My whole life I've struggled with what I assumed was 'allergies'. Coughing, clearing my throat, congestion...you get it. Being in radio, it wasn't exactly a great combination. I went to the doctor who told me I actually DID NOT have seasonal allergies!
So, like anything, you move on in life and it becomes part of your routine. Wake up, blow your nose, clear your throat and repeat all day and all night.
Some days you're bloated everywhere (chalk it up to that time of the month). Some days you're feeling lethargic and foggy and overall just dragging (chalk it up to a grueling morning radio schedule). Some days you have a headache for no reason (I'm over 35 so it's probably hormones)...I had an excuse for everything.
At some point, you just can't possibly live like that day in and day out. I tried to the Keto diet after hearing of all the benefits when it comes to increased energy, clear thinking, digestive health, improved mood, better sleep. It truly did work. It was amazing. I lost weight, slept like a rock, had such mental clarity and was so happy all the time! I felt great. The mucous and coughing were gone!
There was no way to tell for sure what food disagreed with me most since you have to give up pretty much everything but meat and vegetables and oils. And of course, like always, slowly but surely we go back to eating the way we used to and the bad habits come back. For me, I pretty much binged on everything I had given up and not surprisingly felt terrible and the mucous came back instantly.
Fast forward to recently when I once again, got back on the horse in an effort to kick this mucous monster...
Not keto this time, it just wasn't practical long term, but something very similar. It's called Whole 30.
'Whole 30' is a little less restrictive than Keto and you CAN eat fruit THANK GOD. And it's more of a lifestyle... It's essentially no sugar, no dairy, no alcohol, no grains, no legumes and NOTHING processed for 30 days. You'll probably lose weight but that's not necessarily the point of it. You're supposed to take it all out of your diet and when 30 days is up...you add things back in one by one to see which food doesn't agree with you.
I gave it a try. But, I didn't expect for this to happen just 7 days into it. I was feeling pretty confident after suffering from the worst 'carb flu' ever for two days...if you've ever cut out sugar and carbs, you know how much your body goes into withdrawal from the insane addiction we all have for sugar.
On day 7, I decided to eat a bag...well okay, 2 bags of organic popcorn...no butter of course with a little sea salt. Should be perfectly fine, I thought, since corn is a vegetable and the kernels are unprocessed.
Welp...I woke up a few hours later with one eye swollen shut and the other on its way. I couldn't believe it. I was clearing my throat and bloated all over and had a headache all day and well...ya know, the eye swollen shut thing and all...CORN of all things was a major aggravator for me! And it also turns out, corn was on the banned list of foods because it's considered a grain! Whoopsie.
I took this photo HOURS after I woke up and you can still see my eye swollen:
I've definitely pushed 'reset' on the Whole 30 process since it happened and once again, I'm 7 days in (technically 14) and the mucous is gone, I sleep hard and I've lost weight...I haven't quite reached the mental clarity, the newfound energy or gotten past the cravings yet...(I think about carrot cake at least 3 times a day)...but every day I wake up feeling good enough to keep going.
HIGHLY recommend if you suffer from depression, bloating, congestion, digestive issues, heartburn, lethargy or problems sleeping.
Hopefully corn will be the only thing that does this to me because I can't imagine a life without dairy or refined sugars LOL. Crossing my fingers!
I talk about this more in my podcast below...It's ALSO the same episode where you can win Disney tickets just for listening so good luck...All the instructions how to win (it's so easy and you have great odds of winning since the 4 tickets are going exclusively to podcast listeners) in the episode...