Releif

It was a horrid day at work. And since I cannot have booze on the job, I jumped ship. I haven't tested Oats at all during the three days we had scheduled. Instead, today, I went and got myself a Cold Stone Creamery Cheesecake Ice Cream cup. And it was sinful and delicious and I don't care. The worst that it seems the ice cream has given me is gas. If that's the worst of it, then hell, as long as I keep the dairy in moderation, I'm pleased. I'll try oats and millet some other time. I'll keep to the schedule in the household, but I'm otherwise declaring myself done with the elimination diet.

Results: Need Preleif if I'm going to eat tomatoes (found that out with a tagine this weekend). Need to avoid the HFCS and the MSG. Caffeine in moderation and only early in the day. No artificial sweetners at all. My body definitely doesn't want any of those.

Probably should cut back on the wheat and not be so attached to the dairy. And more moderation in the alcohol than I had been as it makes me tired and sloth like. But otherwise, I can eat most things so long as they aren't prepackaged and pay attention.

The payment for such decadence though is I had to bike today. I wasn't really feeling it when I got home. But later, after I had eaten dinner and had a light cocktail (I did say it was a horrid day at work, right?) earlier and sobered up, I went out.

It was a route I've done once before, along Minnehaha Creek, and this time I went all the way up the hill at the end to Lyndale. That is a freakin' awesome hill. Very satisfying to turn around and ride at least half a mile on that speed without having to pedal. 3.6 miles today. All on my own. And I biked up both hills.

I'm thinking that if I get up early enough on Saturday, I should push myself and try to bike around Lake Nokomis. Even if I have to wait for 10 minutes to have my heart rate go down again, I want to go 5.5 miles. My legs were only a little wobbly at the end of this. :-D

It's either that or the Farmer's Market in St Paul. But that might not even be necessary as our CSA starts up this week. Woo!

Unexpected

So, went away for the weekend the same point we got gluten back. Gluten seems to have generally gone well, except for the part where wheat makes one crave more wheat. The big problem of this weekend happened when we went to a Chinese Buffet though, thinking we might be able to eat some of the stuff.

No, we were incredibly ill on Saturday night, and even by Monday I'm still not feeling right. It was pretty immediate and there was way more time than bad reactions had been taking, so I'm pretty sure that it's the Chinese food and not the wheat or the accidental dairy that I had. So I'm guessing that the problem with pizza really was the tomatoes, and not the dairy. Weird. Must be MSG. It's the only thing we can think of.

Much to our disappointment though, there was no biking still. The weather has been just crap. So we drove down there and the bikes stayed on the back of the car the whole flippin' weekend. Not the fab getaway I was hoping for, but it was still lovely to just have some relaxing time with him. I just wish it had been... well... healthier.

update

Still have not managed to get on my bike. The weather has been for crap, and on the nice days I've been incredibly busy as it is. May 1 is a busy busy time for me, with 5 different meanings for me, including PiC and my's anniversary.

Good news is that eggs are not a problem. Nor does yeast seem to be, other than the fact that yeast seems to make me HUNGRY. As in I've eaten more in the last couple of days than I had all up to now; I wonder if this is why I have historically overate.

I'm starting to wonder if maybe my problem is ultimately a candida issue, and this diet that we've been on really hasn't addressed anything like a systemic candida infestation. If I'm still concerned about something like that, then I might try personally removing some of the candida feeding things and see what happens with that in a couple of months. I'm not going to make my family do this again.

This weekend though, PiC and I are headed to New Ulm. There will be a winery, and a brewery, and biking. He's in charge of finding the bike trails we're going to go on. :) I seriously need a break from the cities, so this is going to be good.

More confused than ever

Had lamb kabobs on the weekend. And I did not have the same sort of GI distress that I had on my birthday. Not by a long shot. And so now I'm unclear as to whether I can be eating red meat or not. Unless the fish was bad. Or the tamari wasn't wheat free. Or there was hidden butter at lunch on my birthday. Or something else I missed. *sigh* Or maybe I was just sick.

Caffeine had the same effect that it always does. Which is to say Monday I'm tired and dehydrated. We're going to skip that whole tea thing except on weekends, I think. And I will not be going anywhere near Coke again. Ugh. Morning came too quick this morning.

I think caffeine has also contributed to my mood issue. That and my general back crappiness. I cleaned a bunch in the apartment this weekend, me and the housemates, and that was about all the activity I could handle. I missed a social engagement, I couldn't go biking, because I was on a painkiller that lasted way too long. And now I'm on the emotional downslide from that. Meh.

5 pounds away from my latest goal, and that's for the end of the month. We'll see. I really want to make the stretch goal, not just the official goal.

Too fast

So yesterday was my birthday. I tried to craft something that was both of the sort of food celebration that I associate with my birthday, but also within my diet.

Breakfast was waffles, with ground flaxseeds and water standing in for the eggs, and a gluten free mix we found that would fit the plan where we stand right now. They were... Okay.

I also ate at two restaurants.

The first was a greek restaurant that I am quite fond of, Gardens of Salonica. There I split a slab of lamb and half of one little potato (there were three of those on the plate) with PiC. And a little plate of olive oil soaked artichoke hearts. My mouth was singing. My head felt a little cotton stuffed, and that was consistent with the potato but I otherwise didn't feel all that off.

Went biking. 3.6 miles, down to Lake Nokomis and down a small bit before resting and then heading back. It was beautiful if just a little cold. If we keep having weather like this in March and April though, I'm going to stop complaining about Minnesota weather.

