Happy Friday, lovelies!!!
I’m currently enroute to beautiful Carmel by-the-sea for a lovely weekend away with the hubby. It’s the first time visiting for both of us and I am so excited to take you along on our road trip 🙂 Make sure you’re follow along on Instagram Stories for a first hand look into our adventure!
Now onto today’s topic… you may be wondering what “mystery” I’m referring to in the title of this post. Exactly a month ago, I wrote a post explaining the truth behind the health issues I was facing, something I had never mentioned previously. I had developed symptoms that worsened over the course of a year, despite doing everything in my power to try to resolve the problem. The past couple of months specifically have been very difficult and as a result, I’ve been all over the place with my posts (very unlike me). I do want you to know that this is first and foremost still a fashion blog and not a platform that I normally use for sharing such personal details, but in my moment of desperation and frustration, it was such a relief to get so much encouragement and support from all of you. I cannot thank you enough for all of your kind comments, DMs and emails to check in to see how I was doing and sharing similar circumstances that you all have overcome to let me know that I wasn’t alone in this.
Here is a short recap for those of you that might be experiencing a similar situation. My symptoms included:
- Extreme exhaustion, tiredness and fatigue every single day (despite getting 8-9 hours of sleep)
- Severe bloating after every meal no matter how well I ate
- Hormonal issues and skin problems
- Occasional stomach cramps
- Almost daily migraines
- Insomnia (I was never a night owl before)
- Unexplained weight gain
At first, I thought it was burn out so I scaled back on my intense work schedule. My symptoms only worsened and I tried a variety of different things including Whole30 and Keto and nothing worked! It got so bad that I decided to go to the doctor and trust me, I never ever ever go to the doctor. When I go, it’s usually for something serious (the last time I went was in 2013 for what was thought to be appendicitis, which miraculously healed – true story). I got an ultrasound done as well as blood tests for liver/kidney, diabetes, anemia and thyroid. They all came back negative… which is great BUT so frustrating because I still had no idea what was happening to me! The doctor mentioned that it could possibly be sleep apnea, depression, chronic fatigue or severe stress but did not offer additional testing. A lot of people also mentioned that it could be Lyme disease as well! The scary thing is that soooo many of these things have a lot of the same symptoms so it’s difficult to pin point exactly what it could be.
Before going in for additional testing, I decided to take a food intolerance test from York Test. I had a feeling that dairy might be the culprit and I experimented with it for a good month before taking the test (I got incredibly sick this past weekend when I had pizza with the hubby). If you haven’t heard of York Test, it’s a blood test that you can administer yourself in the comfort of your own home that will tell you if you have a reaction to any food/drink ingredients. The test was very easy to take as the instructions are clearly laid out and customer service was even so kind to offer additional help and tips when asked. After I collected my blood sample (which sounds scary, but I promise it’s not!), I waited about two weeks and received the results, which were both obvious and surprising! See my York Test results below:
Reaction
- Cow’s Milk
- Yeast
- Egg Yolk (not the white though)
- Coffee
- Various grape varieties used in wine (mostly white wines)
- Tuna
Borderline
- Wheat
- Buckwheat
- Sesame Seed
- Oily Fish (mackerel and herring)
- More grape varieties
Sooo… pretty much all the good stuff haha! All items under “reaction” are noted as intolerances and are advised to be removed completely from my diet immediately. Items under “borderline” are not full on reactions and are advised to be limited or removed completely as they can become problematic. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw cow’s milk on there because I knew I wasn’t going crazy lol! But I was really astonished and surprised to see so many others including yeast, which would explain why I was pretty much always bloated! I also just want to say that a food intolerance is much different and less serious than a food allergy, although in my case, I have also noticed full body itching after eating dairy… something I previously chalked up to as dry skin (even after slathering on pounds of lotion lol!) so I’ll need to look into that a bit more.
Included with the York Test testing kit is a 30 minute phone consultation with a nutritionist, a 12 week food diary and a food and drink guidebook. For my next step, I’ll be discussing my new dietary changes with the nutritionist (what I can eat/drink and vice versa) and from there, will start a 12 week elimination diet. I will be keeping track of everything I eat and drink along with how I’m feeling afterward. After 12 weeks, I’ll try reintroducing each food individually to see if there are any symptoms.
I never thought I would be in this situation because to be honest, I never had any food intolerances before. I just don’t know what caused this happen. The symptoms came on very suddenly and it really is the craziest thing! I’m SOOO sad to give up my cheese, chocolate chip cookies, pizza, and ranch dressing but I feel like it’s more important that I take care of my health. I am crossing my fingers that this really is the root of my issues and am overjoyed at the thought of finally feeling like my energetic, sunshine-y, smiley self again 🙂
I know that there are so many of you going through the same thing and while it may or may not be related to a food intolerance, it doesn’t hurt to check it out! I highly recommend York Test and feel like I am much more prepared to take on this sudden and extreme lifestyle change. Also, I really REALLY appreciate all of your support on this because I know that many of you come for my outfits and not for my life details haha! If you want to keep tabs on my progress, I’ll include a short blurb in my next three month-in-review posts but otherwise, I’ll give you guys a quick update once my 12 week elimination diet it over. 😀 YAY!
Have you ever had a food intolerance?
Also, feel free to share (or email) recipes! I’d love to try out some of your faves <3
xo
************************
