Hi! It’s a good day to be alive, and I’m so glad you stopped by Flawed yet Functional! If you don’t know me yet, I’m Emily, a Type 1 Diabetic and AVM survivor. This blog is a space for inspiration and encouragement to live your best, healthiest life. For the last two years, I’ve been experimenting with the Autoimmune Protocol diet and healthy habits to manage my autoimmune diseases and heal my gut. I’ve noticed several changes in my life that are SO encouraging to me, and I hope you’ll be encouraged to change your diet too after I share my 5 signs your body is healthy and thriving.
Thick Hair
Thick might not be the right description yet, but my hair has radically changed since I eliminated gluten, dairy, and eggs in the fall of 2017. For the next 6-8 months after my diet change, my hair fell out like crazy, and then, it turned curly! Not only the new growth, but the old has turned curly too.
My hair is in maintenance mode as the thinning has caused me to have some pretty dramatic hair cuts, but for the second time in my life (baby to about 4 years old was the first time) I have curly hair!
One primary reason I think this hair change is a sign of health is my whole family has curly hair, and I had curly hair as a baby. The dramatic and sudden change when I changed my diet makes me think my hormones are now in balance and my body is behaving as it should.
Take a look at the photo below. The left is from the fall of 2017, and I tried hard to get my hair to curl with a curling iron. The right photo is this week, April 2019. What the what?!?
Strong Nails
For several years prior to my Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis, my nails were a huge source of frustration. They just wouldn’t grow without splitting or tearing right where the nail connects to the tip of the finger. It was a huge annoyance (and sometimes a painful one)!
Now nails take a while to grow out, but about a year after my diet change, I noticed my nails were growing back to their normal length without breaking! Woot! they are shiny, healthy, and strong again.
However, when I do get a cross-contamination my nail health deteriorates.
Improved Sleep
This one is HUGE for me. For as long as I can remember (like into childhood!) I’ve had a hard time falling asleep. I could lay awake for hours! Seriously, hours before falling asleep!
That is a thing of the past now! I am asleep in under 5 minutes every night, and I sleep soundly.
It is an amazing things to lay down knowing not only will I go to sleep right away but I will sleep soundly all night. Well, until my kids get sick, or need to go potty, or have growing pains, or just need to wake mommy up to say hi…you know except for those things my sleep is sound.
Clear Skin
Breakouts can be a sign of poor health, but that’s not the kind of clear skin I’m talking about. I had eczema for several years before my Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis. It worsened every year, and I couldn’t find anything to help it. Eczema also runs in my family, so I figured I just had to put up with it.
Oh no you don’t!! Eczema is an autoimmune disease too! When I eliminated gluten from my diet, my eczema patches were gone in 2 weeks. Two weeks! They have only resurfaced once when I know for certain I ate gluten. Other than that one period, I’ve been eczema free for almost two years!
Energy
This one came as a shock to me because I didn’t think I lacked energy. Sure I wanted a nap and/or coffee in the afternoon, but that’s normal, right??
It’s not normal to be tired in the middle of the day.
Your body, when nourished properly, can run all day long with very little breaks! Now I don’t mean literal running, but you should be able to complete your work, cooking, household duties, and even hobbies in a day without a nap or additional caffeine.
I was amazed by how alert and energized I felt all day long once I stopped eating gluten, dairy, and eggs and amped up my vegetable intake. The saying is true “You are what you eat.” If you eat junk, your body will perform like junk and you will feel like junk. Don’t do it!
So as you read through this list, do you want some of these too? Do you have enough energy to last the whole day? Are your hair and nails healthy? Who doesn’t want to sleep better??
Where to Go From Here
If you’re unhappy with how your body feels, then the single biggest change you can make to improve your health is to change what you are eating!
Here’s a mini series to help you get started:
The articles above will help you hone into the right diet for you and walk you through step-by-step how to change your current eating lifestyle. But let’s not over-complicate things. Your diet should consist of meat, fruit, and vegetables with a heavy emphasis on vegetables. Eliminate the things that are man-made: processed food and grains; pre-made cookies, snacks, and frozen dinners. Basically, if it comes in a box ready to eat, you probably shouldn’t eat it. 🙂
Would it help to give you a week of healthy, whole food dinners? If so, just sign up below for my email list, and I’ll send you a week of healthy dinners complete with meal plan and grocery list!
[thrive_leads id=’6731′]Better health is within your grasp. You too can have these 5 signs your body is healthy and thriving! Change your food and you can literally change your life!
For more meal planning help, click here to purchase the Weekly Meal Plan Guide which will show you how to develop a healthy meal plan (with reusable printables!) or click here to search through the recipe archives for healthy meals!
Want to remember this? Pin 5 Signs Your Body is Healthy and Thriving to your favorite Pinterest board!
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