After a full year of inching closer to a whole foods lifestyle, I was feeling pretty content with the dramatic change in not only my eating patterns but also in my overall health. However, I knew I still had a way to go. I was significantly underweight and still prone to bloating, gas and indigestion. I knew that there must be more that I could do with food, but I was confused as to where to head next. I mean, there were so many options to choose from and so many anecdotes claiming that vegan, no paleo, wait … hang on vegetarian, or perhaps blood type or … and …but etc. etc. was the way to go.

This is where I wish I’d had a food philosophy and some good old fashioned common sense. I was still lead by my ‘at-the-time’ food gurus and while I’d become much better at reading my body, I was still quick to dismiss certain feelings (like the sensation of fullness – becuase I was so skinny I felt like I had to eat every few hours or I’d lose even more weight … which to be fair, at the time, was pretty accurate), or bloating (I’d assume I’d just eaten too much, rather than question what may have triggered it). Yes I was committed to whole foods, but my portion control was terrible and I was way too reliant on certain foods; nut butter, fruit, coconut water and oil, tahini, spinach etc. Unfortunately this meant that I began doing more harm than good – the burden on my digestive health (that was already dangling by a thread) was damaging.

If I had my time over, with the knowledge and wisdom I have now, I would have stuck to eggs, fish, meat, soup, veggies and a small amount of nuts and maybe a little fruit. I would have ditched grains (no matter how ‘in vogue’ quinoa was – the fact that quinoa grains looked the same coming out as when they’d gone in should’ve been an indication of problems, but like I’ve said before, I was naive and not a little negligent) and kept my sugars too a minimum. I thought whole foods would be enough but I was wrong (and then in denial about being wrong – I didn’t want to do more, I’d already made so many changes!).

Over the next few years I experimented with low meat (but this made me feel weak), no meat (super weak and super gassy), paleo (okay but I over-did the nuts – BIG time!), I Quit Sugar (probably the most sensible and beneficial in terms of symptom control) and Lola Berry’s the 20/20 diet (this was the most varied and fun to follow – but too much emphasis on nuts and quinoa for my tummy’s liking).

Whilst my food was always whole and, where possible, organic, Not one of these diets (apart from I Quit Sugar) worked for me, my bloating, gas, depression, anxiety and fatigue remained. I Quit Sugar was great for symptom control, but wasn’t as healing as I needed (it was more of a band-aid than a cure). It wasn’t until I found GAPS that I really noticed a shift.

It may seem like a simple task that we undertake 2-6 times per day, 7 days a week, but for some of us, eating is one tough cookie. We can’t just eat anything … we can’t even just stick to whole foods. It’s confusing and can take years to figure out what exactly works for us. There is so much choice now, and we have lost out culture and tradition. We aren’t eating foods that align with our ancestry. Certain crops have been modified, making their yields almost foreign to the human digestive tract and we no longer consume traditionally fermented foods on a daily basis.

The point of this post is to encourage you to keep journeying until you find something that works for you. If whole foods is enough, then I’m overjoyed for you, you lucky duck! However if you’re still not well, don’t settle for anything less. It may take years, experimenting, winning, failing and winning again, but that time investment will be invaluable at the end of the road.

My next post will be the mistakes I made (and from this, lessons I learned) when transitioning to whole foods. I hope that this will speed up your journey and minimise any further damage you do to your gastroinstestinal system while experimenting.

Happy path treading, I hope you find your road to healing (real soon becuase you deserve to thrive),

Hugs and Hi-5’s,

Rachel xxx