Our Big Family Detox: A Resolution That Happened in October – Introduction
This post is not about a New Year’s resolution but a resolution that took place in October and something I have been dying to share with you.
Resolution is a firm decision to do or not to do something.
Resolution is the action of solving a problem.
The Decision
It was the first week of October 2014 when we put our whole family of six on a clean eating detoxification – which means gluten, sugar, dairy and caffeine -free consumption’s for 21 days. After a long year of educating myself through my Orange Naturals ambassadorship, reading blogs, magazines and just deep down following my gut we decided to take the leap into a new lifestyle where our health was front and center of our day.
Since we are “all or nothing people” we took the extreme jump and brought our little people in for the ride. This ride was not smooth the whole way through, there were tears from us all and moments of anger that over took some of our days. We had lot’s of grief, questions and confusion from on-lookers and open arms from others. This was also a task I knew I couldn’t implement alone for a big family of six.
A Referral That Made The Difference
I heard of a local Nutritionist that had worked wonders for my Esthetician. Each time I would see her she would talk about how life-changing seeing this Nutritionist has been for her health. From the first moment I heard about her (which was over a year ago) I knew I too was going to make it a goal to introduce her to our big family of six. I also knew from listening to my Esthetician this would take a huge amount of work on my behalf to pull off.
She is not just a Nutritionist who writes a diet plan to stick by, she also provides a live blood analyst and can diagnosis your deficiencies and work through your hormone issues if any. She is an educator who has taught me how to listen to my body and the actions of my children to hear what our bodies are telling us.
There is more to the story, let me give you another little tidbit to our decision to detoxify our big family of six with the help of a Nutritionist.
The Real Reason – Autoimmune Disease
It all started in the middle of the summer – at the end of the day my body would be full of red welts from itching. Although I was itchy in those spots it wasn’t that I was itching like crazy. The red welts would be hot to touch and almost disappear if I left them alone. There would be red welts some-days and none the next, the sizes also changed. It was so random and mind boggling that I was more confused than anything. We of course eliminated our bath soaps and lotions I was using, this obviously was something worst than changing soap would fix.
One night I decided to Goggle like crazy to find some-type of idea about what was happening to my body. I found a lot of great articles on my red welts and one which labelled it as an autoimmune disease. When I read that word it hit home hard, you see my husband has been dealing with an autoimmune disease – Vitiligo and our son also is showing signs of it too. I already knew the doctors couldn’t help my son or husband with their autoimmune diseases so I wasn’t even going to bother asking about mine. We have been to specialist for my husband and the only solution given were cover-ups that come with greater risks to your health. I did my own research on his condition months prior and learn that your food consumption was the only way to stop the spread of Vitiligo his autoimmune condition.
After my late night Google’s the only way we seen possible to deal with both of our autoimmune diseases was to see the Nutritionist I had been dreaming about seeing. On the plus side she also worked with hormone imbalances another problem I had been having. At 32 I went ten months with only three periods. My doctor kept giving me pills to induce it but personally that didn’t sit well with my soul. I didn’t want to cover up the fact that at 32 my body didn’t know how to bring on my period. Now ladies I know what you’re thinking no period woo hoo! I had a few people say that to me too. Besides doing pregnancy tests each and every month thinking a fifth was on its way, I felt like crap, my body was so out of balance I could feel it deep inside.
We did it, we seen our Nutritionist in October and started implementing all her suggestions the next day and started a big family detox in our home.
The biggest evaluation of our journey is knowing that we are four months in and have decided as a family to adopt this healthy diet moving forward into 2015.
Stay tuned as I share more about the weight lost I endured, the energy we all gained, tips and tricks to get me through it all and where our autoimmune disease and my hormone imbalance lies today!
Have you been on a similar journey or are you planning one for 2015?
Thanks for reading In R Dream!
Great info. Id like to try one but am scared that I wouldn’t be able to complete it.
This is great that you found out what was happening and chose to do something. I have heard of many doing similar and have been following along. Nice that the family is together on this
Wishing you and your family the best in your journey! It is so hard to change your lifestyle but it can be done. We have tried and failed but keep trying to improve every day. Good luck my friend, can’t wait to follow the rest of your journey. You’re an inspiration!
