Hello! And yes, I’m sorry, but we have to do the stereotypical “hey, it’s our first post” post. Lame, I know, but you have to do these things. So, here it is, our first post.
Why.
Why are we doing this? Not the first post per se, but this entire website. Good question. A question that deserves a wonderful answer from someone with a lot more experience and education than I have, but I’ll try.
I have suffered over the years from various gastrointestinal maladies, to include lactose intolerance, gluten sensitivity, and acid reflux disease. It sucks, I can tell you that. Also, in each case doctors told me what to do, and nothing worked.
When I was lactose intolerant, any amount of dairy would… set off my system, to put it politely. I literally couldn’t eat about 90% of the “normal” food people were eating. I even had reactions to beef, which makes a little sense because dairy does come from our bovine friends, but that didn’t make it suck any less. Thankfully, I grew out of this one, still not sure how.
Gluten, oh. My. God. The reactions I had were horrible. We narrowed it down to gluten since doctors still don’t really understand the issue. I avoided it like the plague for a couple years, then read up on this thing called “leaky gut”. A few pills, vitamins and supplements later, and I can FINALLY eat bread and proper pasta again. Yay!
GERD, or Gastroesophogeal Reflux Disease is the worst. I was taking Omeprazole for a while, then learned they’re bad for you. Little things, like they reduce your body’s ability to absorb calcium. Things like that. So I tried going off them and adjusted my diet. I didn’t eat after 6 PM, reduced acid intake in my food, avoided a lot of things. In general, I hated it. I like to eat dammit, and this was damaging my calm, in the words of Jayne (if you don’t get that reference, we may not be able to be friends… check out Firefly, the greatest TV show to ever be cancelled in one season… SMH). And so, about a year ago, I stopped taking the pills. I lasted almost a month, of stuffing myself with TUMS every night just to get some sleep, and the burning irritation in my mouth and throat, because… I thought it was healthier. Then, rationalization set in, and… I convinced myself to take the pills again, with the thinking, “I might get osteoporosis when I’m older and die sooner, but… I might sleep too. Quality of life over length of life.
It occurred to me that I shouldn’t have to make that choice. Why not have both?
Enter City Steading. A lot of reading, experimenting, and watching Youtube videos later, and, I am happy to say, I am tolerant of lactose, my gut doesn’t leak, and I don’t have to take pills for acid reflux anymore. And the best part? I get to eat food, real food, mostly things we made or grew, and I have a newfound respect for the people who had these skills “back in the day”.
Life is good.