Food, Healing, Migraines... updated

I don't normally post personal posts, but I thought I would do one on foods and healing. Over three years ago, I absolutely did not believe that food could heal. I mean really... I am eating good and bad. Surely the good was working, right? Not such the case.

Rewind to 3 1/2 years ago, I wasn't feeling so great back then. I was overweight, having tons of headaches and migraines, and developed a new symptom which scared me. I started getting very light headed when getting up and walking around. I few times I nearly passed out. This went on for a few months.  I went to my dr. who gave me lots of tests and found nothing wrong. She suggested taking a blood food allergy test. I thought she was nuts. I took it and waited weeks for the results, meanwhile feeling horrible. When I got the results I was shocked. It showed I had food intolerances to the following foods: Wheat, gluten, eggs, all dairy (including goat), beef, pineapple, a few nuts and mustard. You know how I knew it was correct? I have always gotten sick when I eat pineapple. I get and upset stomach and I almost throw up. So there it was a GIGANTIC list of food I should no longer eat.

I immediately got rid of all of all those foods from my diet. My symptoms went away and I finally felt good. I had energy and migraines were only once a month at the most instead of 5-10 a month. I did great on this diet for two years. According the food intolerance books, I could try to add back foods and see if I had adverse reaction. I added back eggs first since this seems to be in EVERY recipe, even gluten free ones. I felt fine. I decided to add back a little dairy.  I mean a little bit such as a tiny bit of butter to cook fish. I felt fine. Since I felt fine, I decided to add back more and more.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Now I have basically added all dairy back to my diet and as I look back I can remember my migraines increasing. I just thought, "maybe I am one of those migraine people." These migraines were different. They lasted 1-3 days, yes 3 days! I had to take three days of migraine medicine just to function. They day after the migraine was almost a lost day. I would be having a sort of hangover from the pain and medicine. So, basically my migraines went back to up around 5-10 days of migraines/month. That is a lot of time to be miserable, right? I tried so many things during that time, exercise, sleeping better, supplements, nothing worked.

This was it, I knew what I had to do. Dairy was staring me in the eyes. Let me saw that I love dairy: cream, American Cheese, Cream Cheese, whipped cream, aged cheeses, and of course BUTTER. I finally came to my senses and cut it all dairy again. Yes, every last bit. So far, my headaches are gone and I haven't had one migraine. I am sure I will still get one or two a month just from hormones or something like that, but I am hoping that this will do it.

I also cut back on soy, corn, and potato. No more soda at all. This is not true Paleo but it is a do-able version that seems to fit into my life. Her is a list of things that I eat.

Things I might eat for breakfast (not all at one time):
Almonds and dried fruit, fruit, coffee, Kind bar, Juiced fruit and veggies

Snacks (not all at one time): Fruits, small amount of popcorn, carrots, nuts

Lunch (not all at one time): Lettuce wrapped turkey sandwich with avocado, onions, cucumber, tomato, and other veggies; turkeydogs without bun; organic potato chips; popcorn; juiced fruit/veggies; baked potato; baked chicken; plain fruit and veggies; squash; almond milk

Dinner (not all at one time): Whatever we are making that doesn't have wheat, dairy, red meat, pineapple, mustard, etc. (I eat) Chicken, fish, turkey, pork, veggies, rice, potato, squash, almond milk etc.  I also usually juice fruit/veggies.

Desset (not all at one time): Enjoy Life chocolate, Lollipop (yes I do eat badly a bit), or Paleo dessert

It works for me and I hope this will help somewhere out there with finding some relief to problems like migraines,  headaches, dizziness, excess weight, fibromylagia pain, tiredness, and other problems.

-Pam

September Chickaniddy Sketch!

Hey all, I created this sketch for the Chickaniddy blog!

Click over to the Chickaniddy blog to see what the team created for it!

thanks!
Pam

Three Fall Page Ideas & Free Cutting File

Today I am going to be sharing a few of my creations using the BRAND NEW Scrumptious Collection. I created three layouts with this fun, bright, and festive collection. I remember when Heidi first showed me Scrumptious, I was so excited to CREATE layouts with it! My first page is called "The Patch." I got this inspiration for this one from sort of a corn maze. Well, a very symmetric one at that ;) . I love combining patterned paper to create my own patterns. The Scrumptious collection is JUST perfect for this page! Take a peek! 

