My Journey to TRUE Health!

Wow, where to begin? I thought my chronic pain began around 9  years old, but my Mom recently informed me it started a lot sooner... So, let's rewind to 6 year old Casey.

Aw... Wasn't I cute? You gotta love the early 90's Mom big hair and turtle neck combo. She was rockin' it! :) Here is another one, just because I love little Casey pictures! Who doesn't love pictures of themselves as kids?

Wow, I was skinny... No stretch marks yet too. Those were the days! ;) I think I was about 8 in that picture. This was the age I remember all of it beginning...

The TERRIBLE joint pain! When I say TERRIBLE, I mean it. I used to cry almost every night begging for my Daddy to squeeze my hands and feet as hard as he could to relieve a little bit of the aching hurt that ran through my body. Every joint/bone literally ached almost 24-7. I used to go to school covered in BenGay and the horrible smelling pain creams.

Blood tests were ran, scans, you name it... The doctors answer was "growing pains". They requested I quit gymnastics, so I did, and that's all they could tell us to help me. Well, I NEVER grew out of the so called "growing pains".  Year after year more tests were ran for arthritis, cancer, you name it. I always came back "healthy" and the doctors didn't have an answer.

I lived with the pain all my life, still was able to play sports, and have a "normal" childhood, I just did everything with aching joints and hurting bones. Fast forward to 18 year old Casey below.

Next is 22 year old college Casey :) 

At 22 the pain became so bad, that I couldn't sleep at night. Nothing was helping. I went to another doctor here in Little Rock, and was FINALLY diagnosed with "Fibromyalgia" - OH MY WORD, after 15 years of pain I FINALLY had ANSWERS and a doctor giving me a pill to help! I was put on Lyrica, a synthetic nerve pill that's supposed to mask the pain. Well, after two months of religiously taking the medication, I didn't feel a bit of relief. :( We then found out we were pregnant and I had to get off of the pills anyway... No loss, since it did NOTHING to help me.

We had Brynlee in 2009, then we soon got pregnant again with Brock and he was born in 2010! :) By the way, Pregnancy on top of chronic pain and "Fribromyalgia" is not fun. Below is a picture from 2011. It felt IMPOSSIBLE to loose the baby weight. I began doing Turbo Jams in my living room, counting calories and STAYED on Weight Watchers. I ate FAT FREE EVERYTHING (little did I know it was only adding fuel to the "pain fire"). Here is a picture of myself weighing around high 180's  (the weight aspect of my health journey totally plays a part, so stay with me).

 I then began having EXCRUCIATING shooting tingles of pain from my elbow down to my wrist and hands. My fingers were so swollen that my wedding ring no longer fit my finger, and I KNEW something HAD TO CHANGE! To the doctor once again... Blood tests revealed the only thing wrong was a small vitamin D deficiency. No answers and the extra supplement didn't seem to help.

By the Grace of God, my sweet husband ran across a book about Organic Raw foods helping to heal the author's chronic illness. This book was called "The Maker's Diet" and Justin was immediately intrigued. The day we had gotten it in the mail, we literally read the entire thing front to back. It talked about the importance of WHOLE, ORGANIC, CLEAN, FULL FAT foods. Foods that God intended our bodies to digest and process! It talked about the dangers of processed foods, refined sugars, today's dairy, wheat, pesticides, chemicals, sodium and preservatives (what's added to foods that are fat free - the fat has to be replaced with something, right?)... So pretty much EVERYTHING my Weight Watchers Diet consisted of, this book spoke against eating. All of a sudden I had total revelation and it ALL made sense. Why WOULDN'T I choose to put God made foods in my body, rather than processed man made foods?

