Avocado Chicken Salad

My latest (and almost greatest) food invention recently... avocado chicken salad! I made it last night (ate in on my Pamela's gluten free/corn free bread that I made!) and it is delicious. Got it off Pinterest (of course) but adapted it a little. And it's actually really really good!!
I'm not a huge fan of mayonnaise, I will use it for chicken and tuna salad and on BLT's and that's about it. Otherwise I just don't really like the taste. But it is a really good binder for salads, and there's just something about a BLT with mayo that is for some reason better than one without it. I dunno what it is. Maybe just because I don't like dry sandwiches and not many other condiments go well with bacon. But anyways, this stuff was awesome, and NO MAYO! Which means instead of those nasty unhealthy fats from mayo you get really healthy fats from the avocado! And avocado is still pretty creamy so it makes a good binder. So here we go:

2 chicken breasts, broiled, and diced
1 ripe avocado
1 TBS plain greek yogurt (optional, I think it makes it a little more creamy, but if you are trying to not eat dairy then omit it obviously)
1 tsp salt
A splash of lime juice
Chopped cilantro to taste

Mash up the avocado until creamy and mix in the rest of the ingredients. Stir in the diced chicken and viola! If you are going to use fresh cilantro I would suggest mixing all the ingredients except the chicken in a food processor so then you get it nice and chopped and you don't feel like you are eating leaves. I used dried cilantro (the store was out of fresh) so I just mashed it all with a fork.

Mom, if you are reading this I'll bet it would be good with some tofu crumbles or other sort of vegan protein. I know Dad wouldn't like it, but it might be a nice sandwich change for you!

Might even be good as a grilled sandwich with a little provolone or something? Mmmmm might have to try that next.

And as far as I know, yay Cathy finally a recipe I'm posting you can eat! I think.

On another note, I am in high high levels of pain today and not liking it. I'm still not completely sure why. My armpits have been a little twingy and a little sore since I started not eating corn so I was wondering if that might be related but I was feeling healthier so I thought it couldn't be that. Though I'm thinking that that is about the time I started swimming pretty regularly again, so I'm wondering if it's because of the chlorine. I've never really had too much of a problem before, but I'm usually pretty good about showering right when I get out of the pool and the last couple days I didn't. Like Sunday I just figured I would shower when I got home, so it was about an hour after swimming that I showered, and then I was a little sore, and then yesterday I didn't shower right away because again I figured I would shower when I got home, but then I got distracted because I was watching the Biggest Loser with my roommates, and then I was just exhausted so I went to bed without showering assuming I would be fine until morning. Holy not fine. I woke up at about midnight in so much pain and my shirt was actually stuck to one of my armpits because I think a little sore had opened up. So I ended up sleeping in no shirt the rest of the night so it could have air. And then this morning in the shower I washed them like 4 times with antibacterial soap and they felt a little better, but still really sore all day. That's the problem with this disease, there's no instant fix. Once I get a sore and it starts hurting, it's gonna hurt for a few days even if  remove the problem. So I'm thinking I won't go swimming tomorrow night even though that's my day off and I normally would swim just to give them a break. And then on Saturday when I have to get in for my lesson I'm definitely taking a shower right after! Hopefully that's all this problem is, just the chlorine and showers because I can fix that. If it's because I'm not eating corn then I don't know what to do, because not eating it I do feel healthier but if it's going to make my armpits hurt to not eat it, then that would be against the whole point of this, which is to try to make my armpits pain free! So hopefully it's just the chlorine. I'll keep you updated. I do have a Dr apt tomorrow so we shall see what she says.

Breakfast Bake and Masters

So I went to Masters this morning, which in anyone is wondering is the team I usually swim with. It's like a swim team for adults, they have Masters programs all over the US. But I love it because I get a workout written for me, and we usually have a coach and stuff to help if we need it. So today I put in about 2700 meters, which is somewhere between a mile and a half and 2 miles. So now I'm a little sore, but I feel awesome because I came home and made.... this:

 

Pretty much deliciousness in a breakfast. It was amazing. I made Breakfast Peach Bake, which I adapted from a recipe I got from Chocolate Covered Katie that I found on Pinterest. It was amazing! So good. It's like dessert for breakfast. I'm a fan! And super easy. The only problem is that it had to bake for a while, so I was sooooooo hungry by the time it was done. After working out this morning, all I had before my workout was a banana, and so I was starving. But it was worth it! And I just took a shower while it was baking to kill some time, also so then I didn't smell like chlorine anymore. Not the worlds greatest perfume.