We came home and had ice cream that was dairy free and made with coconut milk. It was okay, but I'm sure I won't be having that again. And I had my banana and one dried papaya strip.

Then we went to Fuji-Ya, which I haven't been to for sushi in a very long time. We were very upfront with our waitron and she was as obliging as could be. We got 3 sashimi platters and a bowl of miso and requested tamari for our dipping sauce with the wasabi. I found out that I *love* red snapper, which I had never been aware of having before in sushi form.

We got home, and I was immediately sick. In a fashion that I have not been since we started this diet, it wasn't even this bad with the tomatoes. But with all that I had, I can't point to something and go "a ha, this is the problem".

I'm seriously heartbroken. I can't handle getting sick everytime I go out to eat again, but now I'm a little gunshy. I don't have a clue what it was that caused it.

It might have been the lamb, but I'm not certain. Red Meat is supposed to be hard on the system, especially if one has IBS. Or it could have been the volume of coconut milk. PiC thought it might have been the raw fish too, but that just doesn't seem right to me. Or maybe it was the potato, but I didn't have that reaction to potato before so it's even scarier because now my body doesn't seem a predictable place.

I'm going to suggest that we try lamb again on the weekend. Please don't be the problem so that I can never have the world's most perfect meat again. :(

Bump in the road

Well, I think I ran across my first intolerance.

I had a small bag of potato chips at lunch yesterday. Everything seemed extra sharp and defined afterwards and I was more sensative to light. Also my joints that hadn't been aching started aching as well. Essentially it is looking like potato has a potential migraine trigger effect for me. We're going to try them again tonight, but I'm not optimistic.

Then for dinner we had rice pasta with red sauce. Mmmm tomatos. Except it felt like my entire GI tract was on fire as a result. Sore throat, upset stomach, unhappy lower GI, a mild *fever*, and I'm still feeling like crap this morning. Which makes me wonder if I just managed to catch something during this, with the whole fever thing, but I won't be able to try this again until after we finish testing everything.

Foo. Foo, I say. No paella for me. No Italian, no Mexican, no so many of my staples. It would explain why I felt like such crap all the time though.

Ugh. I wish I were back in bed.

Venturing into the land of Soy

Well, post lemons, we started with tamari. OMG that has completely opened up a whole realm of flavor. Like fried rice! I love tamari, more so than soy sauce. It is the liquid created from the fermentation that creates miso. So I get to enjoy the salty joy of it. No problems with that.

I sped ahead on half way through day 3 getting myself a soy protein shake thing to have at work when I need extra proteins. It's desperately gross. But helpful at least because it does fill me up. I don't think I'll be bothering much with it unless I'm making smoothies.

This morning I got to create a tofu scramble and "home fries" made out of sweet potato. Both tasty, though I think I need to practice the sweet potato one. The tofu scramble was yummy, but still kinda tofu-flavored. I think I need to be heavier on the spices for that one.

The weather had been great, but I had too much other stuff going on at home to be able to bike during the day after dinner. I can't wait for it to be light enough for that. And now it has gotten cold again. Tomorrow should be nice, so I should be able to bike tomorrow in the afternoon for a while. I miss the bike.

And in other fabulous news, I'm just about on goal for weight loss by my birthday. Well, I made my weight loss goal more in line with the rate that I'm actually losing now. And that's 5 pounds heavier than I wanted. But meh, 4 more pounds in 18 days, I think that's a reasonable goal to have by my birthday. And if I'm not quite there, well, I'm okay with that too. The point is that as the weight comes off, I feel better and more able to move, so it comes off more easily if I exercise. I haven't measured my body though. I should do that to check how that's changing. I bet it would be more satisfying than the typical ~2.0 pounds a week.

I do love how it is just melting off though. I really like that a lot. I have to remind myself, if I have a dramatic weight gain, it is likely due to something I added back. PiC has also dropped about 15 pounds himself, being a guy. OSO mentioned today what she was at too, and that was a good level though I'm not sure what volume of poundage that is. Though apparently her bras aren't fitting as well, poor thing. We're going to wait just a little bit and then go get her another one.

It is so much easier to lose weight when the whole house is eating healthier food.

physical changes

One thing that I'm finding I really like about this is I'm finding I'm sleeping a hell of a lot better. As in my insomnia is just about gone. I'm not having problems falling asleep, I'm dreaming pretty regularly, and I would sleep longer if I had the time to in the morning. To almost 7 on weekends even.

I'm still a bit tired, but I feel otherwise rested. Sleep disturbances are going to be one thing that I very distinctly pay attention to as we start adding in food. I didn't think this would be quite so dramatic in this regard. Maybe others, but this is downright nice.

My general congestion does not seem to have gone down though. Which is making me think that it is likely the cats that I have a slight allergy to. I can't think of any other particular allergen that I am dealing with, so it would make for a good candidate. Which means needing to seriously clean the apartment and figure out how to keep it clean going forward. And unless things shift very dramatically with food, I'm not going to be able to use that as a gauge.

The last thing that is problematic, however, is that the muscle tension has significantly gone up as the joint pain has gone down. As in my right shoulder has been seized up for something going on 3 days now. I cannot get it to relax for anything, and I may have to resort to taking some herbal relaxants that I have so as to get some relief for it. It seriously hurts to distraction. There's a few more days on the detox section, just through Friday. I'm hoping I can also get a massage in there. That would help a bunch.