In 2017, I was completely convinced I was dying. I woke up every morning nauseous and would show up to work barely able to function. I put on a good face to my teammates at the company I had started that year, but internally something felt very wrong. On top of the constant nausea, I had a sinus infection that never went away, and my lymph nodes were perpetually swollen.
I started on WebMD to try and figure out what could be wrong with me. I must have researched every single type of cancer and all sorts of other illnesses. This did not wind up being productive at all and just made me more scared than I already was.
After a few months of hoping everything would just go back to normal, I made an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat doctor. He assumed I had a bacterial infection and provided antibiotics. After no results, I went to a different doctor, who recommended a biopsy to find something that may explain the nausea. Everything came back negative. After visiting 2 other doctors, I uncovered a feather allergy and had an operation to remove scar tissue from my nose, but the sinus infections and stomach issues continued.
I remember one day, I was working out at the ATP Performance facility in Hollywood, Florida, where I train. Stephanie, one of the owners of the facility, was listening to me complain about how awful I felt and told me that all my problems were nutrition related. I thought she was insane! I had over ten years of experience watching Grey’s Anatomy at that point, and not once were someone’s challenges solved by changing their diet!
I had nothing to lose, so I agreed to start working with ATP’s nutritionist, Andrea McDaniel. After asking me a bunch of questions, Andrea started by having me begin to share a food journal where I would document every meal. First, I started an elimination diet where I cut out dairy, eggs, and gluten, among a number of other potential allergens for three weeks. During this phase, my body started to feel substantially better than it had all year.
I assumed that it was wheat that was the problem as I prepared to exit the elimination diet. I’d been told multiple times that I have a gluten intolerance. With that in mind, I decided the first thing I’d re-introduce would be eggs and dairy. My first meal when I attempted to eat dairy, my nose immediately became inflamed, a rash broke out all over my body, and the symptoms of the sinus infection returned. Case closed; no more dairy for me. I did make one more attempt to have pizza when it was the only option on a boat party months later, and a worse rash broke out. That was the final time I consumed it on purpose.
Shortly after my first attempt to re-integrate dairy, I attempted to eat eggs and bacon. My body completely shut down for five hours. That was the last time I ate eggs. After removing dairy and eggs, my body was feeling much better than when I started my journey with Andrea, but I had yet to find my most severe allergy.
Turning points in life usually come at times we never expect. One of the most important of mine came one night when I accidentally picked up someone else’s food delivery order in my building from a poke restaurant. I routinely ordered my poke plain, but this bowl was covered in soy sauce. I eat the bowl thinking it was mine and then got a call that the delivery driver was at my building. I left the bowl in the lobby hoping someone would eat it but felt bad I eat someone’s food. However, that would be the least of my issues that night. I got extremely sick and thank goodness I was continuing my food journal. I emailed Andrea about what happened, and she jumped on the phone with me the next day suggesting I may be allergic to soy! I decided I’d stop eating soy after that call, not thinking it would be a very big deal. As I began to read nutrition labels, I became shocked at how many foods contained soy. To this day, any time I consume soy by accident, which happens every once in a while, my stomach completely shuts down for 12-16 hours, sometimes longer.
My work with Andrea changed my life. Since cutting out dairy, eggs, and soy, I have not had a single cold or sinus infection. I used to get 3-4 sinus infections per year at minimum, and colds were very common for me. I have not gotten either one in six years!
The most important lesson of this journey goes back to that day at ATP when Steph suggested my problem was my diet. I immediately thought her suggestion was crazy and only tried working with Andrea because I was desperate and wanted so badly to get better that I was willing to try anything. This was far from the end of my journey of evolving my eating.
Late in 2020, I began feeling sick again and decided to try eating plant-based for a few weeks to see if it would help. I had a theory that I was consuming soy through animal products and that I would feel better if I removed them from my diet. I later confirmed that many animals are fed soy. No matter what you read on a label, it is nearly impossible to confirm what an animal has consumed before you eat flesh. The change to eating plant-based was meant to be temporary, and I attempted to re-introduce fish after 3 weeks. One meal of sushi made me so sick that I haven’t attempted to eat animal products since and while my diet is always evolving, I have never felt better.
I have ambitious goals for my time on this planet, and I prioritize eating in the way that will keep me on this planet the longest and allow me to perform at the highest level. Today that is a plant-based diet focused on consuming foods created directly through photosynthesis. I prefer to consume energy directly from the sun to secondhand through an animal.
Finding an optimal diet is a long and very personal journey. I encourage you to find what works best for your goals, but if you are feeling less than optimal, never be afraid to make a change. I am documenting all my nutrition learnings on my podcast to serve others as they seek to answer the questions that I continue to ask as I move forward in my evolution.