 

So Breakfast Bake Recipe

 

Filling:

3 cans of peaches, drained and rinsed

1 TBS lemon juice

1 TBS arrowroot starch

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

2 packets of stevia

 

Topping:

About 2 cups crushed cereal (I used Rice Chex, but probably would be also really good with granola)

2 packets of stevia

3 TBS melted margarine (I used Earth Balance)

 

Preheat the oven to 350, and then mix the filling ingredients together and put in a pan. (I used a 7x9) Mix the topping ingredients together and sprinkle across the top. Bake for 45 minutes, and then eat plain or top with some yogurt (I used vanilla Chobani)

 

IT WAS AWESOME! Om nom nom. Well worth the wait! And a really good post workout breakfast, because it's got lots of carbs to rebuild your energy, plus protein to rebuild your muscles, but not so many calories that it ruins your workout. Plus I have lots of leftovers, so I can just stick some in the microwave for breakfast before work, which is way easier than cooking every morning. As much as I love my scrambled eggs with peppers and onions and spinach and goat cheese they can take a while to make, once you cut up your veggies and get them cooking and then add the eggs and all that. This way I can just pop some breakfast bake in the microwave real fast, throw some yogurt on top and boom! 2 minutes and I'm done. YAY.

 

Ok one more picture before I go just to make you really really want to make this....

 

YUM



Life's a Beach

So had my interview last night, I think it went ok, but I'm not sure. Hopefully I get a call back for a second interview next week! But I did have a couple things not really going for me, such as the fact that it was at a brewery and I'm gluten intolerant. However I tried to not tell them that, because I feel like a food allergy is not a reason to not hire someone. But they did ask if I knew anything about craft beer and I did have to say no... but anyways, crossing fingers!!

So I'm sitting here on my break at work and I'm bored so I'm trolling pinterest to decide what to make for dinner for the next few weeks. I have decided upon:
Black Bean, Zucchini, and Goat Cheese enchiladas
Chicken and Avocado salad
Tomato, Cheddar, and Basil soup with Grilled Cheese Sammiches (gonna make my own bread too!)
....side note, kind of making my own bread, I'm going to invest in some Pamela's baking mix because it's delicious and gluten and corn free yay!

I'll let you know how it all turns out. I'm pretty excited.

So things I'm learning about myself throughout this whole experience so far... I'm really bad at self motivation. I have always been that person that things come pretty easy too. I'm smart, I'm good at math, I was 4th in my class in high school with a 4.2 GPA practically without even trying. So to finally have things be hard in my life... I don't like it. But I'm kinda glad life is getting a little tough, because I feel like I'm finally learning that there are things worth fighting for. Like whenever it came to fitness, I would work out occasionally but never make a habit of it. Or if I would see work outs that people would be doing it would just be instantly, oh I'll never do that. I'll never run a marathon. I'll never be able to touch my toes. I'll never be good at yoga or pilates. I'll never have a flat stomach. I would do the easy workouts and then I would kinda give up before anything got too hard. Or even when it comes to learning. I am so used to things coming easily to me that when something is actually hard I don't even try. Like I'm really terrible at learning other languages. I'm not sure why, but I just did not do well in Spanish in high school. Even the fact that I say I'm terrible at languages is me letting myself down and setting myself up for failure. But I feel like if I really wanted to and really applied myself I could learn another language. But it's just easier to tell myself I probably can't do it and never even try. I feel like a lot of people do this, it's easier to set yourself up for failure than really work and go after things you want. Like when I go back to school in the fall, I'll be back in school for a couple years. I think it would be amazing to do a semester abroad. But I just tell myself I will be bad at the language, or it will be more money and time than I have to spend in order to do it that way. But those are just excuses keeping myself from following my dreams. I don't really know how to get over that. I want to study abroad. I want to work out more. I want to learn French. I want to have a flat stomach. I don't know that I want to run a marathon but I kind of want to swim a 5k. And I've never understood why I don't just do it. Same with being healthy, I know I shouldn't eat certain things, but it's easier to just stick with my habits and eat them. I don't want to deal with sugar withdrawls or having to actually apply myself to something. I like just blending in with the crowd of average. But I'm starting to hit a point where I don't want to do that anymore. I want to be special. I want to be amazing. I want to feel like I have experienced and lived life to the fullest and not just gone through the motions. But I don't even know where to start!

