Crohn's, Food, and God

I thought I would give an explanation about where I grocery shop and why, more of why food is important to me and mostly how God is so good.
I  have a reason for where I shop and it's not because Trader Joe's makes me feel eccentric and free-spirited... well that may be part of my reason. But the reasoning does make sense it just may take me a while to get to it.... which is how I roll if you've ever heard me give any sort of explanation... so here goes.

Since my husband and I got married we decided we would go to Giant Eagle. It's right behind our apartment so it's the most convenient thing ever. I didn't really give it or the food I was buying much thought. I mean I did look, on occasion, at what was in the stuff, I mean food, I was buying. But, for the most part we were satisfied.

It wasn't until this past year that we've been thinking more about what we are eating. And, I think the biggest reason is because of my Crohn's. That Crohn's, always creeping in and stealing the show. This time in a good way. I really, truly started to believe that what we put into our bodies has a huge effect on how we feel. Let me explain my recent epiphany.

About a year ago my Crohn's symptoms started getting worse. Instead of a slight discomfort every so often after meals it was a painful-feels-like-my-intestines-were-being-squeezed-in-a-vice feeling after almost every meal, well 3 hours after (that's about the time your food is making its journey through your small intestine). And after some doctor visits, a colonoscopy, and other various procedures, I found out a part of my small intestine was narrowing and the inflammation was restricting the normal passage of food... phew... alright with all that being said, something had to be done. My doctor suggested steroids and if that didn't work injections of a medication that's usually prescribed for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. I won't get into all the details of why those meds, what they do exactly, and how.

I'll just say that I was a little scared. The long-term side effects of the injections were yucky, no fun at all. Even though my doctor said that many people with Crohn's were doing it and they were doing very well. I still had zero peace about it. I did decide to go on the steroid at first. It was a very low dose and meant to target exactly where the problem was. I was to take it and taper off of it and see how I was feeling. Well I did and I wasn't feeling too grand. So, back to the other option. My response... I found myself overwhelmed and feeling very frightened. All I remember is sitting on my bed crying with my husband asking what was wrong and all I could mutter out was... "I don't want to get cancer!"  It's a possible, down-the-road side effect of the injections. It was at that point that I thought, I can't do this, it's not fair to Jeff, it's not fair to my future children, and it can't be what God wants, it just can't. Having a disease and then later on getting another just to treat the first. It didn't make sense to me. It seemed absurd.

So we asked if I could try the steroid again and in the meantime try, really try, to eat better, eat smaller meals, do whatever it took. And, PRAY. That was huge. I needed my God, my Father, my Lord, to heal me.

We prayed. And prayed. And prayed some more. There were times I would be alone and cry out to God to be near, to bring peace to my soul, and to bring healing to my body. And over and over again I heard His words speak gently to my soul. Be still and know I am God. And I began praying and praising. Praising God for making my body, praising Him for knowing my inward parts far more than anyone else, praising Him for being my Creator who cares about the work He created. And then praying that the God of my being would heal the very body He formed with His mighty hands.

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised! Was I healed from my Crohn's? No, not completely. Did my God bring healing to the part in my intestines that caused so much pain? Yes! I am not on the steroid anymore and have gone nowhere near the other medication option. Because my God is good. Is there a chance that this could happen again? Of course, I'm living with Crohn's every day, but I also live and abide in my Savior every day.

And about the eating better part. I believe I learned things about food (I'm still learning) and started buying food that didn't have 'junk' in it. Which is why I l-o-v-e Trader Joe's. We do go to Giant Eagle still but that's only for 10% of the things we can't find at TJ's. Let me assure you I am not a health food nut, I don't eat all organic, and I love myself some pizza, chocolate cake, and of course... ice cream. But my philosophy, "everything in moderation," with the exception of ice cream.

