It Starts with Food

I'm searching for solutions.  I want and very much need to facilitate the healing of my leg as well as help bring my hormones into balance.   I'm enjoying my forties, Oprah was right, it's a great age for so many reasons.  But peri-menopause is NOT one of them.  I'm hot, irritable, tired and unable to focus much of the time, not to mention my metabolism has come to a grinding halt.  The new arch support insoles are a help to my leg but I fear that there is more to the issue.

So how can I kill two birds with one stone?  It starts with food.  I'm in the midst of reading a new book called  It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways.  You know how distrustful I am of "diets" but this book has been illuminating.  I've always known that how I eat directly correlates to how I feel physically and emotionally but this book breaks it down the HOW and WHY.  I just finished reading the chapters on hormones, and inflammation and I'm about to go back and read them again this afternoon. 

I know that the couple behind The Whole 9 are considered "The Paleo Power Couple" but whatever label is given to the plan, it is built on real foods.  Three meals per day based on  sensible portions of meat, poultry, seafood and eggs then rounded out with many and varied vegetables and supplemented with sensible servings of healthy fats and fresh fruit.  It's definitely not the all you can eat bacon and butter buffet that was low carb diets of old.  In fact bacon, as well as all processed meats, is discouraged during the 30 days.  Reintroduction of potentially inflammatory foods like dairy, legumes and grains is gradual, one at a time, giving the body time to adjust and to see if any previous health issues occur. 

I've read through the Whole 9 website a few times but have been a little fearful of giving The Whole 30 a try.  But now that I'm in the midst of reading the book, the rational behind an elimination diet makes much more sense.  Giving up dairy is going to be tough for me, but it can't me much worse than the state I'm in at the moment.  

Not sure what will come of all this but I will keep you posted.  In the meantime, I have some more reading to do.  If you have had any experience with The Whole 30 or any elimination diet please share your experiences with us.