Well I kinda know where to start. I can get up Monday morning before work and do my workout. I can sign up for French class in the fall when I go back to school. But even before all that, I need to change the way I feel about myself. I have to start believing in myself, that I really can do these things if I work for it and I really can become that person. But it's really hard. And I usually back away from hard things. But I think figuring out this food thing will help, because if I can be strong enough to get control of my food allergies and not eat things I'm not supposed to and stop being lazy in that aspect, then I can definitely also get strong in other aspects. If I can figure out food allergies, surely I can not hit the snooze so many times and get my pilates on in the mornings. Surely I can carve out the time to start learning French. Surely I can get all of this figured out. Is this what being an adult is?

Sometimes I don't like being an adult. I think I want to go back to childhood where I can make blanket forts and color with crayons in it all afternoon. I don't have to worry about all of this self betterment stuff.

Anyways that was my enlightenment rant for today. Tomorrow I promise to be back to talking about food :)
Also, next week is the Super Bowl, YAY! I don't think I'm going to any parties or anything, I think I'm just going to sit at home in my sweat pants and watch it and use it as an excuse to try cool new food ideas, like gluten free/corn free fruit pizza. And then I can just hang out at home and play with food and watch football all day, which quite frankly sounds perfect.

Food Experimentation/Day 3

So, Food Experimentation! Turned out pretty good :) Last night I roasted some spaghetti squash, and then mixed it with some roasted shrimp which had a little bit of butter and walnut oil and garlic and cayenne pepper sauce on it. So it was a little spicy, but pretty good! I'm not the hugest fan of spaghetti squash, but this was also the first time I had had it! So I feel like if I eat it more I could like it. And it's better for you than pasta, which is hard enough for me to find anyways.

So, recipe time

1 butternut squash, roasted with salt and pepper and oil for 40 minutes at 375
About 1 lb shrimp
1-2 TBS butter
1-2 TBS oil
garlic powder
cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
parsley? if you want green?

So put the shrimp in a bag with oil and spices(however much you like), shake it up and put it in a pan. Cut the butter into cubes, put on top of the shrimp, roast at 400 for about 10-15 minutes
Shred the spaghetti squash, mix it all together, and enjoy!

Since I promised I would post recipes I figure I should actually write that out in recipe form.

Anyways, so day 3. Not so great today, I messed up today. And like Cathy said I actually do kinda notice a difference already! I feel really bloated and heavy and not like I have as much energy even though I messed up by eating carbs I shouldn't. Which doesn't make any sense. But I don't like it.
Though the bloating could be the reason I messed up which is the fact that I started my period today. UGH. I hate being a girl sometimes. Though usually I don't notice too much bloating on my period. But anyways, I was walking to work and I had this huge craving for French fries, and I was walking right by Wendy's and so I gave in to it. And then halfway through my French fries with ketchup I remembered that ketchup usually has HFCS in it so I checked the label, and yup! Also had some chocolate milk at work that turned out to have corn syrup in it. OOPS. I just really need to remember to read labels before I eat something for the first time in a while. Before trying to cut out corn I was pretty much done reading labels unless it was a new food because I had figured out most of what had wheat in it. But now that I'm trying to cut something else out I'm back to reading every single label ever made and sometimes I just forget. Oh well, I'll go back to doing better tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, I'm super excited cuz I have a job interview! I could get a new job and then I wouldn't have to work at the pool anymore! So wish me luck! A new job would be amazing because, let's just say the pool is... not my favorite place in the universe. There's only so many hours I can watch people swim in circles before I just lose my mind. So here's hoping :)

Cathy...

