The Low Down

So here is where it starts.

Current
My name is Nicola. I have just turned 26 ten days ago and I am just beginning the new 2013. I work two jobs- one is with a company called Evergreen Supported Living where I work as a direct support staff for adults with developmental disabilities. I love my job, though I wouldn't be lying if I were to say it wasn't trying. I am fairly new to the company, having only started eight months ago, but I'm three years into the profession itself.
My other job is working for Think Piece Productions. I have so far been doing the work for the experience, but soon I will be a share holder of the company. I put in just as much work for this company as I did when I was full time at Evergreen, while still being full time there. Think Piece Productions is a video production company in the Pacific Northwest, which travels from Vancouver to Seattle working on various projects from documentaries to music videos to simple filming of bands and other promotional videos.
I got into Think Piece Productions due to my boyfriend, who has most of the ownership of the company. I began helping out with some organization which has lead to various other tasks which have included me. Now I'm learning to edit, I film at most gigs, I am in charge of scheduling, promotion and so on.
I"m surprised at how much I have enjoyed it. much like when I got into the supported living profession, I didn't expect to like this work, and I didn't expect to have as much involvement as I do.
I have been to school to study alternative medicine. I have gotten my herbalist and nutritionist certifications and was half way through getting my Bachelor's degree in Holistic Healing, but sadly the school shut down without any notice, thus leaving me high and dry. I want to continue my education, I am just taking a break.

Health
As mentioned before I am 26. My eye sight it's awesome, but isn't enough to warrant glasses (at least not when I had them checked a couple years ago). I have tendinitis in my left shoulder which flares up periodically. I have suffered from two back injuries in as many years - just muscular, but still weakening my core as it is. I have bad knees, they hurt from time to time. I haven't been able to find any similarities to when they decide to flare up except sometimes when they do it's because I have been sitting for too long. I was taking extra Omega's, thinking that might have been the problem. It worked for a little while, but now it doesn't seem to matter as much.
I don't exercise. I refuse to own a car because I insist that not owning one makes me walk more, especially since none of my work locations are on a bus rout which runs at helpful times for me. However, when the hints of winter began nudging, I found I walked less and mooched more.
One day I hope to ride a bike, but for the moment I am asthmatic. Since I don't exercise much, my lungs aren't strong enough to deal with the exertion a bike would bring. Though, it is less the bike and more that my asthma gets set off by cold air. Without fail. And I don't carry an inhaler. I once made a garlic syrup to strengthen my lungs and act as a preventative, but I haven't made a batch since, and that was some years ago. It did the trick though while it lasted.
The biggest issues which has been bothersome for me is my right hand. My right and middle finger have some seer eczema which keeps trying to spread up toward my arm and down to the palm of my hand. I have good times and bad times with it. It generally gets bad in the winter, as all my skin dries out like no one's business during the winter months, but I have never had it as bad as this. I have had eczema on other parts of my body - behind my knees, my wrists, my ears - on and off all my life. I find I usually break out in it when I get stressed. I also generally blame it on boys - they're damn stressful!
About three years ago, I lived with some people that had a cat which scratched me. Her claw went into the back of my right hand and out in the same spot, not even leaving a scratch, and only leaving a wound site so small and insignificant looking one might have considered it a freckle. However, my ring finger and middle finger went numb, and I began experiencing an aching in my hand and wrist. A week later I went to the hospital to have it check out. Ten minutes and a $500 bill later, I was on my way home with a suggestion that I take Aleve as needed should my hand continue to hurt and that "Maybe God will let you have the feeling back in your fingers". This was not helpful. Luckily, the feeling in my fingers returned two weeks or so later.
I don't know if the maddening eczema on my right hand is related or not.

Naturopath
I went for the first time at the beginning of December of 2012 to see a Naturopath. She was recommended by a friend and co-worker who sorted out her eczema which had consumed both of her arms. I had been saying I was going to do it for ages but finally decided to go in when my life-long doctor had sent out letters announcing his retirement.
She was so lovely, and we had tea and chit-chatted for a while and talked about everything mentioned above and more. At the end of it she suggested I need some liver support, and thus we concocted a tincture that would suit my tastes (it's delicious!) for that purpose, and she suggested that I test out the possibilities of food allergies. She told me to eliminate dairy to see how my body reacts. She also said that she would suggest gluten as well, that normally she wouldn't suggest it so soon, but I have already had the experience so she thought I could handle it.
Eczema is a common symptom of a food allergy, as it the problems I have had with my ears in the past, the knee problems, the shoulder problems, and so on. She believes it is most likely dairy, but gluten may also be the culprit as well. They are generally the more common deviants.

Goal
My lovely naturopathic doctor told me to wait until after the holidays to begin my elimination experiments. I probably would have any way. I like to think I'm strong willed, but I ate a lot of delicious and cow milk product rich foods over the last four weeks.
My goal is go eliminate dairy and gluten. After two months, I am going to pick one and gorge on it. I have a feeling it will be cheese, since I really do love a wine and cheese night. I am to wait and see the reaction my body as to it. I will give it another month free of whichever food I continued to leave out of my diet and repeat the process. If it is neither of these things, then I will try something else.
I want to keep a comprehensive blog about what is going on around me. Holistic healing is about everything going on around the person, internally, externally, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, environmentally and so on. If I am stressed out, then it may cause my eczema to flare up. If I am sad, it may lead to more weight gain, and so on.


I am very excited for this for many reasons. I have this odd love of experimenting with my diet. I cut out all meat that doesn't come from the water to force myself to eat different foods. I was experimenting for a year and that year has stretched into it's fourth. I feel healthier for it, it's cheaper, and I eat more nuts and seeds and other protein rich vegetables more.
I had a roommate which passed along the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis to me, and insisted it was a book worth my time. I read it and it had convinced me to try going gluten-free. I did it, and enjoyed it, for four months or so. The mistake I made was that I wasn't entirely strict. I didn't mind that the soy sauce had trace amounts of gluten, or that I was consuming more corn flour products, which have the potentially of producing the same effects as gluten. In the end I gave up. I was buying the gluten-free replacements of the foods I love instead of just not having the product in any form, which was costing me a lot of money. I once bought one bag of groceries which cost me $70! I was also concerned about my fiber intake, or lack there of at this point. I mostly got my fiber from whole wheat, and with eliminating it, I hadn't bothered to make up for it by other means.
I hope that by doing these experiments I will of course, discover if I have a food allergy and what it might be, but I also hope to lose weight, be more clear minded, more energetic and productive. I have been looking forward to the 1st of the year for a long time.