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Come on in and sit awhile while I talk about the "Little Things" in life. I will share my journey of everyday life.... homeschooling, raising my children, homesteading, gardening, health and wellness, and real life.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Miscarriages, MTHFR, Food Changes, and Health

Sierra when first trying beans & rice many years ago.
She would only eat them blindfolded.
I forced her to try it and she said she could not
stand the way the beans looked.
Now, at eleven years old this is her favorite food.
~This is kind of how I felt at first about the food changes I needed to make.~


Through my journey of four miscarriages I was told I should have genetic testing after the third miscarriage.  I did and it turns out I have MTHFR... It's a gene.  I have TWO copies of the gene which means that I got the gene from EACH of my parents.  It is really complicated to explain but the short story is if you have MTHFR your body does not rid itself of toxins like it should.  Instead it stores up the toxins.  This becomes a problem with SYNTHETIC vitamins.  Synthetic vitamins are made in a lab are not the same as NATURAL vitamins.  The MTHFR person can not process these properly.  These synthetic vitamins are almost all food products.  If it says it is "enriched", that means it has these synthetic vitamins in it. 

Enriched... Now, there is an interesting word:


    Enriched        ENRICH'ED, pp. Made rich or wealthy; fertilized; supplied with that which is desirable, useful or ornamental.


That all sounds good... unless you are talking about the enriched flour, enriched pasta, enriched cereals, enriched crackers, enriched cookies, enriched puddings, enriched cake mix, enriched everything...   The problem is that most everything you buy has something enriched in it.  For the MTHFR person that means TOXINS.  This means the only safe thing to do is eliminate everything enriched. 

I started health journey with eliminating the "enriched" foods.  I seriously cried over wanting pretzels in the chip aisle.  I was giving up so much.  I really just wanted some pretzels to eat with a healthy dip.  It was hard to adjust to.  After the fourth miscarriage I felt like all I was doing to fix my body was in vain because I still lost another  baby.  I quickly started letting my health diminish.  That went on for a few months and then, I finally realized I had to make a change if I wanted to be around for my children.  I had gained 30 pounds from January 2014 through January 2015 (exactly one year).  This was not a pattern I could continue and expect to have good health.  I decided to order the Trim Healthy Mama book that I had heard so much about.  So, in mid-January 2015 I started Trim Healthy Mama.  I also continued my MTHFR dietary restrictions.  This was truly the beginning of my new health journey.  I will stop here for now... but I will not end there... I will update what I have done over the last year.

3 comments:

  1. My sister had to make drastic changes for her health. She was in pain ALL the time. She cut out ALL processed foods and a TON of other stuff. She looks and feels better. Good for you, Shannon :) I know those changes are not easy. We are trying to do better with our diet as well. We are cutting WAY back on sugars and eventually our taste-buds will not notice it ;)

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    1. I can hardly believe you still follow my blog! Yay! I still have one reader!! ;) I want to encourage you to just go cold turkey (with exception to some rare moments) on the sugar. Your food cravings will stop. It is amazing. I can have sugar one time and the cravings will hit within a couple of hours. As long as I stay off the sugar I don't have hunger cravings.

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  2. Hi Shannon.
    I was just diagnosed with the MTHFR 677t/c variant of the MTHFR mutation. I feel like you in the chip aisle. I have spent the last 6 months on THM and in that six months my cholesterol went sky high. I feel like I finally found a way to eat healthy and my entire family likes it and now..... Do you still eat THM style with the mutation. I imagine I will need to change a lot which I'm ok with, just really discouraged right now. Did a google search and you came up. Thanks!

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