I don’t plan on cutting it 100% I will be significantly be cutting back. I still remember eating fruit after doing a sugar detox and feeling how much just the natural sugars in the fruit gave me energy and effected me. Or even dates from all my holiday appetizers. Come Christmas with the cookies, treats, and drinks they didn’t it wasn’t the same eating them and confirmed what I knew.
I look forward to seeing all your healthier creations this year and supporting you through this hard time of cutting out sugar.
Isn’t it crazy how much sugar can affect us?! I conveniently “forget” when I’m stuffing my face full of cheesecake and chocolate and cookies…
I hope cutting the sugar will help me feel better.
I like to use overripe bananas or applesauce in my baked goods as a healthy oil substitute. I often find I can cut back on adding most of the sugar when I use these options as well!
Really? I’ve done applesauce before but not too often. Have not tried bananas though… great tip, thank you!
I am so sorry for your diagnosis, but I really hope that the diagnosis leads to some better health and an overall happier life for you (plus, now you are thisclose to Phil Mickelson, right?). As someone who lives with an inflammatory condition, I can tell you that diet can really really affect your disease, but you may still have to resort to some medication simply to help your body baseline and reset, THEN through diet and lifestyle, you might be able to wean yourself off the medication. My condition is unfortunately not one that can be managed just through diet and lifestyle alone, but I have kept my condition at a much lower level due to my diet and lifestyle.
And I echo the bananas in baked goods, and unsweetened applesauce. Also, sweet potato and squashes.
Good luck, lady! Let me know if I can do anything to help!
Confession: had no idea who Phil Mickelson was and had to Google. Lol.
Since (so far) this has been relatively mild, I’m hoping the detox will help significantly. But only time will tell. I’m not afraid of modern medicine — just the side effects. Particularly since Crohn’s runs in my family and one of the side effects of the medication is digestive tract related. Ugh…
I have auto immune issues as well. After frustration and concerns over the side effects of the different prescriptions I switched to working with an amazing Naturapath. My only wish is that I did it sooner. All my symptoms are better now than they have been in years. The hardest thing was going gluten free, but once I got through the adjustment period it is gotten better. As a bonus side effect, my skin has cleared up which was a separate struggle I’ve had my whole life as well. My biggest advice would be find a doctor or naturapath who understands the more alternative therapies and can actually work on customizing that and the nutrition to you.
So many people would just take the Rx an be down with it, after all it is the easy way out right? But that’s not the Rachel I see here, kudos to you for taking the road that may be harder but so much more worth it.
I sure hope this works wonders for you!
You’re right. And I probably should have. But I foolishly did research on side effects and flipped myself out. Ha!
I hope it works, too… 🙂
[…] sprinkled in here and there. Today I’m here to tell you why. On Monday I told you about my arthritis diagnosis. But the fun doesn’t stop there. I’m also hypermobile — which, as it turns out, […]
I do not have an autoimmune disease but I am continuing to become more aware of them and how your food choices make a difference. I hope the sugar-free life isn’t too much of a struggle and that you’ll use your creativity to find some really healthy “sweet” alternatives in your cooking and baking!
Thank you! So far I am definitely missing all my cookies but… 🙂 We’ll see how long I can keep this up. I figure if everyone else can do it then I can, too. How hard can it be, right?
[…] Intentions for Health and Happiness in 2017 […]
I totally think you can heal yourself through diet. I know when I eat cleaner and watch the sugar I feel so much better and the sugar cravings disappear.
I agree. I’m having a tough first week but it’s been a couple m&m’s here and there, not handfuls of cookies like it was a week or so ago. So far I’m feeling much better but I know if I can just stop the sugar addiction completely I’ll feel much, much better.
[…] I mentioned last week in my first Meatless Monday post of the year, I’m making a very concerted effort to eat healthier and live more intentionally in 2017. […]
[…] been making a conscious effort to really clean up my eating. I was very health-conscious before but after my diagnosis of arthritis I’ve stepped it up a notch. Yes, I’ve had slip-ups every now and again (ahem, […]
[…] of making a major effort to reduce my sugar-intake yet again. I know it’s not good for me and I’ve vowed to be sugar-free before. While I know going 100% sugar-free isn’t realistic for me, I can (and will) make healthier […]