I started college Fall 2000. I was living in the dorms on campus and working at the bank as a teller and I was on my own for the first time. I would go school and I developed a schedule of mostly night classes. I chose night classes because I noticed that I would fall asleep in the morning and even afternoon classes. Especially after eating lunch. I found going to school in the evenings I could pay attention better and focus easier. At the time didn’t know that my hypoglycemia was getting bad and that was the reason I could not stay awake. My insulin spikes were constantly making me crash and I had developed such a tollerence for espresso that it wasn’t even working any more. It wasn’t until I had to take an afternoon class with my friend that she noticed my inability to stay awake and recommend that I talk to my doctor.

I listened her and spoke to the free on campus doctors that came with living in the dorms. The doctor told me that she suspected I had hypoglycemia and she explained what would happened when I would eat something high in the glycemic index and how it would make my insulin spike and then crash. She said the solution was to avoid sugar foods and foods with a high glycemic index and if I wa seating something with carbs I had to have a fat or protein with it order to balance out the spike.

From then on my diet changed a little and I figured what food I should and should not eat. Of course they were all my favorites so it was an ongoing battle with myself to eat right. Eventually I reasoned with myself that these foods and drinks were just not worth it. I would have more energy than anything else.

I wasn’t perfect but for the most part I did what I could to avoid sugar spikes. As time went on I found that I stopped craving sugars and sodas but always drank coffee. Cavities stopped happening and my skin did get somewhat better and more manageable but my body was still reaching out for help as I had more underlying health issues that I did not know about until later in life.

I’m not some bona-fide super health freak. I’m not someone you look at and in envy nor am I someone with a wealth if degrees and knowledge to inpart on you. I’m just me. But the me I am is a 37 year old woman who has gone down a life path and learned things that can certainly help others. I’ve gone down a path that took my health and my body, and I wound up in a place that most have never been.

I’m not writing about cancer or diabetes, heart disease or a common dis-ease, my situation turned out to be much more mysterious and is still an unsolved mystery. What I have leaned is how to recover around it and through it. I have learned to build my body in the most unconventional ways and with obstacles such as hypoglycemia, the MTHFR gene mutation, and a black mold exposure. I’ve come a long way, but, of course, I wanna be one of those people who eats whatever she wants and doesn’t gain a pound or develop any diseases at all, and, I thought I was one of those people for a long time.

I was born in 1982, and did not have a typical childhood. I have 2 sisters, I’m the middle child, and we grew up in Lake Tahoe California. It was very clean place to live in the 1980s. We ate healthy, lots of fish and spinache and home cooked meals, but that ended for me when I was about 6 years old. Our parents went down the some bad paths in life and made poor choices. My sisters and I were soon after a part of the foster care system and our Aunt and Uncle became our foster parents. They had 3 children of their own. We were elated to live with our aunt and cousins. They had a spectacular home on 5 acres with animals and their own indoor swimming pool. We got over listing out parent quickly because were so happy there and life was good.

Being raised by my Aunt who divorced her first husband, remarried, and had two more children, I was one of 8 kids and it was so much fun growing up like that. Never a dull moment, always someone to play with, and always something fun to do. My Aunt was a hard working mom she taught me tenacity and follow through, she taught me to always do my best in life. She was the fun mom as well, taking 8 of us out on regular fun outings like the movies, rollar skating, every weekend and Disney and 6 Flags Marine world trips multiple times a year. Life was so fun and it even included all the candy, soda, desserts, fast food etc. we wanted. My Aunt would cook meals and I would eat a small amount of veggies and was sure to leave room for the homemade cookies, cheesecake etc. that came after the meal.

As time went on like this I remembered being a little girl who was always constipated and I started to develop some serious cavities that I ignored and did not tell my Aunt about and at 16 I needed 4 root canals and several fillings. I never complained about the constipation and since I was the only child of 8 who needed my teeth worked on I was just told I had bad teeth, but right around 16 I also developed acne. So I then I became the the only kid in the family with acne and bad teeth. What’s more, I started to show signs of hypoglycemia, and didn’t figure out what it was until college. I would eat and get very tired afterwards and then use diet coke and coffee to just “stay awake” every day and didn’t think anything of it. By the time I was at the end of my senior year, my diet while growing up was fast highly processed sugary food along with lots of caffeine. I had acne that I hated but most adults shrugged it off and I was drinking so much Starbucks coffee drinks that my hypoglycemia was totally masked. I was also not overweight. I was tall and lean, and did play soccer and ran regularly so nobody would have even suspected that I didn’t eat a healthy diet. I was just focused on going to college in the fall. I had my full ride scholarships and I was off to go be a “grown up” all the while my body had to grow into 6ft 1inches on a very malnourished diet and my teeth, my skin, and my sugar intollence were all trying to tell me that my body was screaming for help as I completely ignorantly ignored it.

Hello

My name is Rebecca Leah Andrews, or before marriage Rebecca Leah DeWitt. I started this blog to share journey of health.

It’s not a typical blog about how fit I am and what sorts of food you need to eat or a “one size fits all” dieting technique.

This is a story about me. About my childhood diet, my health problems that are related to it. This is about my journey to becoming unhealthy in a s way that nobody has ever heard of learning about some of why it happened (as best I can) and learning about how to be healthy again, or at least some things that seem to help and the absolute struggle to stay that way.

Despite the name, this blog isn’t a “feel good blog” about how to inspire you to be healthy and happy, although it could inspire you to be happy and healthy, it probably won’t be a touchy feely tactful happy way. This is my take on health, my, “kicking and screaming” take that my mind didn’t want to listen to and still doesn’t, as my body creid and creid for help and care since I was 6 years old in 1988, and I boldly ignored it until it completely broke in April 2013.

No, this isn’t a blog about recovering from some drug addiction, unless you consider sugar and caffeine an addiction, then there is no recovery at all. I am forever battling that one.

I’m a person that wants to be like everyone else. And my body is not like everyone else’s, never has been. I had to realize the hard way that I wasn’t one those people that could eat whatever she wants and not get unhealthy, like my mom, but I had to realize that the hard way.

This is my history and ongoing journal of my life on the “health path”. I am still on the path every day. I have come a long way from where I was as a kid, and have a long way to go.

Please join me and see if I can help you on your path. Whether you are happygohealthy or spitefulgohealthy this will help.

I appreciate you reading my blog and I am greatful for you. If I only to help one person, that is enough 🙏