This is the story of the next Chapter in my Journey to gaining optimal health and the strong body I have desired. If you havent read my first post with my before and after pictures go back and read "Jessica's Journey" as it will probably help you to understand how far I've come in the last year and a half, and how Isagenix is the next chapter and how it has truly helped me take my health to the next level.
These pictures are 30 days apart. In 30 days I lost 8 pounds and 5 & 1/2 inches. 2 & 3/4 of those inches are from my waist.
How I got turned onto Isagenix...
I thought I had everything under control. I had spent the last year and a half healing my gut with the paleo diet and was able to send my autoimmune disease into remission with my new healthy lifestyle. It wasn't easy. I just got use to the fact that gluten could never touch my tongue again and I would probably spend every Monday for the rest of my life going to the grocery store to then go home and spend hours food prepping so I could be prepared for the week ahead. I always had breakfast and lunch prepared so all I had to deal with then was dinner. I had everything under control. Except my hair started falling out in January. And it seemed no matter how strictly I followed paleo it wouldn't stop. My thyroid levels were good so my doctors couldn't explain it and so they kept supplementing me with B vitamin shots and I swear 10 other pills a day. Still no luck. But I felt decent. I knew that I was stressed trying to keep up with my diet and new added stress at work, but I also knew hair that falls out from stress usually only lasts a few weeks. I was pushing almost 6 months at this point. I felt good or so I thought, I wasn't having any of the horrid Hypothyroid symptoms of the past. So I just kept chugging along in hopes it would quit but starting to worry as my hair was the thinnest it had ever been. And then tragedy hit. My husbands uncle passed away from cancer. It was an emotionally hard time and after the memorial service my husband decided on Sunday night he needed to take a personal day and go to the beach for the night. He wasn't ready to go back to work the next day. I completely understood and was supportive. But I'm not gonna lie my first thought was "How the hell am I going to get my food prepped for the week?" We went to the coast and it was exactly what my husband needed but needless to say we came home and my week was a mess. I was stressed from work, emotionally drained and ate like crap as I didn't have anything really healthy prepared and hadn't went to the store. I knew I had too much on my plate but I truly didn't have any other option. I had come too far to let my health go by eating junk. I realized at that point that as long as life was going smoothly I had everything under control. I had it under control for over a year, but life threw me a curveball and it got me discouraged. How was I suppose to keep up on working a full time job, exercising, food prepping, cooking, cleaning house, blogging, tending to a husband and then try to have kids someday?? The thought overwhelmed me. I felt truly discouraged for the first time. Maybe I couldn't do it all. And then God through me a bone. I was introduced to something that I can truly say changed my life for the better. Isagenix. A friend of mine from my Crossfit box posted that she had been using the program and loved it. I trusted her as I knew her and her husband followed the paleo diet and lived a lifestyle not that much different then mine. As soon as I talked to her and her husband I had a positive feeling. It was a slight glimpse of hope. A year ago, the thought of drinking two meal replacement shakes a day seemed too hard. How can you drink your calories??? I NEED food I thought. That doesn't even seem right! Until I spent the next year cooking and exhausting myself over it. All of the sudden drinking two shakes a day seemed too good to be true. You mean I don't have to prep breakfast and lunch anymore?? Just snacks and dinner. Too good to be true. But then I found out it was Whey protein and I got real worried. My body doesn't digest whey. I've spent God knows how much money on trying lactose free whey and every kind imaginable. I can't digest it, literally it stops me up. And I already knew with my Thyroid history that a bad gut screws everything up. But my friend was so encouraging and said research it. So I did and I found Isagenix Whey truly is different. They have a patent on the way they process it and it has digestive enzymes to help with your digestion along with other vitamins and minerals and countless other good things. Well I've tried digestive enzymes with no luck in the past but I was so desperate for something in my life to give I figured I would give it a shot. Why not?? And I knew two days in that my life would be forever changed. I not only could digest this product but my digestion got better and I felt energized. A few days in I did my first two Cleanse days which consisted of a liquid cleanse and no food. I was scared but I was also desperate for my hair to stop falling out. The first day was uncomfortable. I wasn't starving just thinking a lot about food. BUT the second day I awoke at 5:30am (which is really early for me) and was wide awake and literally felt like I could conquer the world. I wasn't hungry and I felt this energy like I've never felt before. I accomplished in that second cleanse day more then I had in a long time. I found a new place to work. That day. I couldn't have been happier. I lost 5lbs to top it off. I felt like Jessica was back. And the very best part was two days after I cleansed my hair quit falling out. Just like that. I looked down at my hands in the shower and saw normal hair loss and felt so grateful that my friend had introduced me to Isagenix. In 1 week Isagenix fixed something that my doctors and myself couldn't fix in 6 months. Maybe I could do this.. Maybe I could continue my Paleo/Gluten free lifestyle, still do all the things I love and have kids some day. It seemed more doable for the first time to me. I don't know why my hair quit falling out, if I had to guess I would say that the cleanse released built up toxins in my system that I was unable to release myself. But maybe it was that and the fact that for the first time in a year and a half I spent a Monday doing something other then food prepping. I was able to spend a day out looking for a new place to work, and found it that day. I really can't say why it worked, as I'm not a doctor, but what I can tell you is I feel like Isagenix gave me my life back. I feel like a normal person again. Like this life is a blessing and is fun, not always work. I will always use Isagenix now. I will keep a shake packet in my purse at all times so when I go to events and all I see around me is pizza and gluten filled crap, I can bring out my shake and not go hungry. How easy is that?? I will always follow the Paleo diet as closely as I can because it has done wonders for me and I believe in it, but Isagenix gave me something I needed. And that is control. I can keep everything under control when life throws me a curveball because I now have options. And for me that is huge.
-Jessica
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