How to Maximize Your Health and Weight Loss by Eliminating these 2 Ingredients!

I am going to give you explicit and graphic details about my own unhealthy journey over the course of two years. But baby, look at me now! I'm living proof of these claims that avoiding these two ingredients will lead you to a better you.

There are two ingredients lurking in almost every food product you pick up from a store shelf today that may be causing you to become or stay unhealthy. We've all heard about them. Some of us have debated about them. But until you suffer the consequences of digesting too much of them, you might never realize how dangerous they are to the one control you have over your body and what you put in it.

America has become a gluten and soy nation!

Did you know that Fatigue is a non-specific symptom because it is a subjective feeling reported differently by every patient. Fatigue is not something that can be observed.

This journey has brought me to a 100% turnaround from where I started over two years ago.

The number one health complaint I suffered from until recently when I discovered the key to my own successful recovery was that I was constantly fatigued. No doctor could magically cure the tired feeling that overcame me on a daily basis.

What is fatigue?

Fatigue feels like total exhaustion at times. Tiredness that doesn't go away with rest. Listlessness or the feeling of non-enjoyment from daily activities that used to bring pleasure. It also feels like weakness and has a gradual onset.

Physical fatigue prevents someone from maintaining maximum physical performance as well. Exercise goals become unattainable.

Mental or attention fatigue decreases cognitive activity and can manifest as lethargy.

Fatigue has many possible causes.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and this article in no way constitutes medical advice. However, if you are having feelings of overwhelming fatigue, anxiety, depression, or other symptoms that may jeopardize your health, please seek medical treatment.

There are many people who suffer from Depression. Please don't confuse Depression with physical or mental fatigue, although the symptoms may overlap.

Guillain-Barre ((pronounced like She on beret) syndrome is a disorder in which your body's immune system attacks your nerves. Weakiness and tingling eventually turn in to paralysis. It's a serious life-threatening emergency requiring hospitalization.

Beginning in 2011, I thought my life was going well. Newly divorced, single mother with two children, I started Crafty to the Core to support my family. I joined Facebook and landed an account with a nursing home creating scrapbook pages for elderly residents. I was truly living the life I had envisioned.

The stage was set. A new life, new business, new future. Eventually, I re-married. Within a week of our wedding, I was laying in a hospital bed unable to breathe. All of my dreams, my goals, my future looked dismal. The diagnosis was exasperated asthma.

Not having a clue as to the cause of the problem, doctors said it must have been an allergy attack when I was raking wet leaves in the yard. Years ago, almost a decade before, I had been exposed to toxic mold. I received allergy shots for almost a year, but never had any further problems. Then, here I was, in a hospital bed with breathing treatments being administered every few hours to relieve the asthma symptoms that seemed to worsen every day.

Finally, through a CT Scan of my chest, doctors discovered that I had Thyroid disease. It came as quite a shock. Discovered by accident, but a blessing in disguise, so that I could seek treatment as soon as I was discharged from the hospital a week later.

Imagine a week in the hospital after being newly married. For most people, that would be very disruptive to life. Consider the time lost away from a job, family, and all of the responsibilities you do every day come crashing to a halt because you are now in a hospital bed and cannot perform your daily duties. Never mind the financial repercussions of sudden illness with lack of savings.

After another grueling six months of medical treatment for thyroid disease, I finally had surgery in October 2011. My face became unrecognizable during those months. Swollen and round from my forehead to my neck, I no longer looked like the same person. The thyroid surgery went well and doctors assured me I would be back to good health in no time at all. In fact, they even thought the asthma was related to the thyroid disease as it commonly is.

Immediately following thyroid surgery, after the initial ten day recovery time, I felt okay. I didn't feel as great as the doctors assured me I would feel. In fact, four months later, I was back in the hospital with more asthma issues.

With a team of asthma specialists assessing my health, a regimen of allergy shots was to resume from when I received them a prior decade ago.

I still felt some symptoms which I could not shake:

• Daily dizzy spells upon turning suddenly or quick head movement
• Sudden onset of room-spinning dizziness with vomiting
• Massive stomach cramping
• Light-headedness
• Feeling of being in a fog
• Extreme memory impairment and loss
• Weight gain
• Inability to lose weight with extreme dieting and exercise
• Severe fatigue disabling my ability to perform daily routine tasks

Every time I would explain my issues to doctors, they would say the symptoms were not the result of thyroid disease. Blood tests were always normal.

Then, one day I woke up with a severe headache. It was so severe in fact, that it landed me in the hospital for 8 more days paralyzed on my right side. Doctors were puzzled. All of my tests came back normal. They declared the cause to be a hemiplegic migraine with paralysis.

After intense physical therapy, I saw a neurologist who thought it was possible that the flu shot I had received days prior to the headache caused a reaction known as Guillain-Barre.

My initial symptoms were similar to a stroke. Facial tingling, numbness in my hands and feet, severe headache, mental impairment, memory loss, and others.

I continued to suffer from pain, high blood pressure, heart palpatations, weight gain, and fatigue to the point I went to the emergency room 10 more times in a period of four months.

Despite my blood pressure being around 178 over 122, doctors felt that I must be suffering from stress. I had to fight for my health rights.

It's no secret that everyone suffers from stress at one point or another. And yes, I have had a significant amount of stress in my own life in the past few years. Divorce, medical issues, and financial issues. But I knew myself better than that. Stress wasn't the cause of my health issues. Stress didn't cause me to have exasperated asthma. Stress didn't cause me to have thyroid disease. Stress didn't cause my stroke-like symptoms and paralysis.

