- Over the years, I've shared snippets
of my wellness journey in blog posts,
my Q &A video and across social media,
but I've never had one home that told my whole story.
(gentle music)
As a kid, I was pretty rambunctious and athletic,
and as an adult, I've always been really active.
And so for many years,
I assumed that because I wasn't overweight,
I must've been healthy.
I never correlated food and lifestyle with health,
even though my body
gave me so many red flashing warning lights
along the way.
So let's chat about those.
(gentle music)
In my childhood, I got sick a lot more often than others,
with many bouts of strep and bronchitis.
I also had about a half a dozen episodes of fainting
and seizures.
These were always fairly short-lived,
and as soon as I was flat on the ground for a minute or so,
I would come back to.
But as you might imagine,
these really freaked my mom out,
and so she would take me to doctor after doctor
every time they happened.
But I presented as this very energetic,
smiley, and happy child.
And my mom was told by the doctors
that there wasn't anything wrong with me.
(gentle music)
In my twenties I had a few more episodes of fainting
and they would always happen at the absolute worst times,
which was always in public places,
and more often than not in restaurants.
And let me tell you, passing out in a bustling bar
at the age of 23, when you're at happy hour
with your work colleagues
is not exactly what I would consider a good time,
especially when the paramedics and fire department
are called to revive you.
For years, I thought maybe it was the alcohol
that triggered the fainting,
but that wouldn't have explained to my childhood episodes.
And then there were those times
where I would have a glass of wine and feel fine
and nothing negative happened.
So I started rationalizing things as
that's just how my body is.
And unfortunately,
that became the mantra for other symptoms I had
such as anxiety and chronic constipation.
It's just how my body is.
While my mom did cook more wholesome meals in my childhood,
in my twenties, my main nourishment came from fast food
and processed food with McDonald's double cheeseburgers
and Taco Bell Mexican pizzas, always tops on my list.
I was also quite the sugar fiend
and had a massive addiction to anything sweet and sugary.
My friends and family even encouraged me to open a bakery
at that point in time
because I loved to be in the kitchen baking
and I would decorate these elaborate cakes
for my niece and nephew's birthdays every year.
(gentle music)
In my thirties, my career progressed,
and I climbed the corporate ladder as an executive
for healthcare companies.
But with this came high amounts of stress, long hours,
and reduced sleep.
And without realizing it,
I had become the quintessential type A corporate workaholic
who grabbed coffee and sugary snacks
for a little energy boost while running between meetings.
At this same time,
new mysterious symptoms were increasingly adding up.
I got seasonal allergies seemingly out of nowhere,
and I started getting these
round, circular patches of dry skin on my legs
and on my face.
Add to that, worsening constipation,
a few more fainting and dizziness episodes
and hormonal imbalances.
But it was the massive fatigue that really got me.
I would go to bed at 8:00 PM,
I would sleep for 10 hours
and I would still be tired the next day.
So I visited numerous doctors, spent heaps of money
and was told time and again,
that other than low blood pressure,
I was the epitome of good health.
So I was given inhalers for the asthma and the allergies,
corticosteroids for the skin issues
and I was sent on my way.
But deep down,
I knew that something in my body was still off,
so I became a late night Googleaholic
and I quickly realized that I needed to adopt
healthier habits and get more veggies into my diet.
And I thought,
one of the easiest ways to do that
would be to buy a Vitamix blender.
I could just drink my veggies.
So I started with green smoothies,
just whipping those up after my morning walk.
And once I got more comfortable with my Vitamix machine,
I started making homemade soups,
fresh batches of hummus on demand, creamy nut butters,
and so much more.
Looking back now,
that simple purchase of a Vitamix blender
was such a turning point for me
and 100% transformed my approach to food,
where I began incorporating more vegetables
into a variety of meals throughout the day.
A year later at the age of 35,
and after more online sleuthing,
I prodded my doctor to test me for celiac disease.
I honestly knew very little about celiac disease,
but had stumbled on a blog with a girl
that had a bunch of random similar symptoms to me,
and she had celiac.
My doctor pushed back,
saying that I didn't have classical symptoms
for celiac disease,
but that she would test me nonetheless.
A week later, my test results came back
and I was off the charts for celiac disease.
From there, the auto-immune connection was discovered
and the diagnosis seemed to roll right in
one after the other with Hashimoto's, psoriasis,
and endometriosis all within two years.
And as you might imagine,
my whole world got flipped pretty much upside down.
At this point, without a roadmap of what to eat
on this new gluten-free diet,
I thought the easiest approach
would be to raid the entire gluten-free section
at Whole Foods.
And so I did.
I dropped about $200 on gluten-free packaged food
to fill up my fridge and pantry.
But instead of feeling better, as my doctor said I would,
I actually felt worse for several months,
and I triggered candida and SIBO,
which is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
I'm sure from all of the sugars and starches
that I was eating in those packaged foods
that my body just wasn't used to.
It completely threw off my gut microbiome.
And I was absolutely devastated and deflated
that this new gluten-free diet not only didn't fix me,
but it seemed to be making me so much worse.
So I started working with a functional medicine doctor
and learned everything I could about auto-immune disease,
gut health, nutrition, and the mind-body connection,
and I really evaluated what I was putting into my body
and how I was living my life.
I swapped processed foods for whole nutrient dense foods
and really supercharged the use of my Vitamix.
I focused on reducing stress, improving sleep,
and prioritizing self-care.
By doing so, in a somewhat miraculous turn of events,
almost all of the symptoms that I had had for decades
started to vanish in the following weeks and months,
including the allergies, the fatigue, the eczema,
the constipation, and the chronic colds.
From this point on, a whole foods diet
and back-to-basics approach just became part of my world
and it even prompted me to start a little ol' website
and YouTube channel called Downshiftology.
(gentle music)
But as I mentioned on my healthy habits video,
your body is always changing.
Today, I'm in my mid forties and after getting diagnosed
with perimenopause at the age of 41,
which I call "The Mena" on Instagram stories,
I am navigating changes to my diet and lifestyle once again
to help calm these wildly fluctuating hormones.
Because what worked for me in my thirties,
now needs a few tweaks for my forties,
and so the wellness journey continues.
But let's tie up a loose end
from this little wellness story of mine,
and that's what was causing my fainting.
In hindsight, I now believe those episodes
were triggered from eating gluten.
While my mom and I can't remember
exactly what I was doing as a child when they happened,
I often snacked on those little cups of cereal
as kids often do.
And we also remember one of those episodes
happened when I was in a donut shop.
And then for most of my twenties, as I mentioned,
almost all of those fainting episodes happened
when I was in restaurants.
And what's one of the first things you're served
when you arrive to a restaurant?
A bread basket.
And I would chow down on that.
It's now been about nine years
since I adopted a whole foods based gluten-free diet.
And I am happy to report that I have not fainted
or passed out once since then.
And that, I will raise a turmeric smoothie too.
If you guys have any questions on my wellness journey,
pop them in the comments below,
but do remember that I am not a doctor
so can't provide any advice or guidance
on your wellness journey.
I simply hope that me sharing my whole story
helps to inspire you along yours.
A big thank you to Vitamix for sponsoring today's video
and for being a pioneer in the whole food movement.
They've positively impacted so many people's lives,
including mine for the last decade.
And for that, I am incredibly grateful.
(gentle music)