As soon we finished the book, we loaded our two kiddos in the van and drove straight to Whole Foods (it was our first trip to ever go into a "Hippy" natural store, so we were definitely out of our element. I only wish we had taken pictures to document ourselves. Lol!) Even surrounded by all the "hippies", we were rev'd up and ready to start our life change. Guess how much we spent? $400!!!! Ouch! We were so desperate to change our health, that we spent almost our entire months grocery budget (at the time) that one day! Now we were home and ready to start our journey. :)


We followed the DETOX plan to a T, and within THREE DAYS, the tingle shooting pain was GONE and my ring fit back on my finger!!!!!! WOW!!!! I knew Jordan Rubin (author of "The Maker's Diet") was on to something, because I could feel the difference in my ENTIRE BODY! Our gut IS like our second brain! We were passionate about the eating plan and life style change for about 3 weeks... Yes, after both of us loosing 15 pounds each, it still ONLY lasted THREE WEEKS!

WHY? Our society!! The fact is, it's tough in today's world when most people choose taste and convenience over Health. It's tough when you don't have an "accountablity group" or friends who live the same life style that you want to be living.

Slowly but surely, less expensive, easier options started creeping back into our diet. We started running through the drive throughs again, eating birthday cakes, and eating the "free" hotdog dinners at cookouts, etc.

Guess what else came back? Yup, you guessed it... The HORRIBLE joint pain was back!!!

I always knew better, but just made up excuses as why we "couldn't" keep eating as clean. Time, money, convenience... I still tried to eat "healthier" but it was mainly for the weight issue. I counted calories, ate a lot "LESS" processed foods (but still had them and fast food in my diet), I even ended up training for a 5k with a friend, and yes, ran the entire 3.1 miles! Whoop whoop!

At this time I believed I was on the right "track". I was trying to lose weight, and look and "feel" better. However, with all the hard work and effort I put into losing weight, I NEVER got below 170! I was so frustrated. I was eating as healthy as I could, watching portions, running 9 miles a week, and literally for 4 consistent months only lost about 15 pounds!!!! GERR!!!

Well, next thing I know, another baby is in the picture!

 We welcomed Rhett to the world in 2013... And then there were three! Awww!

After Rhett was born, and I recovered. I knew THIS was the time to get serious! With three babies to take care of, I just COULD NOT take the pain any longer! I was sick and tired of being SICK and TIRED!

Justin and I agreed to go back on the Maker's Diet detox all over again. This time we had some new "natural/organic knowledgeable" friends for accountability (which REALLY DOES make a HUGE difference). On September 1st of 2013 we began yet another "Life style Change"... We went back to organic, full fat, real whole foods.

We followed the detox for three weeks and MY JOINT PAIN WAS COMPLETELY GONE!!! Not only that, the weight has been falling off... I literally cannot stop losing weight, but I'm doing it SLOW and healthy. I'm still on the journey, actually just 7 months into it, but I've lost a total of 49 pounds so far and I feel better than I EVER have in 20 YEARS!

Hear is what I want you... YES YOU, to know: The lesson I have learned is that there will always be pain in our lives. The thing is, we can choose when we want it to arrive.

What I mean is, it was VERY HARD to change my eating habits and what I feed my family. It was hard to learn how to cook differently. It was hard to learn how to shop for groceries differently. It was hard to delay gratification and turn down foods that "taste" awesome.  It IS HARD to avoid sugar! It was hard to face the "caffeine headaches" and crazy sugar withdrawals.

All of this was painful!

But guess what? Most of it is OVER! It's still hard sometimes facing choices and making sacrifices, but it's SO worth it!  I am ENJOYING my life AND my HEALTH and I'm enjoying it PAIN FREE! Praise the Lord! :)

Perhaps, the thing I'm most enjoying is the comfort knowing that all the years of eating poorly and ignoring the signals WON'T catch up with me one day. It WON'T hit me the day my kids are older and I'm facing life threatening health issues. I believe I'm not at risk of family genetics like diabetes, heart failure, cancer or anything else. I feel like God has blessed me with the knowledge, education and PASSION to change my life. Not only that, I know God wants me to help YOU change yours as well.

We all Choose pain in our lives. If you are facing health issues, if your reliant on prescriptions to help relieve the painful symptoms, if you KNOW you have been ignoring the warning signals that your body has been sending you.... Then the question to ask yourself is:

"Do I choose pain NOW or LATER?"  

"Are poor food choices NEGATIVELY affecting my health?"

I want to both help challenge AND support you! It can be done. Believe me... If I did it, YOU CAN TOO! ;)