Warning : in line with keeping things real here on this blog, this is a venting post. If you are looking for encouragement, please skip this week’s post and read next week’s post, next week 🙂
Figuring out what to eat when you battle allergies is tiring. Having delayed allergy reactions make it even worse. With immediate reactions, you KNOW what is causing the reaction. But with delayed reactions, you’ll have to be more alert, and sometimes you can get a little bit paranoid. Ok, a lot paranoid 🙁
To to understand what I and other moms who deal with allergies go through, this article, 25 things only a food allergy parent would understand, is a good read.
It it may seem that I am always writing about the same things and…you’re right! Coz I haven’t figured out what to do so the same issues keep going round and round in my head 🙁
What really, really frustrates me is that for the huge amount of work and effort and discipline required to keep to any of the diets recommended, the results we have seen are not consistent. Eg. The first few times we were on the Whole 30 plan, we saw an obvious reduction of the symptoms (nose and skin). But when we went on it recently, we saw almost no results from it! Yes, despite eating no outside food, no processed food, very little sugar (only limited sugars from fruits) no one seem to have seen any alleviation of their symptoms! Frustrating indeed!
So now what???
As a recap, we have been on the Gluten free diet, the Elimination Diet, the grainfree diet, the GAPS Diet, the vegan diet, the Paleo Diet and even the just water “diet” aka fasting (just me, not the kids), the Whole 30 plan – and probably every combination under the sun.
So, at this point, I am not sure what diet we are supposed to be on. I know we should be eating clean, eating healthy. But what do all these terms mean anyway? Our food and water supply are so messed up (thanks guys for trying to improve on God’s handiwork!) that it is impossible to do so, especially in Singapore where almost all our food supply is imported.
It it doesn’t help that many of my friends who are battling this issue either themselves or for their children have observed the same thing : when we leave Singapore, our allergy symptoms are alleviated even when we ignore our usual dietary restrictions! So then, are we barking up the wrong tree when we try so hard to eat clean???
I have no answers.
But I know I can’t give up. I will keep on reading, keep on praying and keep on keeping on. Why? Not just because I love my children and want them to be healthy but also because, as Cherie Calbom said in an interview with Charisma Magazine,
“She admits that path isn’t easy. “It’s like Joyce Meyer said, it isn’t that you aren’t going to go to heaven if you eat that cookie. But are you going to be able to run the race God called you to run? Probably not. You’re going to be tired.”
“God wants us to run the race swiftly,” she adds. “The apostle Paul said, ‘I discipline my body so that I might win the race.’ I think it’s every day, day in and day out, remembering our goal—that we are called to be people of God who are disciplined, because we have a greater calling. We have a prize and we have a purpose for our lives—and we want to hear the Father say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You completed the course I called you to.'”
Read the full article, The Juice Lady’s Keys to Health and Healing.
We can’t run the race, fulfill our assignment/s if we are sick and tired! So I press on, tired and frustrated as I may be.