For those of you new to my blog, for those of you who read both LITTLEBEARWOLFCOVE and LITTLEBEARWOLF blogs, welcome. Thanks for taking the time, I hope you like what you see. I'm KG and I created and run both these blogs and this week i've become the vegan.
At 26 i'm fully throwing myself into all things a mid twenties individual does, from studying and a bit of travelling, to climbing the ladder of the corporate ladder and jumping off the top, to settling down and running away to settle down again, it's fair to say i've pretty much fallen into every cliche in the book of life.
Like many of people in the modern world, I struggle to find my place, to sit still and to be. I've lost family, i've seen loved ones suffer long-term illness and i've loved and lost more times than I care to count anymore.
My life's just beginning and i'm enjoying every moment of it. I've transformed and experimented with more things than I ever considered and i've made mistakes and learnt some life lessons along the way. My parents refer to me as the hippie, my friends refer to me as the free spirited wildchild that refuses to grow up and me, well I just think i'm a young girl trying to make sense of the world.
I like food, wait no, I LOVE food. I'm body conscious but it's certainly not overpowering. Well it wasn't an overpowering factor until my early twenties when strangers kept asking if I was pregnant. As you can imagine. Mortifying. No, No I'm not and the oh dear god I'll just wear a bin bag today seeing as you're going to make me feel rubbish anyway.
Doctors said I just needed to eat healthier, friends said it was IBS, my mother convinced it's ALL the alcohol (what the occasional bottle of wine at the weekend or an odd glass of cider at the pub, I doubt it mum but thanks for the confidence in your daughters drinking habits.)
Either way the bloating wasn't going down, the uncomfortable symptoms were persisting and my body confidence was secretly hitting rock-bottom.
Some reading and advice from a friendly nurse, taught me about water-retention, IBS, Gluten and lactose intolerances. All of which would cause symptoms similar to mine.
Just to paint you a picture, I'm 26, stand fairly little at just 5'3 (just), weighing in between 8.5-9 stone depending on the time of year, (when bloated and at my roughest adding another half a stone just on my stomach) and at my biggest I was 10.5 stone. I have a slim but muscular figure, thanks to the years of dancing throughout my childhood.
I danced and studied dance throughout school and college so keeping slim was never an issue, my parents were not big meal makers either. My mum has more food allergies than I can count.
It was throughout uni I got to my biggest of 10.5 stone, waitressing, depression and studying all contributed to my weight gain. Over the last year i've made many changes to my life and through living a more positive lifestyle managed to shed the extra pounds. I've come along way from the girl who did drink a fair amount of alcohol and eat fast food, pre-packed food and left exercise to while waitressing and studying at uni. However the bloating never subsided and has been making me feel both ill and extremely down of late.
I was made aware that as a baby I had a lactose intolerancy. Thanks mum, that kind of information would have been handy at any point in the last 26 years. My health professionals advice, cut all gluten from your diet. I was eating a fair amount of white bread and pasta. Cutting those in quantity and changing to wholegrain helped but didn't by any means resolve the issue.
okay, try cutting lactose from your diet as well as any fizzy drinks (and drink plenty of water). WHAAAAT.?! But but but... Ben&Jerry's, pizza, latte's, milkshake?! No animals, no dairy, no fizzy drinks, no fast food.
I'd already given up meat (I don't eat it often and I wouldn't kill the animal myself so I don't want it killed for me, I have no problem with people eating meat, it's just my choice not to.)
Giving up dairy is altogether something else for me. Not to mention fizzy drinks, of which Pepsi and Coke are both my best friends and worst enemies.
Here I am, DAY ZERO. I have swapped all white bread products for wholegrain/granary or ryvitas. I've swapped pasta for noodles and brown rice. I have swapped chips for new potatoes, jacket potatoes (without butter) and i'm slowly coming to terms with the fact eating at restaurants is something I will be doing a lot less. Pizza's will have to be homemade and salad it looks like we're going to be a lot better friends in future. Swapping latte's for black coffee has not been a problem at home and i've been told my favourite coffee chains offer lactofree milk. Cutting pepsi and coke from my diet is proving a challenge but i'm finding new friends in fruit juice and water.
I'm still incredibly bloated but I don't feel as weighed down as usual. I'm not pleased at having to cut my favourite foods from my diet but if it's going to make me feel better than i'll give it a go. I'll keep you updated over the next two weeks and at the end where I go from there. If you're veggie, vegan or something else and want to offer me advice, please I'm so interested in finding out more, please do share.
I am fairly active but plan to introduce more active factors into my lifestyle to help with this. So it may have been for health reasons but i'm hoping this change will be for the good and better for me and my body. For more updates check out my HEALTH & NUTRITION labels in the coming days.
LOVE&PEACE
♥ ☮
LITTLEBEARWOLFCOVE
KG
KG
Images / content belong to their respective owners.
LITTLEBEARWOLFCOVE © - Krystal Gemma
LITTLEBEARWOLFCOVE © - Krystal Gemma
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