The start of something new...
Hello anybunnies who still read my journal!
Much has happened lately.. some good, some bad, some just.. *lesigh*...
Progress was finally made on my journey to repairing my physical body. Not long ago (June to be exact) I started pain managment classes to learn to a new way to live with life with my chronic pain. Its called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT for short. During this time I learned more about my medications, how my body reacted to them, and different ways to mentally deal with my physical discomfort as well as learning about the foods we eat and how they can and do effect the body.
I already had and idea of some of this stuff but man was I suprised about a lot of it.
After this 10 week course which included yoga during every class visit, I was also recommended to see the nutritionist. She's a super awesome lady so I was really excited to talk with her about what was going on. I filled out paperwork, did surveys, signed releases for blood work and records from my primary care physician (PCP) and a few weeks later we learned that I have systemic inflammatory disease..
Yes, my pain and discomfort finally had a name.
Thats when the difficult part started.
I have to remove all dairy (except for whole cream/butter), grains, gluten, beans, sugars (chemical, altered, refined or processed) or MSG. or anything containing any of thos things lol So you can imagine this bbq loving soy using pasta and tempura fan had a bit of a heart attack after hearing all of this. So whats left to eat? is the most common thing I hear now...lol but I can actually eat a lot of food!
Most people refer to it as paleo, but my nutritionist (Melissa) just calls it eating smart :). I didn't have to do it all at one either which has been nice but for the most part I built up my courage and got rid of most of my food. My daughter in law was sure glad for the boxes of stuff I took to her house :D
Now, with the occassional drink of ginger ale, gatorade or today a cup of coffee with creamer, I don't eat any of the no no foods unless its a small amount I somehow overlook in something or I've not realized is a bad thing yet. In fact, I finally found hot dogs that I can eat because they don't have any sugars of any kind or whey or dry milk.. I'll miss a lot of things, like bologna and Roast beef lunchmeats, but overall I'm doing alright. So alright in fact that in three weeks, my body has changed enough that I can wear one pant size smaller than I wore in October before I started this drastic change in my diet. which I started on October 16th. while I don't feel differently in size honestly, its apparent in my clothing and how it fits. I've done nothing differently other than change my diet. Literally nothing different. I don't think I've ever felt so excited about changing something ever.
I was hoping in a way though that this was just a coincidence.. that my blood sugar finally decided to behave itself and that it wasn't the foods I was eating that was keeping me miserable. Until last night...we were out of town, my daughter Tiffany and I, and I was super hungry from only having had a salad with a little meat on it and a few grape tomatoes and three baby carrots all day, so we stopped at Applebees for dinner. I ordered a burger without the bun that came with some lightly breaded onions and we had some onion rings as an appetizer. (Oh how I wanted the artichoke and spinach dip though ToT) I only ate 1 1/2 of them though because I shared with Chacha so I thought, no harm right? Burger came.. french fries and cheese. Well, okay. I ate my burger with white cheese and about 10 of the oh so delicious fries with a tiny bit of ketchup. It literally felt like I at four times more food than I did :( My stomach hurt, I felt yucky and bloated and a bit irritable...and stayed that way for the rest of the night.
I will never purposely cheat like that again..
Clearly the diet is making a huge difference. So much for my theory of it can't really just be the food I'm eating.
The good news is, I'm okay with it. I've learned, therefore I've grown. My niece Lily is just in shock that I can't eat my favorite yogurt any longer :) but she's okay overall because I can still eat fruit. I have a long way to go though. I'm currently in the middle of the usual 2-4 weeks of fatigue and mood swings associated with sugar detox.. and its going a little slower since I still get some in the few things I have left to wean from. in fact, my creamer doesn't even taste as good as I remember it, and its got very little sugar and milk in it even. Bonus, its opening me up to a whole bunch of new food pairings (like bacon wrapped dates, so yummy.. who knew??) and our money is going a little farther because we aren't buying so much processed foods. ^0^
Now I have to learn to drink just plain water with lemon when I miss lemonade :/
Here's to future success!