Is amazing! I do love my cousin :) She is fantastic! So encouraging with my journey since she's done at least part of it before. It's great. Also she just bought me the almond flour cookbook just as a way to show support and I'm so excited about that! And sooooo grateful! I can't wait to try all the yummy things! Cuz really I don't actually bake that much. I love to cook but not bake so much, it's just harder with gluten free stuff. So many different kinds of flours! But this one is all almond flour, so that is nice. And I always wish I baked more, sometimes you just really want homemade muffins. So I'm super stoked! :)

Day 2

My second official corn free day! Ok it's not quite over yet, but I know what I'm having for dinner later and it's not going to have corn in it. So today has been hard, I really really wanted soda at work today but I said no! Also I think the hardest part of the day is right after work. Because that's usually when I would eat junk food because I would get off work on campus and the bookstore is right there full of delicious things that are bad for me. So I would swing by and pick up a pack of air heads or some milk duds or something, and so that kinda became my habit. So I think that's when my cravings are the strongest. By the time I got home, it had been 10 minutes because I walk every where and the subject on my brain had changed. And I don't really have sweets in the house anymore now that I'm trying to cut them out, so once I get home sometimes I'm like yeah I'd kill for some ice cream right now, but I don't have it so eh. But when I'm out and about and walking right by a store, especially grocery shopping, its so hard to not pick something up. You think, oh I'll just grab one thing, it will last me a while. But we are at a grocery store so "one" is like a 2 pound bag of something and before I know it I have eaten a pound of gum drops in one sitting. Yuck. Thinking about it seriously disgusts me but at the same time it's me doing these things. I feel like everyone in their weight loss journey just has to hit a point where the laziness or the cravings or the food choices is finally outweighed by the realization that these are not healthy choices and you can do better for yourself. And I think I am finally hitting that point. Although I am still really working on the laziness, I am the flakiest person when it comes to exercise.... ugh. Though I am going swimming tonight because it's my night off, so I'm gonna go do my laps :)

As far as if I feel any better on day 2 of no corn, can't really say that I feel a difference. I still pretty much just feel like me. My armpits are a little bit sore actually so I almost wonder if I ate something with gluten in it even, but usually I'm so good about watching for that. Hopefully not eating corn doesn't make me feel worse! That would not be fun.

Anyways, I'm off to swimming! Gonna go get my butt handed to me in a pool. It's gonna be great. And then I will come home and eat dinner and it's time for food experimentation! I will let you know how it goes :)

Food Control

So my cousin was talking about how she doesn't feel like food is controlling her life anymore, and I just wanted to say YAY! for her, and that I can not wait until that day comes for me. As previously stated I'm pretty much a sugar addict. Not even really a pretty much about it. I am one. And when I found out I was gluten intolerant, it was a pretty big blow. Like, no more donuts (not that I was a huge donut fan anyways but still), no more brownies, no more pie, no more banana bread, no more cake, no more cookies. Which granted my favorite forms of sugar are candy and ice cream, so I wasn't too too bummed about the pies, but who doesn't love homemade chocolate chip cookies?? And, no more cookie dough ice cream? No more cake batter ice cream from Cold Stone? No more licorice??? I LOVE licorice. But alas, no more. However there was still a lot of junk foods I could eat, surprisingly most candies don't actually have gluten in them. Except for licorice of course. Curses. But because I was such a food and sugar addict, when those things got taken away I think I just held on to all my other junk foods tighter. Like people would think when you find out you have a gluten intolerance, you would start to eat healthier. But I'm pretty sure I started eating worse. I started holding on so tightly to the foods I could eat, like potato chips and chocolate and soda and Laffy Taffy. It got pretty bad sometimes. But at least when I cut out gluten I had a very good reason to not eat it. When I ingested gluten I would be in pain for easily 3 days. So after a few weeks of cheating a few times and really feeling the difference, it was not hard anymore. It's so easy for me to say no to gluten or things I think might have gluten in them, because I know the consequences.

