I just had to share my "non-scale victory" (a concept that is big in Whole30 land). Every single winter since I was probably mid-twenties, I've developed horribly dry, PAINFUL skin. My cuticles peel and my fingertips crack until my fingers feel like raw meat by the end of the winter. What has scared me over the years is that each year it seems to set in sooner and sooner which means it gets worse and worse before the winter is over. I witnessed my grandmother deal with this to an extreme that scared me! It became almost crippling for her at times! I have believed this was my destiny...until now.
A few weeks ago it started setting in already! Just as I feared, it had set in earlier than it ever had before. I got out of a hot shower (something I KNOW aggravates it but I didn't expect it to show up so soon). I had absentmindedly put my hand on my boyfriend's back and suddenly the tshirt against my fingertips made them feel like they were on fire! I looked at them and they were blood red with little cracks in them. It was literally what I had seen on my grandmother's fingertips! I was horrified. We were barely into winter. I couldn't even imagine how bad they were going to get by the end of the winter. I ended up putting Neosporin on them, the kind with the pain killer, and it was just enough relief for me to be able to fall asleep. That just so happened to be day 1 of my Whole30. I didn't want to get my hopes up but the days that followed seemed to show some reversal in my skin condition instead of the persistent progression I have experienced without fail each and every year for well over a decade now. Today, NOTHING! Not even a hint of dryness! Not a single loose cuticle. Not even after a steaming hot shower. Nothing. At. All.
Another thing I've noticed may require me going to my old nail tech who ticked me off a couple of years ago when I said "my nails are getting thinner and thinner every year. I can't figure out why. It must be some kind of vitamin deficiency." He argued with me like I was nuts to think that and adamantly said "No, you can't change it, it's just how your nails are. You need gel nail." It ticked me off so bad because I felt like he was just trying to get my money and because....deep down inside I worried it was true.
Well, guess what Mr. Know-It-All Nail Tech! I no need gel nail!!! My nails are unbelievably strong all of the sudden and there were these little ridges in all of them that are just gone!
While, yes, it's nice to have pretty, nice looking nails. And it's even nicer to not have to face another winter of what was sure to be progressively worse finger pain. What's way better than all that is that these changes seem to by symptomatic of much deeper changes. It's tangible proof of what I already knew to be true: my body is getting healthier. My biological age is decreasing. I am literally better than I used to be, and I'm only halfway done!....Except I'm not. I will never ever go back to the way things were. I can't! I'm thinking this is going to end up turning into a Whole30Years.
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