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Level One Diagnostic, pls.
So lessee, was sick with a sinus infection the week before Thanxgiving, and went to the doctor to find out why I have no energy. Got my results back the week after and apparently my THC levels are normal, and the doctor won't check free T3 if that level is normal, so my (possibly useless) doctor has confirmed that my thyroid is fine. Which may be good news, but still leaves my main question unanswered, and I was extremely upset. So my doctor says "Oh, wait, um, we could do a follow up and I could test you for things like mono and lymes disease..." Because you didn't think you had to test those to begin with? *headdesk* And then I transitioned from sad to really f'ing angry.
I'm also getting sick of my doctors' typical responses "You know, I'm sure its just depression." Sure I'm depressed that I no longer have a social life, but as I've been dealing with mental health issues for half of my lifetime, I can tell this is not a physical manifestation of emotions. In fact, aside from being pissed at my doctor, I haven't had any bad emotional upsets or needed a 'mental health day' in almost two months.
And from that misery I crawled out to Jersey for Thanxgiving, which was pretty nice and relaxing. Now outside of my usual patterns and environment, I started paying attention to when I felt awake or tired. Usually I felt very spaced out unless I had just eaten. At the feast itself, I was barely able to focus on the world around me until dinner, immediately after fooding I went into chatterbox mode, and an hour after the dessert course I was ready to pass out again.
I remembered that one of my aunts is a lactard like me, and celiac (tho I was tested for that at 19 and it came out negative), and I learned that my grandma was hyperglycemic. So once I got back home, I made a big batch of cheese grits and looked online for some kind of "everyday foods make that may you feel terrible" list so I could try and cut some of it out of my diet. And try to do something about the state of my life despite the annoying doctors.
A friend pointed me at the Clean Program, and while I have no interest in doing a smoothie cleanse (yikes, expensive) their "elimination diet" has given me guidelines on how to cut wheat and processed sugar out of my diet without starving myself worse, along with some other foods I hadn't thought of. I also reinvestigated my account at Spark People to count calories, in case I just haven't been getting enough.
When I saw 'corn' on the do-not-eat list I was fairly skeptical. But then I finished my enormous bowl of cheese grits, and sat sluggishly at my computer for about an hour unable to focus on anything more thinky than youtube. I had to dose myself with fun sized Hershey bars to get myself to the grocery store afterwards. So yeah, bye for now grits. I hope you're not the main reason I don't have the energy for goth clubs anymore.
I don't think I'm going to miss wheat that much. Aside from developing a ramen habit the week before Thanxgiving, and then Thanxgiving, I don't eat that much of it. I need teh fiber, and most whole wheat things taste nasty. And draining pasta is one of my least favorite cooking activities. Quinoa and amaranth just absorb the water, no draining needed. Also, more fiber, and more yummier. Unfortunately when cooking chicken for this week's lunchables, I spazzed and made a gravy with a flour base. But a few tablespoons spread out over the course of a week... hopefully not too bad. And I can go clean next week.
No dairy either. Its kind of refreshing that I haven't needed a lactase pill in days. I'm still not sure if goats cheese has lactose in it or not, but its just easier to put all dairy products away for now.
Potatoes... I'm not sure about the hyper/hypoglycemia, but they are pretty high on the GI. I usually rely on them as a supplement to pot roast, so its not like I'll really miss them. Red meat too, tho lately red meat has been easier to cook than poultry.
The refined sugars thing will probably be the least bearable, b/c its so insidious. I honestly can't fathom how much of it I usually eat. And it means no more chocolate during my work day, which was my only caffeine source. I can still have cacao nibs, but I'm not sure if they're a solid source of stimulants.
And despite having watched the accounts of a friend who has both celiac disease and a soy allergy... argh, this is hard. Compared with trying to find foods that don't contain wheat and/or soy, dealing with food cravings is hardly a problem.
On the other hand, some of these diet guidelines play up to my laziness. Pouring frozen blueberries into a cup doesn't require me to wash the ice cream scoop or wrestle with solidly frozen milk products. Nuts and apples, they're just THERE. No baking required. Pomegranates are a labor of love, tho. One one of the Spark forums, I couldn't help but scoff at someone asking "How do I add more fruits and vegetables into my diet?" Um... you rinse them off and eat them. Durh.
Sunday I put in a marathon of cooking, so lunches this week will be chicken, quinoa, chicken gravy with mushrooms, nuts, and an apple. I took out the food processor and made a sardine salad with garlic and olive oil, to eat gradually over the course of the week.