So, all of this to say my God is wonderful and mighty. I am learning more and more how to cook healthy, what foods to stay away from, and that my body was created by the Master Artist. And to defile or put in anything to make His masterpiece less than what He intends is not believing that I am truly "fearfully and wonderfully made." I'm not always making the best choices, but I do have a desire to feed myself and my family what can best equip us for the work He has planned.

In a nut shell... it's all for our good and His glory.

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.
-Psalm 139:13-14

A yummy weekend

This past weekend was full of deliciousness. Now I do have to say that going to restaurants always makes me a little leery. Especially ones I've never been to. Having Crohn's and knowing what I eat affects how I feel can sometimes evoke a fear in restaurants. One, because I don't know what the food is made with... it could be too oily, greasy, fatty, all things that lead to a general feeling of 'yuck'. Two, the portion sizes are usually enough to feed the Duggar family with some left over. And like I said in a previous post, small portions=happy belly... most of the time. With all that prefaced I can now indulge you in the weekend chock-full of good eats.

It all started on Friday when my husband and I went on a date, cue sound effect, 'aww'. It was really fun. We went to The Melting Pot. Let me just say gooey, cheesy, goodness bubbling in a pot right in front of my face made my heart sing.

Mmmm is right! They brought out little pieces of bread, little pieces of apple, little pieces of veggies, and some chips. Hence the 'little' in all the food. I thought, finally a restaurant that has its portion sizes under control. And on top of that the waiter mixed the ingredients in front of us, so we saw what went into this bowl of cheesy beauty.

Like I said the pieces to dip in the cheese were tiny. So far so good.

Then they bring out the meat and sauce to dip it in. Along with more veggies. Small pieces of meat, check. Cooked in front of me, check. I was good to go.

But then... dun, dun, dun

The chocolate. Oh yeah. So I thought there's no way one can go to The Melting Pot and not get a giant bowl of melting chocolate. One would be cra-zy. And the desserts were so, again, little.

We all know the saying "two wrongs don't make a right." Well I learned that 12 'littles' do make one big wrong. Needless to say I felt full. More full than I expected. Note to self just because the food is little doesn't mean you should eat all of it and then some. Lesson learned.

On to the second part of my yummy weekend. Oh that's right there's more. Could this get any better, I'd say so.

Saturday, Jeff and I spent the evening with our friends Stephenie and Bryan. We went to Touch Supper Club, it's a quaint, little restaurant in Ohio City. Learning from my previous eating experience I chose my food wisely this time. I ate a couple pieces of an appetizer, a small salad, and split a small pizza with my husband. Hurray for me, I felt pretty good after. Alright, I'm getting better at this dinning-out thing. Until...

Oh, Sweet Moses. Just take a wild guess what's here... that's right ICE CREAM. Not just any ice cream, homemade ice cream. It's like ice cream heaven. Let me tell you. I decided on a single scoop of cookies and cream. I didn't want to over do it. Considering I was on a good portion-size-streak from dinner.

 Now, I could have gotten more ice cream like someone I know, who shall remain nameless but who's name rhymes with lephenie, but I refrained and chose wiser...

But deep down inside my ice cream-loving/addicted heart I was incredibly jealous. Yes, I envied this gigantic-too-big-to-capture-clearly-by-even-the-nicest-camera... mountain of sweet goodness. I'll stop now before I start drooling on my computer.

Then after the ice cream extravaganza the four of us went on a search for the actors of the Avengers film. They are filming in Cleveland and it was our mission to catch a glimpse of at least someone famous.
Or something...

Yeah, you're seeing it right. A light from WB! I don't think I'd even make this face if I saw Captain America himself. This light was enough for me.

There you have it, a yummy weekend. What I learned: portion size is a beautiful thing... and so is homemade ice cream!

On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese...

I found that this delicious meal was not too friendly with me.

 Well, it's not that it was awful. I mean it tasted yummy. But my little Italian friend (not my husband), made me feel full all night. And I'm not talking "oh, no thanks on that ice cream, I'm not hungry yet." It was more like "I don't want to eat anything for the next 5 days full." I must admit though that I could eat an eight course meal and when I feel better bring on the ice cream... I have a slight obsession.

