By the age of 31 Andrea had been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), colitis, scoliosis, kyphosis, and osteoporosis and even though these conditions have made her life more challenging, she still finds inspiration all around her for overcoming adversity and making the best of her situation.
She is now 36 and has found a lifestyle that helps her and she wants to share what she has learned with others. She has a created the eBook cookbook, “Pure and Simple Paleo: A Low Starch Cookbook” which is full of recipes that helped her overcome so much of the inflammation and fatigue in her body and improved her ankylosing spondylitis diet.
She knows that the idea of this kind of dietary change can seem daunting but she states that she finds it to be “really empowering as opposed to restrictive. It can sound limiting to give up grains and starches but I really embrace fresh food and local foods. I’ve become friends with a lot of local farmers and also enjoy foraging for wild foods, and that’s where I find my inspiration, from real food that we as humans evolved eating.
By following this more natural approach I’ve had great results.
I think people get intimidated by changing up their diets so if they just dabble in what they consider to be a ‘healthy diet, they won’t get to see the full benefits that you see when you go fully grain-free, dairy-free, and refined-sugar free, and of course starch-free too if you have AS.
I created a cookbook where I share my favorite family-friendly recipes as I truly want to help people feel better. Of course I haven’t been able to un-fuse my spine through my current diet, but I have no doubts it has been effective for me in drastically reducing the pain and slowing down the progression of ankylosing spondylitis in my body.”
Andrea went undiagnosed for over 10 years. She went to doctors, chiropractors, acupuncturists and physical therapists and researched all types of therapies starting at age 20 when she started experiencing chronic low back pain. Her doctors assured her the back pain was due to an injury she sustained and she was told it would eventually heal with physical therapy and she was also encouraged to take ibuprofen to help fight the pain.
After all those years of relying on NSAIDS she eventually developed chronic IBS at age 27 that would not go away, and it seemed like no matter what she ate she would experience painful bloating, cramping, and GI distress. At that point in time she was in so much pain she had to quit a dragon boat team, was no longer able to ride her bike to work, she was afraid to eat, and she spent a large portion of her day doubled over with gut pain, so she sought out the help of doctors again. She suspected she might be dealing with a parasite picked up that summer from an extended kayaking camping trip. The doctors she saw thought she was overreacting or depressed.
That following year she decided to simply live her life and move way out to the country. She spent a couple years renting an old farmhouse on a 750 acre homestead where she got back to basics. She continued to follow her diet, make all of her own foods from scratch, and enjoy rural life without television or cell phones.
While trading in her city accounting job for a waitressing job had helped her de-stress, she still had that gnawing back pain that would come and go. But not once did she ever suspect it was anything more than a really “bad back” as all of the different doctors and health professionals she had seen had never lead her to suspect anything otherwise.
To be continued….
Check back tomorrow for part 2 of Andrea’s intriguing journey!
All images by Andrea
