What's this all about then?
I was in the Chiropractor and picked up a book to read while I was waiting for my appointment. It was 'The pH Miracle' by a Dr Robert Young about eating for life and health around the premise of eating your vegetables . I dipped into it here and there and was intrigued but also very skeptical. There were common sense ideas, but also some quite radical thinking, especially when it came to quantities of water and the eating of fruit.
Having done some researching across blogland I found the occasional post relating to the pH Miracle, but nothing dedicated to this way of eating and living. At least Google didn't pick up anything much! So I decided partly to address this balance, and partly to have a means of encouragement to keep going with such a new and unusual regime I would start an online journal or blog. I would document my starting point, the changes I start to make, the things I will aim towards, the results and how I am feeling, recipies that worked and pictures, products I've managed to find, questions I have that you might be able to help me with, and probably much more besides.
A little snippet of background:
I have another blog that I've been running seriously since September 2009. The Handmade Amoeba is dedicated to all things handmade, whether it is food, clothes, toys, accessories or homewares. But a venture like this is too big for combining with that blog and I've got the newbie excitement of setting up a new site... yay!
So, to get on with the story...
I borrowed The pH Miracle from the Chiropractor and started to read from the beginning. I found things starting to make sense. I'd been a vegetarian some years ago and toyed with the idea of going vegan. I gave the Hay diet a go for a few weeks! I was never one for complicated diets, well diets of any kind really.
The vegetarianism sprang from a concern over animal welfare and the widespread use of antibiotics and growth hormones which just plain scared me! I did eventually go back to eating meat towards the end of the 1990s becuase organic meat was finally becoming more affordable and easily available. To this day 90% of the meat I buy is organic, or if not it's free range or locally produced from the local butcher.
I have always cooked from scratch, shunning convenience foods in most of it's guises. I even make my own bread. I've always used whole foods and kept half an eye on fat, sugar and salt intake. I've aways avoided artificial preservatives, flavourings, colourings and sweeteners - who knows what these things do to the body in the long term... no-one does yet. I am a firm believer in the 'we are what we eat' philosophy.
However, despite it looking like I ate healthily I've never been exactly waif like. I reached a size 16 at over 11st a few years back and fought back down to a size 12 at 10st by joining a local gym. I no longer go to the gym and am still fitting size 12 clothes, but the weight has started to creep up again. I've been hovering around the 10st6lb for the past 6 months. I walk to and from school/work daily plus walk at lunchtime, I don't dawdle... sorry tourists... and work up a decent heart rate. But the weight just seems to be stuck.
A few years ago I started getting really bad stomach complaints. Mostly bloating, indigesting, constipation, and wind. My stomach would feel like a football. By process of elimination and some research about what foods might cause this I found that I got most relief by avoiding all things dairy. Basically I was lactose intolerant. This was tricky because so many things contain milk or milk derivatives, even bread! However it definitely made me feel better, unless I had milk in error or it was hidden in a food product.
More recently I found I was getting a painful stomach in the afternoons again. Lots of bloating and constipation. I couldn't put it down to milk this time. Again by process of elimination I discovered that wine was the culprit this time. Now this was a really rotten one as I do like a glass of wine of an evening to unwind. But I couldn't stand the discomfort, so out it went, and so did the discomfort, completely.
I thought with the ban on dairy and wine that the weight would finally start to fall off. A big resounding nope... not a chance. Added to all that I get occasional palpitations, itchy skin, a non too great complexion, sugar lows, and patches of exzema on my hands. All strange and could be thyroid related, but my belief is still strongly in the food camp.
I know I've gone on a bit there, but I hope it provides some insight into why I kept on with reading The pH Miracle. I started to see that what I was reading was relevant to my conditions and might finally provide a means to deal with all the niggles.
I decided that I wanted a blog as a way of charting my progress towards being more healthy, and to encourage me to keep it going once I've reached the various targets I shall set myself. I want to be there in blogland as a source of information and reasurance to others following the same way of eating. I want to find out from you, my readers, what works for you, what doesn't work, where I am going wrong, what you like or don't like... don't be afraid to comment!
Finally I just want to be clear that I don't have any medical know how. It's up to you what you do about the information I post. Any information I have will be in the common realm. My thoughts are my thoughts and nothing more than that. I have an interest in all things scientific, but no specialist knowledge beyond that of the GCSE!
So now you've read all that (well done!!) click on the blog header and that will take you back to the latest post and all the lovely sidebar goodies... (give me time, they'll appear!)
{screaming peas}
