The Wandering Question Mark

So, late last week after I received test results back -- mainly indicating in-balanced gut flora -- I started reacting negatively to sugar, natural sugars, and fruit. Long story short, my ND and I think we have nailed down another culprit that is preventing my body from healing. I won't say what it is here in the vast hole of cyber-space, but is very common and is quite treatable. However, living with said condition for 10-15 years and doctors telling me it was normal or was nothing to worry about, once again, drastically lowers my faith of the medical genius world. So, now I'm on severe fruit and natural sweetener restriction, as well as refined white foods and sugar, for a minimum of two weeks -- on top of everything else.

Cooking has definitely been a learning curve once again. I had been gradually decreasing sugar and using natural sweeteners like agave and honey (and couldn't really taste a difference!). Sugar is really the culprit for numerous behavioral problems and diseases. The human body was never designed to digest it in large amounts -- or some would say at all. Anyways, virtually taking out all sweeteners came as a bit of a shock. And, I'm still working this one out. Even though I can do conversions in my sleep, sugar is completely different; actually, the absence of all sweeteners even more so! Meals aren't too hard, though, as my diet is mainly brown rice, vegetables, and meat at the moment. It's the snack part that is difficult. Vegetables alone do not sustain blood sugar. Hummus helps. So does bread, but that has to be kept to a minimum... Yep, still wandering around in the dark here. Too bad that probably 99% of products -- organic or not -- contain sweeteners and sugar. Yikes!

In all this wandering and staring at the question mark on my keyboard, I felt God pointing me to the good sides. Yes, good sides. So, I was inspired to do this and practice the coping mechanisms:
•Being grateful for what you have and making good use of it
•Learning a healthier diet that tastes good is beneficial for life
•Minimal ingredients often helps to illustrate that less is more
•Use humor, whether it be a YouTube clip or a funny book, you need to laugh -- esp. when whipping up a favorite food gets complicated or proves to be impractical
•Don't focus on what you can't have, make the best with what you have
•Rest as needed, but don't sit around to be sad or let the dishes pile up too high (cause that's just extra stress)
•There is strength in God's word
•No matter how much it may feel like it, it is not the end of the world
•Eat your crumbs (don't waste food) and enjoy the small things