Alright, alright, alright – blog post number two, let’s do this.

If you follow my Instagram page, you already know I’m very excited to delve into the question posed earlier in the week, which was “have you consciously eliminated anything from your diet?” An overwhelming 78% replied ‘yes’, and unlike many of the other questions, I received a lot of direct messages explaining why they made that decision. And I’m not just saying that in the way an ‘influencer’ says “a lot of people have been asking me for a tutorial on how to curl my hair”… I mean, really, people don’t understand how to use a curling iron? Now makeup, I can see – sure, I’ll spend 15 minutes watching Kylie put on her Ky-shadow and Ky-liner – it’s riveting.

Sorry, I digress – the top reasons for food elimination were as follows: allergies / sensitivities, environmental, and to lose weight / look better.

I will tell you, I’ve always dabbled with eradicating certain foods from my diet, or jumped on a cleanse fad with the promise of complete renewal (remember the lemon juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup nightmare?). Fortunately though, over the years, I’ve continued to make it a priority to educate myself on the topic… and not just because I’ve heard things like ‘don’t have too much sugar’ or ‘stay away from processed foods’, it started out because of my skin. *Vulnerability time* I’ve never been super comfortable with my skin – whether it be because of a few breakouts, or because of the bags under my eyes, or just because the actual tone was dull. I tried all the beauty products on the market – face washes, pimple creams, moisturizers, serums, oils, feathers, buckles… okay, not the last two, but you get it… and I’m absolutely not shitting on any of those things, they just didn’t solve my problems. So I finally decided to spend the money on a food allergy test (honestly, they should be required by your primary physician when you’re young) – I had already tried removing cheese from my life, but nothing confirmed that my body couldn’t actually handle delicious gouda, so sure, sometimes I’d have a few (or more) crackers with cheese because YOLO, right? No… not worth it, not with the stomach aches, weird bowel movements, and frequent breakouts.

So, the results came through and validated my fear, that I was 99% dairy-intolerant; the long print out also told me I was sensitive to gluten, cauliflower (wtf?), and a bevvy of spices (not a problem – I hate anything spicy). From that point, I decided to take my health more seriously, even if just to see how it feels not ingesting food my body doesn’t like… can you imagine consistently being forced to work on projects with the one person you really don’t get along with? That’s essentially what I was doing, and my body would get angry and flare up.

Well, no surprise – after a few weeks, it was easier for me to wake up in the mornings; I had more energy throughout the day, and best of all, I wasn’t breaking out.

What if I wrote all this out just to say ‘yeah, so I took the test, stopped eating cheese, cut back on gluten, and uh, yeah, nothing changed, so keep eating whatever’?

Not the case – I’ve had a few a few slip ups because the cream-cheese ball with even more cheese on the outside was calling for me, or the server didn’t understand me when I said ‘no cheese – absolutely NO cheese’… my body really put me in check.

Now, when I see a Papa John’s Pizza commercial (hi, Shaq) during a football game, I have zero interest in calling in for a delivery. And I’m obviously still learning – I removed coffee a few months ago and feel better, sugar doesn’t do me any favors, nor does gluten, though I am going down a rabbit hole of gut health articles and how many people’s ‘gluten intolerance’ may not actually be an intolerance at all – more on that to come in another post, if even just for myself – jury’s still out on how many people will care to know more.

I do want to give kudos to all the marketers in the beauty industry though – I was convinced expensive products and good makeup was the answer because I didn’t see another path…

Let me be clear though, I still use products – I do the whole routine – face wash, eye cream, serum, oil, but I use clean products in conjunction with my healthy eating.

Goat cheese has become my best friend, and the farmer’s market has these bomb dips made from cashews, and now I’m really wishing I had one of those tubs in my fridge

… bottom line is, I listen to my body and I’ve never felt better; I will continue educating myself on how certain foods go through the digestive system, the importance of prebiotics and probiotics, and all the other things.

And I knew there was no way I could fit everything into this one post, so there will definitely be more to follow, on eliminating foods for environmental reasons, or for vanity purposes.

I’m feeling pulled to end this with a ‘stay thirsty, my friends’ line… (great marketing) but will use Coffee With A Question’s ‘Committed to Curiosity’.

Hope you enjoyed, and as always, if you have anything you’re curious about, send it my way through the site or through instagram, @coffee_with_a_question.

-Devon

Allergy Test: @everlywell