There is always a period in your life when you start to rethink your health habits and how it influences your quality of life. Not everyone but most of the people are starting to feel that what they eat and what they do is influencing not only their everyday life but also their health. When we are young we usually don’t think much about the consequences of our habits and think that we are kind of unbreakable despite how much and what we eat, what we drink and how much we do physical exercises. “Everything is genetics, some people drink till they are 90 and live happy why something can ruin my health” most people think “Some DNA profiles are at the higher risk of some diseases and others are less”. Most of the time, we bring an example of our ancestors that lived with their bad habits approximately 100 years and that is going to happen with as well. Unfortunately, this is not absolute truth in most of the cases and this is what my experience taught me.

Childhood Eating Habits

Back in my school years I was eating everything and thinking that this is how it should be. Some food was making my stomach bloat and sometimes even painful like fried food and bread. One period my liver even was enlarge due to excessive fried food consumption. I used to have cystic acne which dermatologists were describing as some kind of bacterial infection and hormonal acne that everyone in my age have. This wasn’t a pleasant thing, to be honest, and no acne treatment was helping no matter what I was trying. 

It is obvious that this kind of issues are causing not only poor health and malnourishment that can make you feel uncomfortable but also insecurities about your looks, especially at a young age. 

Identifying and Changing Unhealthy Eating Behavior

It goes without saying that before you find ways of solving a problem, first, you have to recognize that the problem exists. In the process of growing up, I wasn’t recognizing that I have some health issues because every adult was telling me that this can be normal and when I will become an adult the problem will solve itself. After some time, you grow up and realize that nothing is going away and just becoming worse. You find some ways to reduce stomach pain, bloating and makeup is becoming a mean of hiding some skin imperfections unless there is no way to hide from the problem. It's like polishing a rotten floor and making it look brand new unless you realize that you can't walk on it anymore because is breaking under your feet. 

Several years ago, when I was an adult already, I got a real problem and it was a food allergy. I thought back then that out of blue my skin became drier, itchy and red, my eyelids were cracking and bleeding while I was washing my face but I had no idea what was the reason of this severe allergy. Doctors prescribed antihistamines and recommended a diet. It was getting much better but every time when I was stopping taking prescribed medications my allergy was becoming worse. Diet was suggesting to reduce caffeine and fried food intake, also, red fruits and veggies that might be more aggressive than others. Unfortunately, this allergy treatment wasn’t working for me, which was making me think that it is not a proper and right solution for my problem. Moreover, I started to read more health-related articles and books which helped me to understand what real problem-solving measures I can take. 

Diet That Worked For Me

During my researches, I figured out that poor food habits were the cause of all my problems like stomach bloating, pains, liver enlargement, cystic acne and even allergies. As a result, I started to do the following:

1. Cut out meat. I started to cut out meat but one type of meat at a time. Starting from pork and veal, lamb and finally all other types like chicken and etc. I was eating only fish but rarely.

2. Cut out diary. Limiting dairy intake to minimum.

3. Eliminated refined sugar. I used to drink tea and coffee with sugar and using a good amount of refined sugar during a day. Also, this was including soft drinks and any kind of sweets and pastry that contains refined sugar. 

4. Eliminated caffeine intake. I cut out coffee and tea substituting with herbal, ginger teas and freshly squeezed orange juice. 

5. Consuming more fresh fruits, vegetables and dark leafy greens. I wasn't eating fresh fruits and veggies this much. Now my day was starting with water, fresh fruits and I was eating more raw veggies during the day.

6. I started drinking 2-3 liters of water a day. 

7. I reduced my fried food intake to the minimum. I limited my consumption of fried and processed food to the minimum. This included all types of processed food, fried potatoes, and even fried veggies. 

8. I wasn't taking any of prescribed medications.

9. Eliminated salt. I used to consume too much salt but when I started to eliminate it from my diet my taste receptors started to feel every flavor in food and fresh veggies which wasn't happening before.

10. Reduced consumption of white bread and pastry. 

After 2-3 months of following this diet, I started to feel more energetic, healthy and light. I wasn’t feeling any bloating, my skin stopped breaking out and my allergy was gone. I couldn’t imagine that food can make so much of a difference. This is was pretty unexpected for me. Of course, people were telling me that this diet won’t help and I need to follow this diet several years to feel the difference.

I was eating more lentils, chickpeas, mushrooms, and buckwheat, drinking smoothies and consuming more dark leafy greens. Due to reducing simple carbs to the minimum, I wasn’t feeling hungry at all and was feeling more satisfied with the food. No craves and no sugar level drops. 

Of course, now I drink coffee and eat some of the fried food but, in general, my allergy is gone and I feel so much better. My skin cleaned up and I don’t feel any pain in my stomach after food consumption. Judging from my own experience I can tell you that food does make a huge difference. Even if you don’t have any problems like I was having, you might have it in the future. Every system has its own way of reaction to the poor food habits. Remember, the food you eat is the medicine you need every day this makes you stronger, healthier and proactive about almost all diseases. I don’t recommend you blindly follow my diet. This is what helped me but do your own research and find out what can work for you.

Stay Healthy and Happy!