Finding Resilience Using A Food Diary
Diaries are kept for many reasons: sorting out thoughts and feelings, recording memories of people, events, or travels, keeping historical records, learning environmental or behavioral traits, counting down days until an event, or tracking dietary intake and reactions. For the past 10 months, I have been using a food diary to figure out my food intolerances and sensitivities and their connection to my physical and mental symptoms and my energy levels.
My motivation for starting a food diary was to heal my gut and improve my mental and physical well-being. It has been an immensely useful tool in my journey to finding wellness. So far it has revealed underlying histamine, oxalate, soy, and gluten sensitivities and an intolerance of certain nuts and seeds. Who knew almonds would be my kryptonite !?!? I drank almond milk for years thinking I had an intolerance to all dairy and soy products, thinking the low energy right after having an almond milk latte was the caffeine already wearing off, not linking it to my body reacting to almonds.
My discoveries from keeping a food diary led me to seek out guidance from a functional dietician, get specific micronutrient testing, follow a targeted supplement approach, and do additional research myself to heal my gut and improve my energy levels. This part of my journey to finding resilience has been full of dead ends, back steps, and redirection with guidance from a gastroenterologist, naturopath, herbalist, dietician, nutritionist, coach, and my primary care doctor. Support groups and caring friends have also shared the journey with me and encouraged me to keep seeking answers for healing when I was tired and frustrated.
Just like any other diary, I can now look back and see how my diligence and struggles to keep a food diary led to progress in my journey to heal my gut and find wellness. This tool has helped me make connections and see patterns that I missed for years, like the almonds. It provides me with my own reference log if I am unsure about whether I reacted to a food, what the reaction was, and how long or how many exposures to the food it took to experience symptoms in the past. I learned that even if I don’t experience an allergic reaction, which occurs immediately to within a few hours of consuming a food, my immune system can still cause me to be sensitive to a food which can take up to 3 days to manifest. The realization of this connection has significantly helped my energy levels, itching, flushing, digestive distress, and other symptoms that I used to think occurred out of nowhere. By removing foods that activate my immune system or irritate my gut, my body has been able to rebuild itself.
It’s empowering to see the progress I have made in being able to tolerate more foods after many months of working on my gut health with guidance from both conventional and alternative practitioners and the knowledge I have gained through my experience. Through keeping a food diary, I have gained the ability to enjoy eating foods again and not live in fear of digestive distress and reactions whenever I eat as I know better now how my body reacts and what foods can bring about healing.
What role has food played in your healing journey?
How have you used food to nourish you on different levels?
If you are unsure where to start with this part of your journey to find wellness, book a free session with me or contact me via email.