But this times it's different. This time it's, oh hey let's cut this out for 3 weeks and see if I notice a difference, but  I don't really know what kind of difference to be looking for. My pain levels are already managed, so then what do I look for? Less sores popping up in my armpits? Well I already don't have many. Though I guess they could get smaller. I'm not expecting the scars to go away because those are pretty permanent. Maybe my constipation issues could get better, but I'm pretty sure those will get better with the more fruits and veggies and stuff I eat. (yay fiber!) And with less sugars ingested. So yeah I can poop better now, but that's such a hard thing to tell myself when I'm staring at those Air Heads saying... I want to eat you. And then my logical side says, no be healthy, poop better! Sorry Charlie, but not the worlds greatest argument there. With the gluten it was pretty much an immediate change. And so far I haven't really seen any change. But also I've been messing up a lot because holy moly corn is in everything!! Like did you know that there is corn oil in ranch dressing? Or that anything that says maltodextrin is probably corn. Or if is just says "vegetable starch" and doesn't specify which vegetable, you can probably consider it to be corn. Or even things that are dry, like dry mixes for gravy or dry mixes for hot chocolate or spiced cider or something have corn, either corn starch or corn syrup solids. WTF is a corn syrup solid?!?! I was killing time at work today so I went on a crazy rampage of reading labels and discovered all of this. Though I was very excited to learn that the brand of chai tea mix that they have at the coffee shop down the hall does not have corn syrup, so sometime if I'm craving something sweet and hot (since pretty much the only hot beverage left to me is tea, and while I love tea and it is delicious and good for you, usually not very sweet) I can still go get my self a *small* soy chai. Not too many calories, since I am trying to get healthy and lose weight during all this, but at least no corn! It's so nice when I find something like that that makes me feel better about this whole "not eating corn" thing. Because when my cousin told me I should try it I was pretty much assuming I would be cutting out sugar forever. But I don't have to, yay! Just cut out candy. And excessive amounts of added sugar. Which will still be hard, but heck yes, let's do this!

So pretty much I am looking forward to the day when either this all makes a difference or it's been 3 weeks and I'm getting used to it and the cravings are going away, because I don't like feeling like my life is controlled by my food cravings. Food is fuel, I understand that. The saying you are what you eat has never held so much meaning for me as it has the last year. I get it. And I understand that you need food to survive and so yeah life does have to revolve around food a little. Especially when you have food allergies, obviously it's a little stressful. But I don't want to feel like I have to eat something right then because I'm craving it. Or seriously there would be times when candy didn't even sound good because I had eaten so much of it but I would still eat it because it was a habit or because my brain was telling me I needed to even though my stomach said no. I just want to be done with that! So here goes the next 3 weeks or so of trying to kill those cravings, of choosing what I want to eat and not eating because I feel like I have to or that's all my body wants right now. It's like when you are training a dog, you don't take them for a walk when they beg for one because otherwise they learn to beg. You take them for a walk as a reward for not begging. So here's to not giving my body sugar because all it wants is sugar, but giving myself maybe a little sugar because I haven't had any in a while and I've been being good. I can do this. Ugh these next weeks coming up are going to be a hard lesson in will power.

Also, today was my first official corn free day!! (because I finally learned to read labels before I eat something and not just assume hehe) So what I ate today:
A banana before work because I was running late and didn't have time for breakfast
A veggie/cheese omelet for breakfast at work
A salad with chicken and olives and pepperoncini's and carrots and celery and apple cider vinegar and olive oil for lunch
A cutie and a small soy chai
A dish of brown rice pasta with broccoli, zucchini, prosciutto, and goat cheese and an apple and an orange for dinner

Yum! No Corn, yay! And lots of fruits and veggies, so hopefully I will poop tomorrow :)

PS

This is my mini rant.... I asked for a juicer for Christmas, cuz I really really wanted one and I thought that it would be really helpful in my goal to getting healthier. More fruits and vegetables, more vitamins, more regularity in the pooping department... all of those were things that seemed amazing that would come out of having a juicer. And I got one for Christmas and I was so excited! But then I didn't get to take it home right away because it wouldn't fit in my suitcase :( So my mom mailed it to me, and I got it in the mail the other day and yesterday I went to use it for the first time, and.... It doesn't work. UGH. Major life disappointment. I don't even know why it won't work, it just won't. All the parts are together correctly, it's plugged in, and nada. So now who knows what's gonna happen, I need to call the company and see if I can get it replaced or fixed or something (it is under a 90 day warranty so hopefully my mom didn't buy it in October) and hopefully eventually I will have a working juicer!
On a side note, since it wasn't working yesterday I just ate all the fruit I was going to juice (2 oranges, and 2 sticks of celery) and boy did I poop this morning. It was glorious. I think I'm just going to eat my juice until I can actually get a working juicer. Cuz it was a great feeling. Y'all know what I'm talking about.

