Guest Post: Starting to Heal

This was written by Nicole. Glad it’s working for you. Thanks for the testimony! Good luck, staying on track is difficult.

“I’m 26, female, and have been trying to rid myself of acne, fatigue, depression, and excess weight.

I was a very healthy child for the most part, but I remember having stomach aches and gastrointestinal issues on a regular basis. When I went through puberty I gained a ton of weight and started getting acne shortly afterward. In high school, I started skipping meals and trying to starve myself, but I just developed a binge eating habit. My acne got worse and worse over the years. I went to a few dermatologists, who would prescribe me topical creams that would help a little, but of course, would never completely rid me of my acne.

My diet was reasonably “healthy” growing up. My mom always emphasized whole foods and restricted junk food. She was into low-carb as well, but I wasn’t ready to give up my carbs and I didn’t believe what she was saying. It wasn’t until my early twenties that I fully accepted the reality that what I was eating was making my physical and emotional problems worse, if not causing them.

When I was 19 and starting my second year of college in Colorado, I had an anxiety attack and insisted on quitting school and going back home. My parents didn’t know what to do with me, so they agreed and I returned to my home state and started pursuing a business degree. During this time I was in a very low mood most of the time. I was always highly motivated and an overachiever, and now I had no motivation to do anything. I would lay in bed, stare at the wall, and cry because I felt so hopeless.

After I moved back home, I also started getting terrible stomach aches, worse than I had ever had in the past. I suspected it was something I was eating. One day I ate some whole wheat bread and noticed the horrible pains started almost immediately. It was then I started reading about gluten intolerance. I went on a gluten-free low-carb diet shortly afterward and lost a lot of weight. But I was working at a cafe and slowly my binge eating started to rear its ugly head. I was eating day old cookies and bread constantly and gained most of the weight back. My lack of motivation and low moods came back as well.

Since then I’ve been on a roller-coaster of being on a gluten-free low-carb diet, and binge eating whatever I want. I graduated college and started my first job out of school two years ago, and in these past two years my health, both mental and physical, have gone more and more downhill. I’ve been on birth control for about four years for my acne, and after that stopped working I was prescribed Spironolactone as well. The Spiro effected my personality negatively, and I recently noticed it was causing muscle weakness and twitching.

I started following Dr. Peterson’s work several months ago, and hearing him talk about Mikhaila’s blog on Joe Rogan’s podcast led me here. Mikhaila’s story reignited my will to find a cure for my physical and emotional problems. I decided to get a food sensitivity test, and was vindicated when wheat and gluten were on the top of my most reactive foods list. There were also many foods that I’m highly reactive to that I would have never thought to cut out, like most nuts, dairy, and eggs.

I’ve been eating according to my food sensitivity results for a month now, and the changes have been drastic. My face is more clear than it’s been since I was 13, my mood is much more positive and I don’t feel the need to take a nap every day. I seem to be losing weight, although I haven’t really been keeping track. I stopped taking the spironolactone two weeks ago and have already noticed an improvement in my muscle strength, the twitching stopped as well. I plan on stopping the birth control as soon as I run out for this month.

I have a hard time with craving carbs, I ate candy and Cheetos at work yesterday, and pretty much immediately got heartburn. I was considering “cheating” again today, when I saw two new testimonials had been posted. I know a proper diet can transform my life, and reading this blog is helping me stay on the right path.”