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For months I was in chronic pain that affected my feet, legs, arms and hands. Normal daily things like walking, holding my phone – which as an avid Instagrammer, you can understand that there was emotional pain too – using a knife and fork, holding my new baby nephew, doing my hair and writing were impossible for me to do without extreme pain.
After seeing Doctors, Consultants and a Neurologist who did various blood tests, MRI scans, nerve conduction tests that looked for auto-immune diseases, MS, brain tumors and cysts, vitamin deficiencies and a tonne of other stuff I cannot pronounce, let alone attempt to spell, there was no conclusive reason as to where my symptoms were coming from.
All of this resulted in unanswered questions, continued chronic pain, pain killers and the extremely frustrating phrase ‘your body appears to be healthy’ being michaellas kitchen sugar free story chronic pain allergies, how to quite sugar, free sugar free recipes, no sugar diet, sugar free stories, chronic pain sugar, allergies, food allergies chronic pain management repeated to me. There was also the one sentence ‘your brain is spotless’ which was flattering but still didn’t help to explain where my pain was coming from.
One weekend, I went away with my boyfriend and we ate terribly, I’m talking takeout pizza, fast food, cookies and candy. If it was processed or high in refined sugar, you can bet I ate it. In the days that followed, my pain was stronger than ever and it got me thinking: if all the tests are pointing to the fact that my body is healthy, is it possible that I am putting something into my body that is upsetting it?
The more I thought about it, the more plausible it seemed, food allergies can literally kill people or cause great physical discomfort to them and there was a noticeable change in my symptoms when I ate something high in refined sugar, even things I baked myself from scratch.
So I decided to do an experiment, completely cut out refined sugar from my diet and focus on food which was high in nutrients.
The result was astounding. After less than a week, my pain was completely gone and I had taken myself off my painkillers. Plus, to top it all off, I lost 5 pounds. I am writing this post 6 weeks down the line following that first week and my pain has never come back, I am sleeping solid through the night, my skin is clear, and I have lost a total of 20 pounds. All through eliminating refined sugar from my diet. No extreme workouts, no depriving or starving myself, just good, natural food with no refined sugar – it’s that simple!
michaellas kitchen sugar free story chronic pain allergies, how to quite sugar, free sugar free recipes, no sugar diet, sugar free stories, chronic pain sugar, allergies, food allergies chronic pain managementCutting out refined sugar from your diet is an up and down experience: you’ll laugh – this is so easy, why didn’t I do this earlier?! – and you’ll cry – this is so hard, give me a donut immediately – but the difficult stage is not forever and the results are totally worth it. Going into this I had read about others who gave up sugar and the ‘withdrawal’ symptoms they experienced. Being totally honest, reading about these symptoms I was like ‘yeah, right, no sleep?! How dramatic!’ But seriously guys, withdrawal symptoms are real, I had a permanent headache for 5 days straight and my sleep was disturbed and the cravings, oh the cravings, a particularly weak moment involved me holding a packet of Oreos up to my face and inhaling, deeply. Suddenly though, after the first 5 days, the withdrawal symptoms went and I felt amazing, with a new energy I have never had before.
I seriously didn’t want to stop enjoying my favourite treats like chocolate, muffins and cakes so this journey caused me to have to be more creative than ever with my recipes. As a result, all the recipes on Michaella’s Kitchen are totally, completely, refined sugar free but with zero compromise on taste.
I would love for you to join me and to share your experiences along the way. I promise, it isn’t as hard as you think and the results are amazing.
