Here’s my story on how I gained 5kgs by being healthy and how I decided my lifestyle must change after just one foodprint intolerance report 😟

Note: You can choose any clinic for an intolerance test or opt for any dietician acc to your comfort levels. Below are what I chose from my personal research.

What I did not know and what you should know if you don’t (aka the intro)

• Dairy (i.e. milk, butter, curd, etc) is only good for you when you’re a kid. It’s considered an animals excreta and humans just consume it. If you feel like pooping right after you have a cup of coffee or curd, you’re most likely intolerant to it. 😔
• What you need for the intolerance test – your blood. No day-fasting required, except, you shouldn’t eat or drink anything 1-2 hours prior to the test. All intolerance tests lead to a food-print report like the below image;

• On a foodprint report, the score goes from 0 to ~160. Detoxing a particular food item or ingredient you’re intolerant to, takes minimum 3 months (especially if your score is closer to 160). Takes so long since it has to heal your gut naturally. 🤷
• An intolerance test changes every ~6 months after you detoxify what you’re intolerant to. This happens because the antibodies (that get activated every time you consume something harmful) of that particular ingredient is now non-existent. The food industry and ingredients are expanding every other day, so probably you may consume something else you’re allergic to, and that would appear in your new report, just fyi.
• Picking up from the above point, the foodprint report gives you your tolerance for over 200 items. This will include stuff you may have NEVER tried before, in my case it was, horse ğŸ, ostrich, ox ğŸ‚, etc. Also, I eat chicken probably 3-4 times a week and the score is just 1. So it’s not like your score significantly fluctuates just cuz you eat something in large or small portions.
• You may try to be as organic as possible but our generation goes out a lot or purchase a lot of ingredients from the grocery that are mass produced and packed with hormones, preservatives, etc. which is why it’s vital to do a test if you have weird symptoms ğŸ¤'(lol I wish we were living in the olden days where er1 was healthy and these reports were not even necessary)
• You are probably born with intolerances like how every human body does but you may just aggravate it due to your lifestyle
• Our pancreas doesn’t work effectively after 7PM, so don’t eat anything after that. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it stops functioning completely. I (as well as my dad) have been advised to not eat after 7PM by many dieticians/nutritionists, and I did notice a change once I adapted this! I lose weight faster, and I feel more healthy and light. You must sleep only after a minimum of 4 hours after your meal😴

How does a Food Intolerance work?

Food extracts are ‘printed’ onto nitrocellulose pads on a glass microscope slide, together with calibration standards and controls. A blood sample provided by the patient is diluted and dispensed onto each printed microarray. Food IgG antibodies, if present, bind to the food extracts. The bound food IgG antibodies are subsequently detected through the use of other immunoassay reagents which generate a blue color in the presence of the food IgG antibodies. The density of this blue color is measured using a high-resolution scanner. 🔬
The results generated by the scanner are then calibrated against the standards using the FoodPrint ® reporting software to give quantitative results. This software then produces a tailor-made printout of the final food IgG antibody result for each food on the requested food panel. 😯

Difference between Food Intolerance and Food Allergy

Food Intolerance

• Reactions are usually delayed and symptoms may take several days to appear
• You can be intolerant to several different food groups at the same time 😱
• Sufferers can experience multiple symptoms, from a migraine to bloating, diarrhea, lethargy and a general feeling of being unwell

Food Allergy

• Reactions usually occur quickly, with a maximum of 2 hours after exposure to the ‘reactive’ food
• The body’s IgE immune system is activated by the immediate ingestion of the reactive food
• Symptoms include difficulty in breathing, rashes, swelling, runny nose and anaphylactic shock. These can potentially be life-threatening 😵

How I gained 5 kgs by dieting and my journey to the intolerance report

Ever since I realized my lifestyle (aka attending events, eating from outside every other day and managing my website simultaneously resulted in me not having time to work out) was getting out of hand, I decided to reduce tastings and delegate more of that to my team. Due to work, I’d travel every day to Abu Dhabi back and forth for months too and would have to manage my baby (aka blog 💖) on the side. Anyway… to become the healthier Naomi, I started consuming more of my fav proteins/healthy snacks to keep me full (i.e. egg whites, lentils, almonds, milk, rice, and sandwiches too every other day). ğŸšğŸ¥›ğŸ¥™

Diets and workouts stopped working on me, I felt bloated that would result in pain to an extent I’d feel I was heavy even while walking. My ankles as well weren’t visible after a week. 😩

(Intro to Hala: My amazing colleague who’s a nutrition junkie + gets a high with just the word ‘pilates’ or ‘coconut milk’ LOL)

I discussed my issues with Hala and she told me I’m not fat, I’m bloated and have tons of water retention (well that made me happy as I didn’t want to be super unhealthy that lead to me putting on weight right?). She recommended I get an intolerance test done asap as it was getting out of hand. That’s when I came across CosmeSurge and I got my test done by them. ğŸ‘

I found out that most of the things I was consuming, to be healthy, I’m actually intolerant to it… #FML

And that’s how my friends… I gained weight by just trying to be healthy 🤦”♀ï¸

After I studied my report I was like JHDHSVDIXJD!!!! OMG, I’m intolerant to THIS, this, THIS and THAT?! What do I even eat now? Living your life a certain way for 24 years and then saying stop eating all of that, trust me… ouch lol. 😭

That’s when I decided I’d start with a meal plan. I researched quite a bit. Few were either too expensive or had boring food.. Color my plate and Simply Healthy Diets were my final 2 options. I eventually concluded on Simply Healthy Diets by Mitun De Sarkar for the below reasons,

• Relatively cheaper
• Dietician and food included with the package
• Great gourmet-type food 👅
• INDIAN CUISINE mostly (as most of Mituns clients are Indians). I guess that was the main reason too. Hey, Indians love Indian food hahaha ğŸ›ğŸ˜‚
• I’ve seen Mituns food quite a bit around Instagram and she’s super sweet! Feels like a friendly coach who’s not too harsh on the sad me…

Cost

• Intolerance test at CosmeSurge is AED2200. After receiving a lot of messages and requests on an InstaStory I uploaded, I asked them if you guys could get a discount code! So if you give em my name you’ll get 15% off! 🤑
• Simply Healthy Diets charges AED2800/month for 3 courses and 2 snacks, 5 days a week and AED6000 for 2 months for 6 days a week + 2 free consultations. Click here to view the other rates (the main rate card).

My conclusion and how much weight I’ll lose in 2 months

• If I probably had more time to workout, I’d be healthier 🤷
• I’ve shared my foodprint report with Mitun and we had the first consultation where we created a game plan which resulted in me purchasing the 2 months package with Mitun
• I’m allowed to have the items that are in yellow in moderations
• Via research, my report and maim diet tips as well, Mitun and I concluded I’ll go with a Dairy-free/Gluten Free diet, By just not having em, I’ll lose <10kgs. 🤩 Hala lost 20kgs in 2-3 months by just going gluten/dairy free too, so did Khloe Kardashian. It does work.. but it's veryyyy toughhh!!!

Social Media Handles and Websites

Simply Healthy Diets

Mitun De Sarkar

Cosme Surge

Hope you liked this article, stay healthy xoxo

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