2007 History - Weight Issues and Pain….

In the months following the demise of the Beer and Wine Store Girl, I became a victim. "He was overfeeding me," and "I can't…" and I struggled with my weight gain.

I blame part of the weight gain on the sudden shift from party girl to home body. For 2 years I had subsisted on caesars, beer, cider, V8 and dancing. I think V8 was one of the only things keeping me going, other than the constant sugar rush of barley and hops trying to turn into something that could sustain my body. Pairing that with the decline in work related weight lifting and in dancing I was no longer burning the calories that I was taking in. And boy was I taking them in.

I could blame some of my weight gain on my new relationship, I wouldn't have served myself those humongous portions, but I also didn't have to eat everything that was on my plate. My boyfriend, having a giving personality, would heap portions that were at least double what a normal girl my size would serve herself. I called them man portions. Being in the new relationship I didn't want to offend so I would eat everything that he would serve me. Big mistake (in more ways than one).


Another contributor to my weight gain could have been the lack of food in the previous 2 years. As I said above, I spent a good portion of those years on a liquid diet, after all, who needs food when there's beer? The very fact that beer and ciders are empty calories meant that I was destined for a crash. Looking back I'm surprised that I didn't have a distended belly, and am starting to wonder if that is what a "beer belly" is.

Question: is what is a visual marker for 3rd world countries lack of healthy food, passed off as a humorous marker of someone who has enough spare funds to consume mass amounts of alcohol? I also wonder, are most pot smokers skinny because they eat regular snacks all day long? Something to think about…

I quit my job in May of 2007, I was diagnosed in September. The pain started somewhere around January climbing to August and climaxing in November. When it really hit you could have knocked me over with a feather. I went from young and vibrant to disabled and restricted to using a cane to walk in less than a year.

Within the first few months (May-Aug) my doctor and I had suspicions. My doctor suggested that I start taking some general supplements like a multi-vitamin, fish oil and calcium. That is when I started my research and the constant web crawl and came across the product Recovery from Purica found here: http://www.purica.com/recovery.htm. The ingredients list seemed great and it was highly recommended by my local health food store owner. No body told me about the Herxheimer reaction, otherwise known as a healing crisis. Not knowing this, and starting a new supplement in a body that was in a state of severe malnutrition and ill just made it worse.

The Healing Crisis - http://falconblanco.com/health/crisis.htm

… the "Herxheimer Reaction", this reaction occurs when the body tries to eliminate toxins at a faster rate than they can be properly disposed of. The more toxic one's bodily systems are, the more severe the detoxification, or healing crisis.

I'm sure that Purica's Recovery is a great product, but it wasn't helping me at the time. My pain got to the point where I was allowed to self medicate with Prednisone. My doctor gave me a massive prescription with multiple refills so that I could be able to function while we worked on finding a treatment path that worked. I was sent straight from maiden to crone, do not pass go, do not collect $ 200.00.

In an effort to inform you so you do not have to go through this painful reaction here are some things you should do if you are going to try natural therapy's to help cure a dis-ease:

• First dramatically increase your fibre intake. I mean dramatically. Most North Americans do not get enough fibre. Think of adding something like Metamucil http://www.metamucil.com/fiber-for-your-health.php to your daily routine, gradually increasing to the maximum dose.
• Eat healthy food. Clean out your cupboard and fridge of processed foods and fill them with fruits, vegetables and whole foods.
• Get rid of the 3 whites: flour, rice and sugar and replace them with Browns otherwise known as unprocessed (or at least, less processed).
• Go organic if you can.
• Drink lots of water. If your dehydrated your body cannot move the toxins. If you are overweight and dehydrated your body cannot move the fat.
• Useful equation is: Current body weight in pounds (lbs) / 2 = # of ounces (oz) / 8 = # of cups / 4 = # of litters of water you should be drinking a day.
• Ex: 225/8=112.50/8=14.06/4=3.52 ltrs

This is not meant to be a review on Purica's Recovery. Maybe someday I will try it again, but I am still scarred by the reaction I experienced. Knowing what I know now, I understand that it was the product trying to help me, being as uninformed as I was back then, there was no way to avoid what I went through. Had I had access to a nutritionist it might have been avoided, but I live in an extremely rural area. There were no nutritionists available to me at the time.From this point on my posts will probably be much shorter, talking about products I've tried, things that I've experienced, books that I've read. But without this history, I don't think that it would be understood the level of commitment I had to devote to this journey. I will try not to make it a depressing blog, but there were some down times along the way. I will most likely go more in-depth into the topics mentioned on this page, but not by much because most of these topics have been covered, but I will share some links to show where I got the information from. I hope that you enjoy my story.