Allergies Go Away

Yesterday I sent a text message to a friend.  I hadn’t seen her in a while and just wanted to check in.  She replied that she and her two young sons weren’t feeling so well.  The culprit?  It was allergies.  As I was reading my friend’s messages, my son’s sensei at the karate school came over to say, “Thank you for the eggs!”  He is currently celebrating 40 years of his black belt status.  That’s quite an achievement so I thought I’d give him some local, pasture raised eggs from happy chickens since I remembered that he eats about 30 eggs a week.  He then started to tell me that since my family and I have been coming to his karate school he’s been suffering from allergies.  Allergies, allergies, and more allergies.  It’s that time of the year.

In the past few years I’ve worked with people whose allergies have pretty much disappeared.  A relative that I health coached had really bad allergies.  She was taking Flonase ever single day. We worked with food and eventually she went from taking the Flonase every single day to once a month to once in a while to none at all. This was just working with food.  Today she doesn’t use Flonase and her blood pressure is almost in normal range that she doesn’t need to take her high blood pressure medication all the time.  She’s even lost a little weight.  A friend had bad allergies last summer.  I made her an allergy herbal tea and in a matter of a few days she was better. Another relative told me that she’s allergic to cats.  I sent her the same allergy herbal tea. After a few months she noticed that she could tolerate being near her cats.  She stopped taking her allergy medicine and consistently drank the allergy herbal tea.  I told my son’s sensei that I’ll be giving him some allergy herbal tea the next time I see him.  

Food is medicine.  it’s pure and it’s gentle.  When you start to understand the medicinal benefits of food and incorporate real food into your diet, your world changes for the better.  It’s so simple.  Just start with food - organic, local, and seasonal.

Do you suffer from seasonal, environmental or food allergies?  How badly do you want them to go away?

Spring, Sneezing, And Allergies

I’ve always loved spring.  To me I’ve always associated it with hope, love, and beauty.  I love the new flowers that start to pop up and the green blades of grass. When I start to see dandelions I know that spring has arrived.

In my elementary school years I was pretty healthy.  I hardly ever got sick or missed school.  My brother on the other hand suffered from asthma and allergies.  My dad used to joke that he was allergic to everything except girls.  

When I worked in the corporate world I noticed that I was getting sick all the time so I scheduled doctor appointments frequently.  I remember going every week for about a month.  Each time I visited the doctor he’d give me some Claritin.  I eventually figured out that the Claritin did nothing for me and that it was the stress from work and my poor diet that was causing my allergies.  When I left the corporate world and fixed my diet my allergies went away.

When someone suffers from allergies it’s a gut issue or an autoimmune condition. I’ve seen it and studied it many times.  Whether it’s environmental or food allergies anyone can heal them.  I’ve been advocating the solution for some time now.  Eat organic, local, and seasonal.

Not everyone understands the concept of eating local and seasonal.  It’s pretty simple.  If something doesn’t grow in your area don’t eat it or don’t eat it all the time. People don’t understand this idea because we have access to foods from all over the world in grocery stores.  I live in New York but bananas don’t grow here.  I rarely eat bananas because they're not part of my environment and they won’t strengthen my microbiome.   

This is why I’m big into CSAs and I believe this is the reason why my immune system over the last three years has improved immensely.  Before I moved to New York my gut health was not its best.  I had just gone through a few traumatic years of health problems.  I was so weak and so vitamin deficient I thought that I was dying.  

People don’t have to suffer.  People don’t have to accept a sick body.  Get with a certified health coach or wellness practitioner.  Run past the fear and trust the process because this process that I and many others teach really does work.

Teal Pumpkin Project

Today is Halloween but trick-or-treating is already over for us.  Our township held trick-or-treating last Thursday night.  Unusual I thought.    I'm just glad I found out before Thursday, otherwise I wouldn't have had any treats to hand out!

This was the first Halloween in which we offered trick-or-treaters organic candy as well as non-sweet treats for the Teal Pumpkin Project.  Many parents appreciated this very much.  I think many parents are becoming more concerned with the huge consumption of refined sugar in children's diets as well as the growing number of food allergies and sensitivities.  At least a handful of parents told me their children had some type of intolerance.  Rice, nuts, dairy, and gluten were mentioned as problematic for their children.

What I learned from participating in the project is that it's not all about the candy.  The children were excited to be given other options besides candy.  We had a number of toys and even clementines in our Halloween bucket.  The kids loved the simple glow-in-the-dark eyeball bouncy balls, the colorful bat and ghost ink stamps, and the Halloween inspired bubble wands.  And all but one clementine was grabbed out of a bag of twenty.  I was thrilled!

The Teal Pumpkin Project appealed to me because my son and I deal with food sensitivities.  So surely we had to make this happen in our household.

Last week my little boy had to be withdrawn from the rest of his class not because he was misbehaving but because his class was celebrating a classmate's birthday with cupcakes.  He cannot have gluten and refined sugar among other things.   The teachers and I felt bad for him but it was for the best.

Preparing and cooking meals in our household is a challenge as we all have different diets.  My husband has no dietary restrictions but he is the only one.  Among the foods that Constantine and I avoid are gluten, dairy, refined sugar, eggs, nightshades (peppers, eggplants, tomatoes), and more.  I have at least twenty-eight sensitivities and my boy has twenty-three.  Thankfully, we do not have food allergies so even if we eat a little of these foods they are not life threatening.  

All of this food sensitivity business began with my ongoing chronic fatigue.  My functional medicine doctor recommended a plethora of specialized tests to get to the bottom of my health issues.  One of these tests is called the IgG food sensitivity test.  I am so happy that I had it done and got the test results because it helps take out the guess work in figuring the cause of inflammation in the gut.  Since making changes to my diet and avoiding the foods listed on the IgG test, I am feeling so much better.  

You can help spread the word of the Teal Pumpkin Project by participating.  It is really simple.  Go online and print out a sign for your door.  Paint a pumpkin or two with teal colored paint.  (We went to Lowe's, picked a teal paint and bought a small jar and paint brush.)  We also chose to purchase candy online at ThriveMarket.com since they carry healthy and yummy candy options.  We got the organic lollipops; 40 pieces for less than $5.  We also got some fun and cute Halloween toys from our local craft store.  That's it -- very simple and inexpensive!

I'm so thankful for the Teal Pumpkin Project as it's a great way to help raise awareness of food allergies and sensitivities and to make Halloween fun for every child.  My little boy had a blast giving away Halloween treats both sweet and non sweet.  And he had his share of homemade gluten free, refined sugar free, and dairy free bat morsel treats! 

Resources for Clean Eating

My 1 Month Health Coaching Program

Advanced TRS

“What I learned from participating in the project is that it’s not all about the candy.”

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