Also made hummus (with sho much garlic, and lemon juice whups), and have had it for breakfast with some brown rice cakes a couple days this week. I reframed breakfast in my head. I used to think it was difficult to arrange breakfast on a work day, but upon more pondering, its really only annoying on the two mornings I open the library. I can finagle something bigger on all the other work mornings plus the weekend. Tho I'm still too queasy to eat breakfast right after I wake up.
Also tried 100% buckwheat noodles last night, b/c most soba noodles seem to be part or all regular wheat. It is tastier than whole wheat pasta, at least, and tastes more interesting with a dab of tahini paste.
I found ONE brand of rice cakes at the fancy grocery store that did not contain soy and/or wheat. WTF world? They're bland, but an excellent vehicle for hummus.
Am still sad my oven is broken. I'd rather roast chicken than boil it, and it would be nice to experiment with flour made from other grains for baking. Not to mention roasting hazlenuts to turn into hazlenut butter.
My plan is to follow their diet guidelines for two weeks, maybe three (the smoothie cleanse takes 3 weeks), and then test individual do-not-eat list foods to see if they make me feel terrible (assuming I don't start to feel worse). The website has guidelines about
reintroduction too.
Unfortunately, I've learned from the calorie tracker that I don't get enough on a typical work day. If this goes back to *before* the diet, and I suspect it might, that would explain the weight gain. Putting oneself into starvation mode means ones body holds onto ice cream for dear life whenever it comes around. Tho despite the diet I'm still apparently eating too much fat. And not enough calories. This does not compute.
Started the elimination diet on Monday (after eating tons of things from the mustn't list due to Thanxgiving leftovers) and mostly I feel about the same. Still run down and tired. Tuesday night my energy levels kept going up and down, and then I got smacked with an eye strain headache, only slightly alleviated by eating. And better on Monday, but after a long holiday weekend full of potatoes, wheat, and sugar.
My digestive system feels ... weird ... but not bad. No big upsets or dramas, even after having very garlicky hummus for breakfast (at work) on Tuesday. That alone may be worth the bother. Tho sometimes I do still feel kinda queasy.
And I can't seem to find any intel on "When do I start to feel different?" I guess I should prepare myself in case it doesn't change anything :-/
On another note, being at my parents house made me realize that sewing is really stressing me out. Just looking at that big laundry basket full of projects-to-be was bothering me, so I put all of the fabric out of sight for now. I may limit my projects to one or two per month so I can get back to beading (and stop buying fabric). Didn't sew all Thanxgiving weekend, but I have made some new shinies, yay! Tho that all slowed down when the food weirdness started.
<3 Chrysilla
I'm also getting sick of my doctors' typical responses "You know, I'm sure its just depression." Sure I'm depressed that I no longer have a social life, but as I've been dealing with mental health issues for half of my lifetime, I can tell this is not a physical manifestation of emotions. In fact, aside from being pissed at my doctor, I haven't had any bad emotional upsets or needed a 'mental health day' in almost two months.
And from that misery I crawled out to Jersey for Thanxgiving, which was pretty nice and relaxing. Now outside of my usual patterns and environment, I started paying attention to when I felt awake or tired. Usually I felt very spaced out unless I had just eaten. At the feast itself, I was barely able to focus on the world around me until dinner, immediately after fooding I went into chatterbox mode, and an hour after the dessert course I was ready to pass out again.
I remembered that one of my aunts is a lactard like me, and celiac (tho I was tested for that at 19 and it came out negative), and I learned that my grandma was hyperglycemic. So once I got back home, I made a big batch of cheese grits and looked online for some kind of "everyday foods make that may you feel terrible" list so I could try and cut some of it out of my diet. And try to do something about the state of my life despite the annoying doctors.
A friend pointed me at the Clean Program, and while I have no interest in doing a smoothie cleanse (yikes, expensive) their "elimination diet" has given me guidelines on how to cut wheat and processed sugar out of my diet without starving myself worse, along with some other foods I hadn't thought of. I also reinvestigated my account at Spark People to count calories, in case I just haven't been getting enough.
When I saw 'corn' on the do-not-eat list I was fairly skeptical. But then I finished my enormous bowl of cheese grits, and sat sluggishly at my computer for about an hour unable to focus on anything more thinky than youtube. I had to dose myself with fun sized Hershey bars to get myself to the grocery store afterwards. So yeah, bye for now grits. I hope you're not the main reason I don't have the energy for goth clubs anymore.
