Free From Food Addiction

I'm Wendy. I am 55 and live in Nebraska. I have struggled all my life with my weight. In my 40's, I got up to 320 pounds. I didn't have any health problems and I didn't take any medication. But I just couldn't enjoy life. I was addicted to food and I could barely get around. I had been up and down on diets all my life. Once in my late 20's, I lost 100 pounds, mostly living on diet coke. I developed gallstones and they removed my gallbladder and told me it would not affect my health at all. A couple of years ago, I decided to get serious about my health so I began following Dr. Fuhrman whose motto is "There is no good fat." Well, that sounded healthy, so I became a "nutritarian". Which is basically a vegan who doesn't eat added fat. I lost 82 pounds that year and lost half my hair! I had diarrhea every day. I became diabetic! My feet hurt so bad I could hardly walk. I had insomnia, depression, and anxiety! I cried all the time and I always felt hungry and angry! I could only go about 2 hours before I began craving another fix of food. I have never been so miserable in all my life!! I truly thought there was something wrong with me because here I was following the smartest healthiest Doctor and I was a total basket case! One day, I thought I better double down and figure out why I am losing my hair and am becoming so unhealthy. So I went looking for videos or documentaries on eating healthy. I came across "Fat Fiction".

I thought it was going to tell me to get even less fat in my diet and I thought I needed to hear more strict lecturing, so I could finally get it right! Instead, I found out I was getting it wrong. I watched that video and then went straight into my kitchen and threw away every grain and anything with sugar in it, like bbq sauce. I went through serious withdrawal for about 2 days and then my first miracle happened! The depression that was haunting me just literally disappeared like someone pulled a wet blanket off my head! I have not had one day of depression since I stopped eating grains! I still felt angry and tired and weak and hungry always hungry! And my feet hurt so badly that I could hardly do anything. That is when I found Dr. Berg!!!

First, I tried the unfortified nutritional yeast he recommended. It worked. The lightning flashes tormenting my toes stopped and the burning in my feet let up enough so I could get around and I was able to sleep better. I had been addicted to carbs my whole life and I was scared to give them up, they were my comfort. So at first I just added healthy fats to my diet. I cut back in carbs but not low enough to do keto. My mind felt better but I didn't lose weight. I kept going, changing a little at a time. Then I got a keto rash. And that is when I learned from Dr. Berg about bile salts. Adding the bile salts and 1-2 large green smoothies a day to my diet changed my life forever! I never have diarrhea!! I can go out and about all day, I can even go on long car trips!!! But I still wasn't losing weight. I was eating 3 meals a day doing a version of intermittent fasting by eating breakfast at 11 am and lunch at 2 and dinner at 6:30 pm and not ever eating after 7 pm. I wasn't getting hungry but I wasn't losing weight. My hair and nails were healthy again and my cravings for carbs were getting less and less. I still thought I needed 1,800 - 2,000 calories a day. I had lost weight before eating this many calories but when I would try and eat less than that, the cravings would take over and I would binge on chips or popcorn.

But lately, I began to struggle to eat 1,600 calories a day. As I have learned what nutrients my body needs daily and make sure I get them, my hunger and cravings have gone down and down. Eventually, I just couldn't eat 3 meals per day! I felt too stuffed. So I switched now to 2 meals per day. I eat 1,000 - 1,400 calories a day and I am completely satisfied. I never feel hungry and you can put popcorn and chips in front of me and I do not want them!!! My feet feel fantastic!!! Since moving to 2 meals a day, my energy has skyrocketed! And now I notice I am losing and my tummy is getting flatter. Throughout this learning process, I have relied heavily on learning from Dr. Berg's Youtube library. One day my heart was pounding and I knew that I had gotten enough potassium, that is when I learned about my increased need for salt and staying hydrated. I had never had to add salt before but now I have to make sure I get plenty of Himalayan salt. Another time my feet began hurting badly and I knew it wasn't neuropathy because that left me a long time ago. So I looked up Dr. Berg and sure enough, I had been consuming too much spinach and unsweetened cocoa (my favorite snack). So I cut those back and added plenty of lemon juice and calcium and 2 days later no more foot pain ad it hasn't come back!!! During Covid, I was like everyone else pretty scared, but I have been very grateful for Dr. Berg's explanations of what Covid is and how to take charge of my immune system. I took his free course on enhancing my immune system so I do not live in fear of Covid. I have learned about my liver, my heart, my kidneys, my eyes, my nervous system and so much more from Dr. Berg. I know that taking his advice has not only brought me back to health. I believe it saved my life!