In telling my story to many people, I learned that there are many young people suffering from similar symptoms. People half of my age were having these same symptoms. And they certainly weren't suffering from stress-induced toxic body poisoning.

So what was the culprit? What was happening? And why was this happening to me?

The doctors kept telling me there was nothing wrong. Blood tests proved nothing, although my liver enzymes were high. Doctors refused to review my file and connect all of the issues. Instead, they treated every issue separately. Each visit becoming more aggressive with a diagnosis of stress-related problems.

It was enough to make someone ill. No matter the ailment, I was now treated like a constant complainer. The insurance company even had a behavioral health specialist call me at home to make sure I wasn't depressed. Upon hearing that I was no longer eating because it hurt to eat, the insurance company decided I was in fact suffering from depression. I couldn't believe my ears. High blood pressure, excruciating pain, and inability to eat was now a diagnosis of depression. Why? Because the blood tests were all normal. In fact, an ultrasound showed nothing. So, everyone concluded, I was crazy.

It wasn't until my husband, my true supporter throughout all of this, demanded that the doctor run further tests. My husband pleaded my case. He knew me well enough to know food was my first choice of pleasure. He knew if I wasn't eating, I really was ill. And he did not buy this accusation that it was depression. He married me when I was healthy. He knew what I was capable of accomplishing and how frustrated it made me that it was too painful to enjoy normal activities.

Finally, after a Hida Scan, the doctors finally discovered that my gallbladder was completely rotten. That explained the high liver enzymes. Surgery didn't solve my problem though. In fact, three more trips to the emergency room after surgery due to extreme dizziness, fatigue, high blood pressure were just more proof that something was still wrong.

I felt ready to give up. The financial burden alone was crippling. Never mind the fact that I could barely function. I had to drag myself out of bed, and even then, I would fall over from dizziness. I couldn't drive a car.

Then, right here on HubPages, I started reading about the health consequences of gluten and soy. I started learning everything I could about it. I was skeptical at first. I have never really been a believer that additives in foods can be unhealthy. After all, it's the government that approves them right? So, surely the government would never intentionally make people sick!

I still get an occasional cold. In fact, this past Christmas I had bronchitis. But my body was physically able to fight it off faster without all of the crippling health issues I've suffered from within the past two years.

What's my secret? How did I go from being labeled depressed, to turning my health around to the point I've lost weight and stabilized my blood pressure? At my last checkup, all of my blood work came back normal.

In summer of 2013, the doctor told me that I was Vitamin D deficient. I was also told once in the hospital that I had low magnesium levels. After looking in to this further and reading many educational Hubs about food additives, and talking with a nutritional therapist about my food choices, I decided to eliminate soy and gluten from my diet.

It's not easy to eliminate foods that we are accustomed to eating. I'm Italian. Pasta is a favorite food group. To eliminate that and bread was very difficult at first. But once I did, I stopped having cravings for sweets. In fact, I also stopped drinking coffee. That helped curb a lot of cravings. I no longer felt shaky or sudden heart palpitations.

I also started walking every day. I increased my stamina slowly by adding a little more time to my daily walks. We are fortunate to have a walking track close by. If I wanted to challenge myself, I would walk down by the beach where there is a two-mile nature trail.

Eventually, I stopped feeling fatigued. I won my energy back. I fought the good fight and gained my health back.

I did lose one thing. The fat tummy I had developed over the last few years that I could not get rid of no matter what I did.

Some people may argue about this and say that I increased my exercise so that was the reason I lost weight. No, actually, it's not. Because the times before during the last two years, no matter what exercise I tried, I would simply gain weight. I could not lose weight and thought it was due to the thyroid disease. But my doctor kept trying to convince me my weight issues were not caused by my thyroid.

Did you know that there are doctors and therapists that encourage eliminating gluten from the diets of children with Autism? They feel that gluten may affect behavior.

This may not be the diet for everyone. In fact, there is a lot of controversy about eliminating certain wheat products from the diets of children. But if you have tried everything and continue to suffer from ill-health consequences, trying these tips might just work for you. Always consult with a doctor before trying any new diet plan.

In the table below, I list foods commonly found in American homes that contain gluten and/or soy. You will be surprised at the common foods that may be harming your health.

What foods do not contain gluten and/or soy that can be readily on hand in home pantries?

• Fresh potatoes
• Fresh sweet potatoes
• Dry rice
• Dry beans
• Fresh vegetables
• Canned vegetables
• Frozen vegetables
• Salad
• Fresh meat

Check all labels before ingesting any food. You will be surprised at what contains gluten/and or soy.

Being ill robs us of our life. It takes the enjoyment out of our days. And that's not what life is supposed to be about.

If someone had suggested two years ago that I give up pasta, soy products, or gluten, I would have shrugged it off and said whatever. In fact, I heard about people having problems with food additives or ingredients and dismissed the notion that it could happen to me.

It took becoming sick, over and over again, to finally wake up and make a goal for myself to not just sit around and become complacent with being sick. I had to choose to make a difference in my own life not only for my own purposes, but because I have a family to care for.

If you are experiencing any of the health issues or symptoms I've addressed in this article, and time and time again doctors have suggested it's probably stress, please take my advice seriously. It took two years for me to understand how food I was choosing to eat was making me sick.

In fact, my health has turned around so much, this past December my blood work showed even my cholesterol went down some. My blood pressure is normal. I no longer take dietary suppliments because Vitamin D and Magnesium absorption are no longer being blocked by poor food choices.

Giving up soy and gluten doesn't mean giving up your life. It means getting it back!