Musings - Because My Life Matters

About fourteen years ago I started to make the connection between diet and health. This is a shortened version of my journey towards feeling healthier and happier!

I was 35 at the time of writing this, and now am the lovely young age (!) of 37.

I have one daughter - beautiful, healthy, glowing, caring... and a wonderful husband - awesome in every way, gentle, kind but will always do all the 'manly bits' in the house that I can't seem to/don't want to! And he made me smoothies throughout my whole pregnancy (and still does - that's just an aside bit!)

Life seems peachy... well, it's not always and it hasn't always been! I am not here to air my not-so-clean laundry in public! There are nooks and crannies and prickles and tickles just like anyone else's life. But I personally like to be positive. Look on the brightside. The cup is not half-full, it's brimming over - no matter what!

Many moons ago, I had the same zest for life, the same happiness and positivity. But I was sick. Not hospital sick (and if my parents are reading this, they probably won't have a clue what I am going on about!) But compared to now... I was sick! My body was folding in on itself.

When I look back upon my life, I remember many events according to how I felt. That festival I went to? I remember having a particularly unpleasant bout of eczema and the hot sun making me all sweaty was making it worse. That time when I sat in RE class, listening to Mrs Irwin? My leg hurt so bad.. I felt like I wanted to jump out of my chair and run down the corridor... The residential in sixth form, in December (FREEZING cold) - ah yes, sleeping in my sleeping bag (or not as the case was) - tossing and turning, my joints in so much pain... my knee aching so badly.

Asthma, eczema, constant colds, coughs, ear-ache, aching tummy, bleeding when I went to the loo (for MONTHS), hayfever (all through teenage and early twenties) terrible pains in my stomach (never really told anyone) and pains in my joints, especially my knees... oh that dreaded pain! I couldn't bend down for many months of the year.. I hobbled about, spent the whole time massaging my knees in tears... the doctor said it was suspected osteoarthritis...

So much of my life has been shrouded in these seemingly petty but zest-for-life-killing- illnesses. I applied steroid creams to my eczema for eight whole years. In my second year of University, I started to get big sores on my arms... had NO idea what they were but they horrible. I also started to get terrible acne on my neck.

I cannot believe that I didn't connect any of these ailments to my diet!!!!!!

And I cannot emphasise the previous statement enough!

I remember the day my good friend Dominic gave me a book called Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. It was the first book I had read of its ilk.. I had never heard anyone say anything like this before... except when one of my friends said her husband had completely cured arthritis through diet. I was still in a lot of constant pain at this point, but not as bad as another friend who had her legs broken as part of her treatment for her arthritis...

I devoured this book. I couldn't believe how much simple sense it made. I oohed and ahhed at every page and nodded furiously in agreement.

To cut a long (and memory hazy) story short, I changed my diet. I stopped drinking and eating dairy products with the gay abandon I had before. I started to food combine... my body (in hindsight) was overladen with junk! Sugar, white carbs, fizzy drinks, caffeine.... it was actually fighting to survive!!!

In a very short space of time, my body started to heal. And I mean a very short time. I didn't have to wait years. And compared to how I eat today, my diet wasn't even that much better. Eating more simply and having ONE concentrated food at anyone time made a huge difference.

ALL my eczema disappeared... I almost couldn't believe it. It didn't come back. Until I was in my early 30's and my diet took another step in the wrong direction. I got little patches on my hands, in between my fingers. I used a Chinese remedy that got rid of it but it came back... until the little light switched on yet again in my head and I cut out all those triggers!

My diet has improved year after year, with some set-backs - like when I put on two stone and for some strange reason, started yet again to eat all that crud that made me sick! This time, I thought I had ME. I couldn't move one day. So, this time, armed with knowledge and the power of juicing and eating more superfoods, I tried again! I eat well most of the time. My body is very responsive and I am still learning.

I believed so wholeheartedly in this whole 'healing yourself through diet' that I wanted to write books and features and be on TV about it! Not for fame or glory but because I have experienced so much healing over the past few years because of some very simple changes and I want to share this with other people who may be needlessly suffering, as I once was.

I wanted to share my story (albeit the shortened version) because I am a living example of how I cured myself. And yes, my health can go backwards, BUT! It only does this, when I allow it to consume things that are just not good for my body.

This really is the shortened version. Just to end here, I hardly ever get ill now. I can't remember the last time I had a cough or cold and the last sore throat I had was two years ago now. I haven't suffered from hay fever since my early twenties. I still have asthma... am working on that one and think I have cracked it but I need to be super vigilant. And it's not always easy to be super vigilant. Except when you are sick of being sick.

Please do comment on here with questions and/or your own experiences. I would love to hear from you.

Victoria

xxx