Oh Pinterest...

Seriously. Pinterest is going to be the death of my diet. There's just so many great ideas!! So I'm thinking what I'm going to start doing is finding these delicious things on pinterest and making allergy friendly, healthier versions of them. Or I'm going to try. Like fruit pizza. Um, yum. I love fruit pizza. But I have to make my own crust obviously and usually it's full of cream cheese. Which I don't believe I mentioned this yesterday but I'm not supposed to have cream cheese because I'm a little lactose intolerant. Also I try to stay away from soy, because eating a lot of soy isn't good for you (it can mess with your hormones and stuff) so then no fake cream cheese either. But I'm thinking maybe some plain greek yogurt mixed with a little stevia and vanilla flavoring? That could work. Ha I'll let you know how it all works out for me. I'm thinking I need to host a Super Bowl party just to try out all these awesome ideas I have lol.

hehe, things I forgot...

Lo and behold, I can talk a lot! So people better just get used to that.
So, a few things I forgot to say about my health and other things I'm dealing with. First off, for the sake of blog honesty, I am going to say that I have serious constipation problems. Not fun. So hopefully you all are fine with talking about pooping! (or lack there of...) because that is another thing I will be documenting on my path to health. Also I have been having some really bad yeast infections lately, and I really hope I can get those fixed too. I finally went to the gyno and made her give me the yeast infection pill cuz things were getting bad. Like we are talking at least one a month since June kind of thing. So I really hope now that I took the pill they don't come back. And now that I'm trying to eat healthier, because I know sugar feeds Candida, which is the yeast that causes yeast infections. Because if they do come back, I'm scared someone is going to tell me I need to be on a Candida diet. Which is scary, because that sounds terrible!

However, now that I am employed full time (try full and a half time, I work like 60 hours a week) I can hopefully afford a better doctor, so I have myself an appointment with a naturopath scheduled in March. It's that far away because I had to wait until Spring Break when I would have enough time off work to talk to them. Because they recommend that your first appointment with a naturopath you leave like 2 hours open for because they want to know your whole life history. So, my goals for this appointment are to talk Candida, HS, and get myself a food allergy test, and see if there's anything else they think is interesting going on in my life. Unfortunately I still have to wait 2 months for that. But I wish it was sooner because I'm so excited about it! Hopefully I can find something out that will help.

Also, if y'all are wondering why I have to wait til Spring Break to have time when I'm not in school, it's because I work full time at the University in food service. Which is really hard to do since I work full time there and thus they give me free food, but since I have food allergies I can eat about....5% of what they serve. Because this is like university fast food, we are talking burgers and sandwiches and tacos and lots of things that are breaded and fried. Not good for a girl with a gluten allergy. So salad it is... every day. Last semester when I was eating corn I ate a lot of tacos. And soda... ugh. Even though I hate the idea of soda, it's just so delicious. I love rootbeer. I'll admit it. Also gained about 10-15 pounds last semester, so here's hoping that eating salads every day, usually with apple cider vinegar and olive oil as dressing helps with me not gaining weight, and helps me poop with all those vegetables, and maybe even helps my HS and maybe Candida because I've heard apple cider vinegar can help with those. yay.

Ok, last thing. I think. One more thing on the weight, and then I'm done. I am over 6 feet tall, I'm about 6' 2". Pretty rare in the female world, but go me. And before you ask, no I did not play basketball or volleyball. I'm a swimmer through and through. But I also happen to be about 25 pounds overweight. So this will also be a diet and weight loss journey, trying to get healthy, get in shape, lose some weight, fix my HS and Candida, fix my sugar problems, and ya. This will be an interesting, hard, good, amazing, difficult, probably make me want to give up and rip my eyes out, kind of year. It'll be fun! Glad you are here with me :)

Here we are! Day 1... All about me

Hello! So, I'm kinda new to this whole blogging thing.... BUT my cousin (the awesome lady over at Leaky Gut Detective ) has started a blog about all of her food allergies these days, and since I am having a lot of problems too, some similar, I figured we could collaborate. One of these days we are going to write a cookbook. It's going to be amazing.

