My Seed Oil Journey - part one...

I have been on a journey - part of me wants to say it's a little over 3 months old...but let's be honest, it's a life-long journey through health and habits and hunger. (ooh, is that a book title in the making?)

I want to start back a few years but I'll simply paraphrase it - was never an overweight child, was probably too thin at times, weighed about 105 pounds when I got married but thought I was as big as a house (body dysmorphia, table for 1), was 140 pounds the day before I gave birth for the first time to Ryan, and that was the last day I saw 140... My weight progressively grew over time - I can blame it on bad habits that caught up with me, my new-found love of the anonymity a larger body provided to me, a larger than life love of delicious food, but does it matter?

The fact is that in my 50's I found myself morbidly obese (what a horrible term for a person), with asthma, diabetes, depression, and a growing lack of mobility. For a relatively adventurous and joyful person, this frankly sucked (and sucks). In 2023 I had open heart surgery for an aortic valve replacement (they assured me this was due to genetics but was it?), 2 bypasses "while we're in there" and a pacemaker. You would think that THIS was surely the turning point in this story, right? How could it not be?

Well...it wasn't really. It was more the beginning of a mindset journey aided by some incredible friends (Shelly, Tara, Andrea in particular have supported my health focus), a bit of therapy, a touch of hypnosis, a lot of reading, some new understandings, and finally...FINALLY...I felt ready to make actual, real, lasting change. 

I went back to Huber Personalized Medicine to see Chelsea Dorsett, RD, and began their 10 week Metabolism Fix program. 

Task 1: Off Wheat

Going off wheat helped in two ways - my brain fog dissipated - a LOT - and that ravenous hungry beast inside me made an appearance less and less often.

Task 2: Off Eggs

Going off eggs, which an IgG foods test had showed a huge reaction to, allowed my digestive system to calm down and take a break.

Task 3: Time Restricted Eating

Eating between 9-6 only allowed my body to have larger breaks where it was not digesting food which proved to be great for my blood sugar as well.

Task 4: Carbs at 50g or lower - GROSS carbs, not net. Big difference I discovered. This change was relatively easy and I LOVED how my blood sugar responded. I went from huge ups and downs to steady BS for the first time.

***

One of the biggest goals was to bring my Insulin down. At 39 (insulin on 2/24/25), it was suspected that it was preventing my body from burning fat which would explain why, despite adhering strictly to the plan, my weight was moving very, very slowly. 

By 4/8/25 I had, among other things, brought my insulin down to 28.6. Phew... Okay, not perfect, but what a change! And I had lowered my A1C in January at 7.3 down to 6.5 in April - Yay!

My weight? I guess it budged about 14 pounds down, which was really disappointing to me. But I could not deny that I felt a whole lot better and my blood sugar was killing it - instead of killing me!

***

Then, about a week ago, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, 1000 hours outside...

when an episode came on with Dr. Cate Shanahan and she blew my mind. I had never heard about the origin of seed oils in our food supply, the marketing genius behind them, the massive donations to the American Heart Society to expedite their insertion into our national consciousness as a "healthy" alternative, and the impact they have on our body's metabolic system and your ability to burn body fat. 

So far it is making so much sense to me and the constant hunger and nausea inbetween meals and the desire to constantly have snacks at hand are no longer something I suffer alone. 

So I am at the beginning of making this major shift in my life. I'm beginning with going seed oil free as much as reasonably possible. I know that eating out will be a significant challenge, although, I have found through the app "Seed Oil Scout" that it may not be as hard a I feared. I'm also giving up snacking between meals. I will stick to 3 meals per day for now - though dinner will probably be simply nuts and cheese and a piece of chocolate for the most part - and eventually hope to go down to 2 meals per day as my body gets more and more efficient at burning body fat. 

I'm really excited to see if this is the answer I have been searching for and I'm going to drop the covers of two of her books below to show you where I am learning this new information from. Once I have been seed oil free for a month, I will report back and claim that as one of my new adventures!

 New Experience #1

A few days into this new year of mine, I had not yet had a new experience but I was quite busy both celebrating my birthday, finishing up some work, and getting ready to surprise Jeff with a getaway for HIS birthday. His favorite getaway spot is Hocking Hills here in Ohio. He has hiked every trail more than once but that seems to be part of its appeal.

We always return to The Inn at Cedar Falls and have stayed in all but one of their available lodging optiions. We stayed in the inn itself back when it existed (it now houses the spa, I believe). We have stayed in more than one of their cabins, although we have returned multiple times to Pine Grove Cabin, their dog-friendly one, with our friends the Boisens as well as my son and his wife, Julie and their two dogs!

We stayed in their yurts back in January 2021 - height of Covid precautions - and had delicious carryout food from their restaurant. And finally, on Wednesday, we stayed in their geodome. I was a convert from the start. I loved the open space of it and adore the windows - these windows we enjoyed through early morning sunrises and late night thunderstorms.

I was very sad to leave and am already looking at the next date we can return. The food in their restaurant has never disappointed over all these years. From morning oatmeal with multiple topping options to delicious scallops and steak!

During the day I sat in their "Gathering Space" while Jeff hiked - came back and checked on me - and hiked again...

Even sending me a photo of him at Old Man's Cave on his 64th birthday which amused me no end. (And yes, I still need him and will feed him now that he's 64!).

New Experience #1 did not disappoint and I am really looking forward to the next one!