I wish you the best on your journey. I recently started researching essential oils myself. It’s amazing the difference they can make.
I’ve been wanting to do something similar, if not the same, for weeks now. i’ll be following with interest, i can’t wait to hear more about your journey!
Wishing you the best of luck on this journey to better health!! I’ll definitely be following along to see how it works for you and will keep my fingers crossed that it improves all of the things happening with your body right now. <3
Back when I was 20 my mom sent me to this healing place to fix issues I was having. The person analyzed a dry and wet blood sample and from each was able to tell me what was wrong with me. She also looked into each eye and was able to see what was wrong with that side of my body. It was truly amazing. However, after she gave me a very strict diet to follow, I had to buy over $300 in herbal pills (and had to take 22/day). I cried as that was a lot of money I wasn’t expecting to spend and I couldn’t swallow pills. But after that 14 days of the diet (and four days in between of fasting), I had never felt better in my life (even since then).
I often think of going to see a naturopath. With being a SAHM for years though I put it off due to financial concerns.
I cannot wait to see what changes you implement and follow along with your journey.
It really is life changing Brandi! Thanks for your comment!
That is a huge transition! Exciting to hear your journey and see how the rest of it goes. I can imagine that it can definitely be hard especially on the little ones when you tell them “no more sugar”.
Yes the sugar was hard at first but there are many substitutions you can do without sacrificing.
I have not started this plan yet but it is something that 2015 is definitely going to be about for myself and my family. We are choosing to “Eat to live. Not live to eat!”
Exactly! Food is so amazing. Best of luck with your journey too!
Oh wow!! Good for you for starting this journey – I struggle with eating ‘clean’ everyday.. I think having the entire family on board will continue to make your goals stay within reach!
Congrats 🙂
Thanks Soozle!
I am so happy I stumbled upon this post. I also struggle with red welts but I find mine are only on my legs and will come and go as they please. I have recently started to eat better and drink more water and after reading this post maybe it will help me also.
Were your kids great eaters before you started eating clean or was this something that was a struggle? I have two boys one who will eat everything the other not so much lol
The red welts seem to be for me a sensitivity to a food. I am having an extremely hard time narrowing it down 🙁 However when I am eating 100% clean they are gone.
We have always been a family that has enjoyed food. We have a huge veggie garden and the kids really take pride in it. So year they did eat well before we started. However there has been a lot of struggles still too because a kids naturally wants KD and pizza.
That is great! I am not on a journey yet, but working out the details for one. All I will say is I am wanting to live a healthier life style.
All it takes is those few words to start a motion. Thanks Stephanie for swinging by.
I’m interested to hear more! I’ve been thinking of working towards a healthier diet for my family this year. I don’t think I could go cold turkey like you guys did (not sure my hubby would be up for it), but I do want to cut back on our sugar intake (especially mine). It’s good to hear your story and results – encouraging for me! So thanks for sharing. 🙂
Bonnie I plan on sharing more as we roll into the new year. I am so passionate about the results and changes we have adapted into our lifestyle. The first step is knowing what you want and it sounds like you have the covered off. Good luck!
I’m going to school to be a Holistic Nutritionist right now (which by the sounds of things are who you saw) and I am learning SO MUCH through my schooling. I already have an auto immune disease, and had my thyroid removed, so my goal for 2015 is to get HEALTHY. I need to fix my digestive system and liver. Do a total reset. I’m looking forward to feeling better.
Oh Randa that is wonderful congratulations! I have always had my eyes set on learning Nutrition and something I have in the back of my mind. Way to go for doing your schooling for it. We are in the process of fixing our guts too and it’s been a very rewarding journey! Best of luck!
That is awesome! I am not on that journey yet, I could probably do it myself but I think it would be better and easier if we all too the ride together. We are trying to cut out certain foods . Once I can get the hubby on board completely then we will venture down the road.
Tammy your right it is so much easier if you have the support of the whole family behind you. What we did was a huge leap into an unknown world and too be honest a few times in the beginning I wanted to quit. Thank goodness for my husband to push me through those tears. Today I am so glad we did this together. I wish you all the best in 2015 in reaching your goals!