My Diet and Adrenal Disorder

I've been dealing with trying to fix my diet for a while now and I'm not going to sit here and talk like I'm the only one. But trying to figure out how certain foods affect my body, energy, and workouts has honestly been one of the hardest things I've dealt with each day.. I know a lot of people go through this, but right now I'm looking at it as my number one priority. It's pretty simple for me to avoid gluten, dairy, and all those foods us with Celiac know will wreck our body. But it's a lot harder when you have to experiment with foods not knowing if it's going to give you nothing but fulfillment and energy, or give you adrenal fatigue and complete chaos. This is something I'm going through right now and have been trying to manage each day.

Trying the Paleo diet:

So many things led up to me making this decision in early 2013. Some of you may have never heard of the Paleo Diet, some of you may have never tried the Paleo Diet,  but I know some of you may even be on it right now. One thing I've learned from it is how great it can be for your body, but how hard it can be. I made this life changing decision by the end of January and immediately saw a difference in my energy. Working out in the gym and having enough energy to get through it had been one of my biggest struggles. When I decided to remove all grains, legumes, and refined sugars, I felt like I could workout 2 or even 3 times a day if I wanted too! Everything felt great at first, so why was this not for me? In a matter of weeks things really started to go down hill and and I noticed my health was getting affected dramatically.

Why the Paleo Diet wasn't for me:

I know the Paleo Diet has a crazy amount of benefits for the body. I know it's helped tons of people and I've heard many say they can swear by it and that it will change any (normal) person's life. But for me, this simply wasn't the answer. I am definitely someone on the outside just looking in at what most people call normal. After a couple weeks I started to notice my energy drop dramatically as I progressed on the diet. I was honestly starting to feel worse on the diet than I have ever really felt before. I was soy free, dairy free, gluten-free, grain-free, and refined sugar free. So I really had to sit down and ask myself, "what is going on?" 

I was really starting to think I was crazy because I couldn't possibly think of anything else I could eliminate from my diet to make me feel better. I was about out of ideas and just ready to give up and give in to my old diet. But I had an idea. An idea from a book I read months ago that was supposed to help my Adrenal Disorder. I remembered that not having a balance of sugars (even fruit) with carbs can be catastrophic for my adrenal gland and actually send it into over drive. I knew this was something I could either spend months trying to change only to feel sick the entire way, or just go back to the diet I was on before.

Why my Diet and Adrenal Disorder is difficult to manage:

When it comes to me and how I feel each day, paying attention to what I eat and how it affects me is what I have to study most. From each food I eat at each certain time of the day, I have to make a mental note on how it makes me feel. "Did it mess up my vision, did it crash my energy, did it give me tons of energy then mess me up later?" These are all things I have to pay attention to each bite each day. And these are all things I have to pay attention to if I ever want to get better. Something as simple as starting out my morning with strawberries would honestly cause me to be unable to leave my bed or house for the rest of the day. It usually affects my vision, thought process, and ability to speak as well. I'm often unable to communicate or really get across sentences I am trying to say..all because of a little sugar at the wrong time of the day.

You know that low energy feeling you get from getting glutened? That's basically the best way I can describe how I feel when eating any type of sugar, but instead it takes much longer for me to recover. It really makes me have to be on high alert for a whole new category of food even though gluten-free can be hard enough already. Even though it is a lot more difficult to manage and a little more annoying since I am already gluten-free, I always look at each day as another day to get myself better and learn from what I eat. Getting mad and upset about the food I can't eat is never really a option for me, because honestly, I don't feel like I'll gain anything from acting this way anyways.

The 80/20 (non) diet I'm trying now:
For a while I felt helpless like there was no solution, but I always continued to have a positive outlook on everything. I never settle for something if it's just good enough. To me it has to be perfect, and my diet and how I felt was far from that. Right now I'm trying a new diet called the 80/20 diet. It's not considered a fad or really even a diet, just a rule of life being applied to it. If you haven't heard of it, it's actually pretty simple. For the food you consume each day you ask yourself with each meal, "Did this food exist 10,000 years ago?" If it did, then it falls into the 80 category. If it didn't then it falls into the 20 category. Basically what you want to do is make 80% of your diet natural, and 20% of your diet for all the other things we crave each day. This is an awesome rule that's been great for me so far and should be something you definitely look into.

How it's worked for me: (9/12/13)
I've been dealing with my Adrenal Disorder for almost 2 years now. I'd love to say I've it figured all out and by now I'm 100% better, but that's not the case. Since trying this new diet plan in April  it not only has made me feel better, it's made me pretty happy too. I've finally been getting the balance of food I've really needed to get my health back on track. Even though my diet and Adrenal Disorder is something that is hardest for me to manage as a 16 year old, I always have a positive outlook and know each day is another opportunity to get better at it. This diet has luckily been the solution to a lot of my problems! But of course there were many things I learned and always will learn along the way.


If you are interested to know how Adrenal Disorders and Celiac Disease may be connected, Click Here! I also explain more about the symptoms and life I live each day with my disorder.