 

Supply List: Chickaniddy Scrumptious: Autumn Haze/ sc14os06, Back to School/ sc14os04, Corn on the Cob/ sc14os12, Family and Friends/ sc14os08, Frolic in the Leaves/ sc14os11, Home Sweet Home/ sc14os02 , New Harvest/ sc14os10, Nutmeg/ sc14os07, Pumpkin Spice/ sc14os03; Scrumptious Embellishments: Alpha Sticker/ sc14eb02; Illustration Stickers/ sc14eb01; Journal Tag/ sc14eb03; Mini Brads/ sc14eb08; Mini Sticker Banners/ 14eb05; Mini Sticker Embellishments/ sc14eb07; Mini Sticker Tags/ sc14eb06. 


 Next, I created this fun fall layout of my family celebrating Halloween last year. Again,you will see that I love to use TONS of patterned papers together (and sewing too). In this layout and then one above I specifically created this layout to feature those AWESOME brads! I love the way they pop on a page. My favorite thing about Scrumptious collection is everything is coordinated so well. It is easy to combine the papers without getting that cluttered look! Here is my second page.


   

Supply List: Chickaniddy Scrumptious: Autumn Haze/ sc14os06, Back to School/ sc14os04, Corn on the Cob/ sc14os12, Family and Friends/ sc14os08, Frolic in the Leaves/ sc14os11, Home Sweet Home/ sc14os02 , New Harvest/ sc14os10, Nutmeg/ sc14os07; Scrumptious Embellishments: Die Cut Tags/sc14eb04; Illustration Stickers/ sc14eb01; Mini Brads/ sc14eb08; Mini Sticker Banners/ 14eb05; Mini Sticker Sentiments/ sc14eb07Mini Sitcker Embellishments/ sc14eb07; Mini Sticker Tags/ sc14eb06. 



On to my third page which I created a cut file for. This shape sort of reminds me of a spider web so when I created it, I had that in mind. The Scrumptious papers fit into this design so well. You can see how well the colors of the collection make the colors of my photos pop! How cool is that. I hope you will like our 2nd giveaway. A free cutting file I created. Simply click on the link below and download.


 

Supply List: Chickaniddy Scrumptious: Autumn Haze/ sc14os06, Check Please/ sc14os09, Corn on the Cob/ sc14os12, Fall Bouquet/ sc14os01; Family and Friends/ sc14os08, Frolic in the Leaves/ sc14os11, Home Sweet Home/ sc14os02 , New Harvest/ sc14os10, Nutmeg/ sc14os07, Pumpkin Spice/ sc14os03; Scrumptious Embellishments: Illustration Stickers/ sc14eb01; Journal Tag/ sc14eb03; Mini Sticker Banners/ 14eb05; Mini Sticker Embellishments/ sc14eb07; Mini Sticker Sentiments/ sc14eb07; Mini Sticker Tags/ sc14eb06.  

FREE CUTTING files in .svg and .studio  
Hexagon Layers SVG file 
and the Hexagon Layers SILHOUETTE file  


Thanks for stopping by today.
Pam

Changes for IFS!

Hey all, as you may have noticed, things are different looking here at Ideas for Scrapbookers. I started this blog in 2009 with a few contributors and the blog took off! I was so inspired by the different styles and projects, it made me step out of my comfort zone at time! After five wonderful years with SO inspiration and ideas from various contributors, I have decided to make IFS my own blog. I am definitely keeping all of the ideas archived for you to see and use. First I wanted to thank ALL of the contributors who made IFS what it is today!
The last group of contributors did such an amazing job with ideas and projects, I just wanted to say thank you to all of them. Please visit their blogs (and gallery) here and make sure you follow them so you can keep up with what they are doing!!

Cathy Dippolito
Cindy deRosier
Dolores Schaeffer
Gael Spence
Lesley Walker
Sharon Fritchman
Tanya Ham

Thanks all!
Pam

Giveaway!

Hey all, Chickaniddy Crafts is doing a giveaway on the their blog today. Here is a the image they are giving away!

Here is the link!
Make sure you pop in over there to see three of my new pages!
Pam