Here Goes Nothing...

That's what I said after that first night of staring at the computer screen for way too long.

I was home alone, the husband was out for the night and the kids were long ago asleep.

I'd been clicking and reading for long enough that I had lost track of time and tingling at the back of my mind was a ridiculous thought and the sweetest savor of something I had tasted in a while....hope.

Was it possible that there might be help available for someone like me, with a disease like mine...and that help might be as close at hand as my own kitchen and what I could cook there?

The websites I had stumbled upon claimed that it could be and the audacious claims seemed like they might be legitimate. Besides, with the way things were going for me health wise, I didn't really seem to have a lot left to lose.
Well, that's not true, I did have a lot to lose; I'm  a mom of two young kids and not even 30 yet. I had a weak prognosis of where my recent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis was going to take myself and our family and the outlook really wasn't great; it was pretty lousy.
Maybe it was lousy enough that it wasn't that I had nothing to lose it was that I had everything to gain and the idea that it might be possible was pretty incredible.

So what did I do? I took a leap and made the decision to try eating a plant-based, whole foods, anti-inflammatory diet, free of processed foods, refined sugars or wheat.

I could do this, right? How hard could it be?

"What on earth will you eat?" was the first question out of everyone's mouth.

"ummmm... I don't really know yet, but I had a banana for breakfast" was pretty much my answer.

Over the weeks of multiple mistakes, ridiculous amounts of research, experiments of the delicious and not-so-delicious variety, and awkward conversations I started to incredibly and amazingly...get better.

First it was just my energy and the fatigue started to go away. My dizzy spells subsided, my ability to use the washroom increased, my sleep got better, my anxiety started to calm, my weakness started to get stronger, my limbs stopped losing feeling. I was humbled and awed by the turnaround and I wasn't the only one.

Now the comments were more along the lines of

"We're just so happy you seem to be doing so much better"

"You have color again in your face"

"It's like we have the old you back again"

"We were so worried about you"

"We can't believe it"

And I couldn't believe it either. The more reading and research I did the more I came to the conclusion that I was one of the lucky ones who had come across good information for solid nutrition and it was making a huge difference in my life. Furthermore I believe that it is God who led me to all of this and it is He who is continuing to lead me one step at a time.

Over time I used myself as a guinea pig for my family, testing out recipes and methods for preparing delicious and nutritious plant-based foods.

We've made a lot of changes and had a lot of ups and downs along the way but we have recently made a more concrete decision for our whole family to join me on my diet and go the way of the omnivores.

We're still by definition flexitarians and we're far from perfect but we're taking it one meal at a time, one day at a time and I hope we can offer some hope and encouragement to others out there making the same choices for wealth of different reasons.

This is my blog about raising myself from the ground up from the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and raising our family of little sprouts to grow up to eat their veggies and love it!