Anyways. So this is my story. I am a 22 (almost 23) year old female, living in Montana, loving life even though it is crazy busy. I work 2 jobs, graduated from school in May but am planning on going back again in the Fall, I love reading and cooking and talking about food all day every day. I love to learn about nutrition and I have a college degree in exercise so I know a lot about that, but definitely struggle with putting into practice what I know. It's a lot easier to tell other people how to live than tell yourself how to live. UGH. But it's something I'm working on!

About my health, I was diagnosed with Hidratenitis Supparativa (probably spelled that wrong) about 2 1/2 years ago. If anyone is wondering what that is, it is this wonderful (by which I mean rather horrible) little skin disease that is very similar to acne except that it affects areas where you sweat, so your sweat glands rather than you oil glands. Also the pimples are about 20 times larger. And sometimes don't like to go away for about 5 months. Which is when my doctor comes in with a big scary knife and cuts them away so then the healthy tissue underneath can regrow up to the surface. Like I said, it's super fun.

Ok, as you can probably tell I am a rather sarcastic person! But really this disease is not fun at all, but from reading other people's problems with it on the internet, I can tell that I don't have it too bad. Mine mostly sits in my armpits, and some on my chest and in between my boobs. Thankfully it has stayed away from my groin! YIKES! As far as medication, I take birth control and am supposed to take Minocycline every day for it, but I'm really bad about doing that. Partly because I'm terrible at making habits and partly because I hate the idea of popping pills every day. Even taking birth control every day isn't fun. Um I'm a single lady, there is nothing going on in my life which would require me taking birth control! Other than, ya know, the funky armpits. Seriously, when I was growing up I never thought I would hit a point in my life where I am jealous of other women's armpits. But I am. Sometimes I'm like omg look at how smooth and pretty that person's are! But anyways, I digress.

So about a year and a half ago I decided that I was sick of the medication every day and wanted to take a more holistic approach to this disease. However, I was a poor college student and could not afford a naturopath. So I went to Google. And found that a lot of people were feeling better if they cut gluten out of the picture. So I thought hey, why not try it. So I did, and literally felt better within a day. My armpits weren't as sore, there weren't any new sores, it was great. Seriously, before I cut out gluten I was in pain every day, there were days when I didn't want to get out of bed because my armpits hurt so bad, I couldn't life my arms over my head, which sucks when you love to swim like I do. It was horrible. So cutting out the gluten helped a ton! And for a while I was happy.

However, after a while I started to realize that this disease wasn't going away. I still was getting sores, I was still needing surgery. The pain levels were way down, but the disease was still very present. And I've heard that there is no cure for this disease, but I wish there was a way I could manage it better. It's amazing to not be in pain, but I still go to the dermatologist at least on a monthly basis. I have had 4 armpit surgeries total, 3 of which have been since I stopped eating gluten. I want something that will make it go away, maybe no more surgeries, maybe no more sores, that would be awesome! I don't know that that will ever happen but I am willing to try!

So here goes experiment number 2. My cousin is both gluten and corn intolerant, which is something I hadn't considered. I just do the gluten. So I'm going to try to cut out corn for 3 weeks, and document how I'm feeling, see if it makes any difference. However, this is going to be very hard for me, because I am a bit of a sugar addict. Ok, a lot bit of a sugar addict. I try to be healthy, but then I ruin it with the desert. This is hard for me to admit, but I easily eat candy every other day or every day. I spend way too much money that I don't need to on junk food that I shouldn't be eating. Also I'm not one of those people who can just have a little bit. Like when people are like oh I'm craving something, I'll just have a bite. Nope, that doesn't work for me. If there's an open package of junk food around me, I will eat it all. So that's a major reason no corn will be hard... no corn syrup. But I'm thinking this will be good for me, because maybe I can finally kick the junk food habit and really eat healthy like I want to and should.

So this blog will be documenting these things:
1. My fight against HS
2. My fight against sugar addiction
3. Any other life lessons or funny moments that happen along the way :)
4. Any exciting recipes I make up or find that are things I can actually eat!

So thank you for reading this ridiculously long post and I hope you join me on my journey!