This is so highly personal, I am surprised that I am sharing it...I will tell you why....

Six months ago, I took my six year old daughter to the movies.  I was feeling pretty lousy before we went, having breathing difficulties- a serious asthma attack underway.   I was armed with my inhaler and figured I would wheeze my way through the film.  I had promised her the movie and I wasn't going to cancel.  As I drove to the theater, it got worse.  I vowed that I would call the doctor that afternoon, but I didn't want to cancel my "appointment" with my daughter.

It was an eleven am showing of Ratatouille on a gorgeous summer day, so the dark theater was virtually empty.   There were three people in the theater and they were sitting quite far away.  As the movie started, it became more and more difficult to breathe, and then...the room got fuzzy. 

I wasn't getting enough air and I couldn't breathe!! I momentarily blacked out, but thank god, I came to.  I was dizzy and the room was spinning, and all I could think about was my beautiful daughter sitting next to me.  She's only six, what if I had stopped breathing?  Would she have noticed during the film?  She would have been so scared and alone in that dark theater.  What if...

As I sat there after the blackout, I was so angry at myself.   And I was angry with the medical community.  You see.. I have been having breathing issues for years.  I was trying to  limp by with bad medical care.  My primary care physician sucks. When I complain about breathing, they throw some steroids my way and send me packing.  I had been in the ER with severe shooting pains in my lungs on multiple occasions.  The breathing issues would come and go, and I was just dealing with them.  I looked perfectly healthy, but I was miserable a lot of the time.  In addition to my breathing woes, I have had severe digestion problems since I was in high school.  (Sorry if that is TMI!)  It seems to run in my family so I had never done anything about it- again, just dealt with it.

SO, I vowed to myself as I sat there in the dark theater with my daughter that I would figure out what was wrong.  Why do I feel fine sometimes, and others I can't hardly breathe or I have sharp shooting pains that would literally make me double over.   Amazingly, I sat through that movie.  At the end of it, I got a ride for my daughter and went to the Emergency Care.  I underwent a battery of tests, had a breathing treatment, and at the end- got what?  An inhaler.  Whoo-hoo, yippe kay-aaa.  Sorry, charlie, not good enough.  I blacked out because I couldn't breathe.  Doesn't that deserve more than an inhaler?

After days and days of searching online, I realized that some of my problems might be related to food allergies.  Unfortunately, my doctor sucks. Did I say that before? I couldn't even get an appointment to discuss the food allergy question for 3 months!  I could dead by then, I thought.  I found a naturopath who would prescribe my allergy testing and I took the plunge. 

It was expensive.  Really expensive, and the results were astounding!  I was "sensitive" to EVERYTHING!  All the foods I ate for health (and diet reasons) were actually hurting me.  My soy latte- BAD.  Lettuce- BAD.  Do I really want to know all this???

No wheat, no dairy, no sugar, no soy, no shrimp, no carrots, no onions, no garlic, no celery, and on, and on, and on.  Holy Cow.  I can't eat ANYTHING.  My husband told me I was crazy, how could I possibly eliminate it all?  I couldn't eat anything!  Thankfully, grapes were not on the list.  If I had to eliminate wine, I don't think I could have made it through.

But all I could think of was my beautiful daughter, alone in the movie theater.  I had to eliminate it all.  I had to see if it would work.   And I did.  I did not have one teeny, tiny drop of anything on that list until Dec 31.  Not one thing. 

So what does that have to do with Active Rain?  Well, the quantity and quality of my posts between September and January dropped off significantly.  Quite honestly, I was tired, dizzy, and lacking in energy for most of October and November.  I couldn't eat anything- I had no food in my system to fuel me.  I stopped working out, I was sleeping all the time.  Before the big food change, I had always been sort of an insomniac, I would work well from 2-4 am.  No more, sleeping 7pm to 7am.  SERIOUSLY!

So I couldn't eat anything, and I had no energy.  Why was I doing this????  And then my body adjusted.  And I didn't use my inhaler once.  NOT ONCE, since the end of September!!!  Digestion problems, virtually resolved.

I have been gradually introducing some "forbidden" foods into my diet to see how they affect me.  Still no wheat, no dairy (cows milk), and mostly no sugar.  I am tired of broccoli and tired of corn tortillas, beans and cheese.  I wish I had a cook to make me meals that fit into my new revised plan.

So why the heck am I writing this long ass post?? I am normally a short and sweet post type of girl!  Well, tonight- my hubby planned "party" food for the family.   And I couldn't eat one singular, solitary thing.  Actually, not true- he had steamed broccoli stems for me.  Umm.  WOW!  Do broccoli stems count as a complete meal?  I am a gourmet foodie, and this pretty much sucks- but it is a whole lot better than blacking out in a theater.  If you have food restrictions, I would love to hear how you are living with them.  Make me feel normal!

In the end- life is far too short to eat stuff that might kill me. (and that is the blunt Ginger I am used to!!)