Much has happened lately.. some good, some bad, some just.. *lesigh*...
Progress was finally made on my journey to repairing my physical body. Not long ago (June to be exact) I started pain managment classes to learn to a new way to live with life with my chronic pain. Its called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT for short. During this time I learned more about my medications, how my body reacted to them, and different ways to mentally deal with my physical discomfort as well as learning about the foods we eat and how they can and do effect the body.
I already had and idea of some of this stuff but man was I suprised about a lot of it.
After this 10 week course which included yoga during every class visit, I was also recommended to see the nutritionist. She's a super awesome lady so I was really excited to talk with her about what was going on. I filled out paperwork, did surveys, signed releases for blood work and records from my primary care physician (PCP) and a few weeks later we learned that I have systemic inflammatory disease..
Yes, my pain and discomfort finally had a name.
Thats when the difficult part started.
I have to remove all dairy (except for whole cream/butter), grains, gluten, beans, sugars (chemical, altered, refined or processed) or MSG. or anything containing any of thos things lol So you can imagine this bbq loving soy using pasta and tempura fan had a bit of a heart attack after hearing all of this. So whats left to eat? is the most common thing I hear now...lol but I can actually eat a lot of food!
Most people refer to it as paleo, but my nutritionist (Melissa) just calls it eating smart :). I didn't have to do it all at one either which has been nice but for the most part I built up my courage and got rid of most of my food. My daughter in law was sure glad for the boxes of stuff I took to her house :D
Now, with the occassional drink of ginger ale, gatorade or today a cup of coffee with creamer, I don't eat any of the no no foods unless its a small amount I somehow overlook in something or I've not realized is a bad thing yet. In fact, I finally found hot dogs that I can eat because they don't have any sugars of any kind or whey or dry milk.. I'll miss a lot of things, like bologna and Roast beef lunchmeats, but overall I'm doing alright. So alright in fact that in three weeks, my body has changed enough that I can wear one pant size smaller than I wore in October before I started this drastic change in my diet. which I started on October 16th. while I don't feel differently in size honestly, its apparent in my clothing and how it fits. I've done nothing differently other than change my diet. Literally nothing different. I don't think I've ever felt so excited about changing something ever.
I was hoping in a way though that this was just a coincidence.. that my blood sugar finally decided to behave itself and that it wasn't the foods I was eating that was keeping me miserable. Until last night...we were out of town, my daughter Tiffany and I, and I was super hungry from only having had a salad with a little meat on it and a few grape tomatoes and three baby carrots all day, so we stopped at Applebees for dinner. I ordered a burger without the bun that came with some lightly breaded onions and we had some onion rings as an appetizer. (Oh how I wanted the artichoke and spinach dip though ToT) I only ate 1 1/2 of them though because I shared with Chacha so I thought, no harm right? Burger came.. french fries and cheese. Well, okay. I ate my burger with white cheese and about 10 of the oh so delicious fries with a tiny bit of ketchup. It literally felt like I at four times more food than I did :( My stomach hurt, I felt yucky and bloated and a bit irritable...and stayed that way for the rest of the night.
I will never purposely cheat like that again..
Clearly the diet is making a huge difference. So much for my theory of it can't really just be the food I'm eating.
The good news is, I'm okay with it. I've learned, therefore I've grown. My niece Lily is just in shock that I can't eat my favorite yogurt any longer :) but she's okay overall because I can still eat fruit. I have a long way to go though. I'm currently in the middle of the usual 2-4 weeks of fatigue and mood swings associated with sugar detox.. and its going a little slower since I still get some in the few things I have left to wean from. in fact, my creamer doesn't even taste as good as I remember it, and its got very little sugar and milk in it even. Bonus, its opening me up to a whole bunch of new food pairings (like bacon wrapped dates, so yummy.. who knew??) and our money is going a little farther because we aren't buying so much processed foods. ^0^
Now I have to learn to drink just plain water with lemon when I miss lemonade :/
Here's to future success!