“Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed – it just means the damage no longer controls our lives”.

I am always looking to Enhance my Every-day, and when I discovered as a newly graduated Clinical Nutritionist that I had many food intolerances I wept for all the flaky pastry, eggs, and Turkish bread that the leaky-gut result eradicated from my diet overnight.

I always knew something wasn’t quite right within my body from my yo-yoing weight and how my peers talked about theirs. I was a sensitive kid and always got sick if I worked overtime without fail. But it wasn’t until I was at my worst and heaviest that I actually did something about it and went and got educated – because who really knows what’s right with all the conflicting info out there.

My test result indicated serious leaky-gut that had likely stemmed from a trauma I had as a toddler and worsened over time, as well as a genetic susceptibility. After I got over the mental devastation of the results – I physically put them into action overnight. And immediately I started to reap the benefits of not having constant reactions from food!

My sleep improved and I didn’t need the regular 12hr nights to catch up. Eight kilos of weight just dropped off me and I didn’t have the constant palpitations in my gut that I thought were ‘normal’! I now realise that this is inflammation in action.

The initial period was a huge learning curve and put into practice many of the nutrition subjects I had recently studied. It took a lot of time and effort to integrate, especially the constant reading of labels and menus. But the benefits outweighed all this. And when it came to the reintroduction of foods, the ones that remained on the no-go list were a slither of the first reactionary list. Hallelujah.

Overall, I felt and looked better – ahem slimmer in the sense that is commercially acceptable. But in other ways my robust health deteriorated a little over time. My blood sugars became hyper-sensitive and my normal range was narrower. I found I had to eat on the clock every three hours or else!? My metabolism had become fast and efficient in comparison to being overweight and sluggish, but it wasn’t doing me many favours either..

I had always been fit and participated in many high impact sports but soon found that these now wiped me out. I was forced to make the switch physically and mentally to restorative yoga instead of long-distance running and the more active yoga variants. I also couldn’t sleep on my side anymore which was weird, and experienced mild anxiety for the first time from muscular tension. In fact lifting anything heavy often gave me a headache or migraine that no amount of magnesium or coconut water would reduce.

Over time as chronic pain and inflammation tend to do it took its toll and affected my work, relationships, my bubbly and outgoing personality aka self-esteem which lessened my ability to fully participate in life sometimes or at least as much as I wanted to.

But you do also come to accept what you cannot change.

And over time I accepted the negatives I’d received from this discovery and focused on the positives. But I still couldn’t ignore that the quality of my life had changed, and it was disappointing not to be able to carry out my active pursuits. And of all the food intolerance tests I have seen throughout my decades career as a nutritionist my IgG test results are still the worst results I have seen.

Over the decade since the test results there has been years of detox including complete amalagam filling removal, loads of gut healing nutrients, nuturing rituals, rest and rejuvenation and acceptance.

But like every journey this was just part of it and now I am speaking to you from a much different place!

There is always hope that recovery is possible and one day you will feel more like your old self. Then again, I never expected this day to come and I don’t usually like surprises, but this one was different.

The Results

• My blood sugars have radically improved. I don’t get the crashes or the need to eat as often, my appetite now feels normal rather than getting to starving state frequently.
• I digest my food better as my energy has increased considerably and it lasts throughout the day. Hello productivity!
• My circulation is better, so I feel the cold less. As previously I was always the one that felt the cold and carried layers everywhere to stay in ‘the cosy range.’
• My internal batteries (cellular mitochondria) feel fully charged so I have tons more energy and this has also contributed to my healthier circulation.
• I have always known I was a light sleeper, but I never knew I was a bad sleeper! However, I now sleep deeper, need-less and regularly wake up before my alarm. The quality of my sleep has much improved and this has lifted my mood and energy profoundly. Yee-ha!
• Not only that, I wake up and I am alert! I could jump out of bed instantly and start my day whereas I used to (and still enjoy) taking it slow -needing a couple of hours to wake and warm the body up slowly.
• I can exercise intensely again lift weights, do active yoga, run!  And I can do this multiple times per week and am loving getting strong again. I have missed this!
• And amazingly I can also get up and do this first thing in the morning which I haven’t done in the past decade without setting off my nervous system which gives me the shakes and then getting a headache/migraine for the day.
• My anxiety was only mild and occasional, but now that’s gone.
• I get less overwhelmed and can think more clearly and get multiple tasks done without overwhelm. My head is just so much clearer, and I am so much more productive from dawn till dusk.
• I have less muscular tension, aches and pains and am not as stiff. But I still love my morning stretch routine, warm shower and a luxurious restorative yoga session as needed.
• I don’t have to spend a fortune or my time on 2hr weekly massages, but still benefit from one every month or two. 
• My cyclical pain and inflammation are much improved. And I have reduced my pain killer use from multiple times every month to 1 in 7 and counting. 
• Friends have even noticed my vibrancy and zest for life and even say that the energy behind how I speak has changed!
• And I am sure this list will grow over time
  

As health practitioners we are always wary of health claims and usually say “ease up” on those health claims people be realistic – you’ll give them false hope!” But I can honestly say I have experienced every one of these and want others suffering to benefit too.

How I got my life back

I had heard of CBD Cannabidiol, but it took me time to learn about and see its worth. I didn’t notice anything the first two weeks until I was questioned ‘how was my sleep?’ and over the next couple of days I realised I had had a couple more restorative sleeps than usual, and these sleeps were unusual for me but of course well received when I did have them. I then started to wake up before my alarm and the list of benefits you see above grew from here.

And having studied nutritional medicine, I have a thorough understanding of how the human body works and the many and various ailments it can suffer from. So I was incredibly surprised to find that us as humans and all vertebrates, have a 13^th bodily system that I had never heard of or been taught in college! It’s called an endocannabinoid system and you can learn about it briefly here The Endocannabinoid System. Not only do we have a system that benefits from the introduction of these cannabinoids from the Cannabis or Hemp plant we also produce a small amount of these cannabinoids naturally, that’s why it’s named the endocannabinoid system! (endo is from the word endogenous which means having an internal cause or origin). And one example of this I found fascinating is that cannabinoids are found in breast milk.

CBD is not psychoactive or does not make you high – that is the cannabinoid THC which is more widely known,however THC also has numerous medicinal properties beneficial for pain and the symptoms of disease, but that can be a topic of interest for a further post.And there are many other cannabinoids being widely studied for their benefits, such as CBA, CBC, CBG, CBN to name just a few. Here is a little bit more detail about CBD- What is Cannabidiol?

The endocannabinoid system is known to bring about balance within the body and works along with our other 12 bodily systems to do so. Homeostasis is the goal to maintain a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, and sustained by physiological processes.

However I strongly encourage you to do your own research and not to take my word for it completely. Look up CBD and your ailment/s as there is plenty of info out there on the world-wide web.

It’s not a magic pill – nothing is! But it definitely is a missing link that combines with all the other healthy changes carried out to heal and nourish our bodies.

But it’s given me superpowers – that’s how it feels compared to the fate I had become conditioned too. And I am just as gobsmacked as you, but also know it’s not the end of my journey. In fact it feels like a new beginning.

Kindest and healthiest regards, Michelle

CBD – Yeah you know me!