You're a What?

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Vegan eating...there is hope.  Read below for my on-going journey with RA and how a Vegan diet changed everything.

You're a what? I prefer to say that I eat a vegan diet,...not necessarily wanting to make vegan my identity. Lots of political swirlings can run through your mind when you hear someone's a vegan. I am a Texas girl, I have bought and cooked meat more days than not in my adult years. In fact, I still buy meat and cook it for my family. If you want a steak and you are coming to my house to eat dinner, then I will be thrilled to grill it for you. I love to grill.

But...

I wont be eating it with you. I will be enjoying an amazing starch based meal with lots of fragrant seasonings and vegetables giving a colorful edge to the plate. 

Just over a year ago I began to hurt. Each joint from my toes to my shoulders hurt, minimally at first and then about 6 months ago the pain began to affect my day to day activities. Opening a water bottle was excruciating, climbing stairs took deep breathing and determination, my fingers started to malform, I didn't know what was happening to me. I had severe fatigue. After research I figured out that my symptoms fit the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. After a blood draw my doctor confirmed my suspicions. To make a long story short, I searched and searched on the internet for an answer to how to heal my body naturally, and what I found was that a vegan diet would bring healing.

The first helpful link I found was here. The Paddington Program. A RA survivor who is totally healed from the disease shared how he did it. He uses several doctor's programs and combined them to make his plan. His main sources come from Dr. John McDougall's research, practice and eating plan. The Paddington program had a minimal cost, McDougall's info is free. If I had to go back and do it all again I wouldn't change anything. I would start the first 12 days with Paddington's elimination diet and then on day 13 move over to McDougall's vegan eating options. On the 3rd day of Paddington's plan my pain was down 80%. I had my life back. There are dozens of video's by each of these guys on you tube that are available to watch. I spent hours and hours watching their lectures to understand why the vegan diet would help me. The first 12 days was hard but my pain was so much lower that it wasn't hard to stay on the plan. Then day 13 as I started to add foods back in it seemed like the vegan option was a treat compared to the elimination diet. I believe this is what made the transition easier for me. I believe the results would in the end have been the same, but this combination worked for me.

I am about 8 weeks into vegan eating. I love how I feel. I obviously love that my pain is much lower than it was before, in fact 8 weeks ago it would have hurt to type this on the computer, but even besides the subsiding pain I feel so good I don't believe I will ever go back to eating animal protein. The hardest our body has to work is when it is digesting food. Because I am feeding my body foods that are easier to digest I have more energy than I can remember ever having, I feel healthy. When my blood tests were run for RA at diagnosis my markers were at 39 (high) 6 weeks later my markers had gone down to 23.3. In 6 weeks I was able to make a huge difference not only in pain and function, but it showed up in the levels measured in my blood.

Am I getting enough protein? YES! The meat industry has done it's job well. It has engrained in us that meat is the be all and end all of protein. That's just not true. I am getting more protein now through my grains and veggies than I ever had before.

Am I getting enough calcium? YES! There is so much absorbable calcium in our vegetables, especially greens. I am not a huge fan of green salads so I juice greens every day. 

This blog will be mainly a recipe blog. My food really does make a difference. Until this year I haven't fully embraced that, but given the choice between debilitating pain or eating what my body needs I will choose to eat well for me. Food has often had the stronger hand in our relationship, I am now choosing to rise strong and be the boss of what goes in my body and not let it be the boss of me any more.