Hello, my name is Emily and I love ice cream. So, when my fullness wore off, which took longer than I thought, I was ready to hit the scoops. Nothing stands between this girl and her ice cream... seriously, nothing.
But the 4 hours after dinner and before my sweet love, er, I mean ice cream, I was a little uncomfortable. I didn't hurt, I wasn't really cramping, I was just full. Which is bearable and I'll take that over any discomfort.

Here's a breakdown of my ingredients. Maybe I'll find the culprit of why I felt the way I did.
Pasta- spaghetti noodles from Trader Joe's
Sauce-roasted garlic marinara from Trader Joe's
Chicken- white meat chicken breast (one butterflied to make two cutlets) from Trader Joe's
Cheese for the top- Parmesan and Mozzarella (from Trader Joe's)
Broccoli with cheese- broccoli from... just guess
Bread- garlic bread from Giant Eagle, Alexia brand it's all natural and sooo good.

So, as you can see we like shopping at Trader Joe's. Oh and by the way the ice cream, yep from TJ's too. I'll post more on that in the future! My thought is the spaghetti sauce. This isn't the first time I've felt like this after spaghetti. It could be the tomatoes, citric acid, just the acidity in general. I don't really know.
Hmm, it could be the fact that when it comes to pasta I tend to eat a lot of it. Portion size=happy belly (most of the time).
So my meal last night wasn't a winner but there's always next time. And if all else fails...

Oh, with pretzels of course. And, no both of those bowls aren't mine.

Yep, that's me

To fully understand where I'm getting at with this post (my first ever!)  read my About Me, over there on the right. Ok, now that it's read I can go on. This blog has been started mainly because of the last thing mentioned. I have Crohn's. What's Crohn's? Good question. You're glad about it? Even better question. I'll start with the Crohn's. But to be honest to explain to you what it is in detail would be boring. This is the part I explain that Crohn's is a digestive disease where there is inflammation in various parts of the digestive system; intestines, stomach, colon, etc....blah blah blah... That's what I feel like people hear when the technical words start flyin.

So instead of giving the doctor's answer to what is Crohn's I'll give you my answer; what Crohn's is for me. Wait, please keep reading, let me assure you this blog is not all about an inflamed intestinal disease, but doesn't that sound fun! It's about more so stick with me.

Back to Crohn's. For me Crohn's affects my small intestine. So in a nut shell what I eat triggers what I feel. By the time dinner comes I'm hoping my delicious meal will do its thing and pass through my small intestine with flying colors... if it doesn't I'll know. Cramping and fullness hit me at that 3 hour mark when my food is trying to move on and get 'er done, but it can't. That's where the inflammation comes in and rears it's lovely head. Thankfully I'm on medication that helps with keeping it all under control. Helps being the key word. See I truly believe I have a Healer who is far bigger and better than any little pill. Don't get me wrong, I love my doctor and her wisdom and prescriptions are good, and I am all for it, but my God is greater. I'll share more about my experience with medications and my God soon.

About the being glad part.You may be asking, "What are you crazy or something? How can someone have a disease and be happy about it?" Well, I didn't say I was glad I had it. But through it I am truly glad. All the time? When the cramps and discomfort hit? When you have to stop what you're doing cause it's not so pretty? No, I'm not always happy, those times aren't fun. But it's in those times I find gladness; joy. Not in Crohn's, but in my Healer. If anything I'm at a place where I have it and I always will, but I also have a faithful God and always will.

So really the blog is about finding true gladness, true and complete joy. Not in my circumstances but in my Savior. And as I experience joy and the ups and downs of a disease I'm learning ways to make it a little more bearable, and even fun. I really enjoy cooking and believe what we eat really makes a difference on how we feel.

So I'll be cooking and blogging, and eating and blogging. And sharing my little bit of knowledge with you as I go.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure...
-Psalm 16:9