I don't think I'm going to miss wheat that much. Aside from developing a ramen habit the week before Thanxgiving, and then Thanxgiving, I don't eat that much of it. I need teh fiber, and most whole wheat things taste nasty. And draining pasta is one of my least favorite cooking activities. Quinoa and amaranth just absorb the water, no draining needed. Also, more fiber, and more yummier. Unfortunately when cooking chicken for this week's lunchables, I spazzed and made a gravy with a flour base. But a few tablespoons spread out over the course of a week... hopefully not too bad. And I can go clean next week.
No dairy either. Its kind of refreshing that I haven't needed a lactase pill in days. I'm still not sure if goats cheese has lactose in it or not, but its just easier to put all dairy products away for now.
Potatoes... I'm not sure about the hyper/hypoglycemia, but they are pretty high on the GI. I usually rely on them as a supplement to pot roast, so its not like I'll really miss them. Red meat too, tho lately red meat has been easier to cook than poultry.
The refined sugars thing will probably be the least bearable, b/c its so insidious. I honestly can't fathom how much of it I usually eat. And it means no more chocolate during my work day, which was my only caffeine source. I can still have cacao nibs, but I'm not sure if they're a solid source of stimulants.
And despite having watched the accounts of a friend who has both celiac disease and a soy allergy... argh, this is hard. Compared with trying to find foods that don't contain wheat and/or soy, dealing with food cravings is hardly a problem.
On the other hand, some of these diet guidelines play up to my laziness. Pouring frozen blueberries into a cup doesn't require me to wash the ice cream scoop or wrestle with solidly frozen milk products. Nuts and apples, they're just THERE. No baking required. Pomegranates are a labor of love, tho. One one of the Spark forums, I couldn't help but scoff at someone asking "How do I add more fruits and vegetables into my diet?" Um... you rinse them off and eat them. Durh.
Sunday I put in a marathon of cooking, so lunches this week will be chicken, quinoa, chicken gravy with mushrooms, nuts, and an apple. I took out the food processor and made a sardine salad with garlic and olive oil, to eat gradually over the course of the week.
Also made hummus (with sho much garlic, and lemon juice whups), and have had it for breakfast with some brown rice cakes a couple days this week. I reframed breakfast in my head. I used to think it was difficult to arrange breakfast on a work day, but upon more pondering, its really only annoying on the two mornings I open the library. I can finagle something bigger on all the other work mornings plus the weekend. Tho I'm still too queasy to eat breakfast right after I wake up.
Also tried 100% buckwheat noodles last night, b/c most soba noodles seem to be part or all regular wheat. It is tastier than whole wheat pasta, at least, and tastes more interesting with a dab of tahini paste.
I found ONE brand of rice cakes at the fancy grocery store that did not contain soy and/or wheat. WTF world? They're bland, but an excellent vehicle for hummus.
Am still sad my oven is broken. I'd rather roast chicken than boil it, and it would be nice to experiment with flour made from other grains for baking. Not to mention roasting hazlenuts to turn into hazlenut butter.
My plan is to follow their diet guidelines for two weeks, maybe three (the smoothie cleanse takes 3 weeks), and then test individual do-not-eat list foods to see if they make me feel terrible (assuming I don't start to feel worse). The website has guidelines about
reintroduction too.
Unfortunately, I've learned from the calorie tracker that I don't get enough on a typical work day. If this goes back to *before* the diet, and I suspect it might, that would explain the weight gain. Putting oneself into starvation mode means ones body holds onto ice cream for dear life whenever it comes around. Tho despite the diet I'm still apparently eating too much fat. And not enough calories. This does not compute.
Started the elimination diet on Monday (after eating tons of things from the mustn't list due to Thanxgiving leftovers) and mostly I feel about the same. Still run down and tired. Tuesday night my energy levels kept going up and down, and then I got smacked with an eye strain headache, only slightly alleviated by eating. And better on Monday, but after a long holiday weekend full of potatoes, wheat, and sugar.
My digestive system feels ... weird ... but not bad. No big upsets or dramas, even after having very garlicky hummus for breakfast (at work) on Tuesday. That alone may be worth the bother. Tho sometimes I do still feel kinda queasy.
And I can't seem to find any intel on "When do I start to feel different?" I guess I should prepare myself in case it doesn't change anything :-/
On another note, being at my parents house made me realize that sewing is really stressing me out. Just looking at that big laundry basket full of projects-to-be was bothering me, so I put all of the fabric out of sight for now. I may limit my projects to one or two per month so I can get back to beading (and stop buying fabric). Didn't sew all Thanxgiving weekend, but I have made some new shinies, yay! Tho that all slowed down when the food weirdness started.
<3 Chrysilla