Well Now I'm Bummed

[aelfie]

Okay, so I've been working with a nurtitionist since the end of September. I went in with the plan to fix my depression, mood swings, inability to sleep, sugar cravings, and extreme fatigue. (I read a book called Mood Cure. And I went "I need that! The clinic is in Mill Valley? I'm so there!")

So for the last couple of months, I've not only been taking a slough of vitamins and supplements (over 20 I counted), but we've been changing my diet, and I do feel a whole lot better. I'm still more tired than I want to be, but we are still playing with my thyroid supplements, and to be frankly honest, I've got a huge sleep debt.


But the whole diet change thing is really bumming me out. I want to feel better, not radically change my diet at this point. I went to Recovery Systems with the desire to be free of the sugar cravings, to be able to eat one or two cookies and be happy, and not feel this physical compulsion to finish the entire batch. You know, be like a normal person. I wanted to feel more energy, and shake the whole depression/anxiety thing. Which I have to admit, is pretty much there, especially since she added tryptophan to my supplement schedule two weeks ago. (OH MY GOD, that stuff ROCKS!) I'm still eating when stressed, but not so much.


Okay, so why am I bummed. Oh yea, radical diet changes. So in the midst of all this supplementation, we discovered that I have headaches. A lot of headaches. I didn't realize how many untill I started keeping track. I wake up with headaches, I have several throughout the day, I go to sleep with them. These can be caused by many things. Eating food I'm allergic to, being exposed to things I'm allergic to, bad alignments in my neck and spine (That's being taken care of by Dr. Kelli, my chiropractor.) etc, etc. So we've been exploring my food allergies. We've known for years that I'm allergic to eggs. They give me migraines if I eat a plate of scrabled eggs. Various nut alleriges, more annoying than serious, vinegar (but only while pregnant, my food allergies go nuts when I'm pregnant.) So I went on a two week gluten fast. No biggie. Then I added it back. Look! Headaches! Bleh.


So my nutritionist ordered a large amount of blood tests for allergies. Yesterday I got the results. I tested positive for:
Kidney Beans 1         Cocoa-Chocolate 1                  Olive 1                      Tomato 1
Buckwheat 2               Grape 1                                      Quinoa 2                  Yeast, Bakers 1
Cheese 1                    milk, cows 3                              Sesame 1                Yeast, Brewers
Chili Pepper 1            Milk, goat 1                                Sugar cane 1


The higher the number, the more allergic I am. I also tested positive for allergies to casein, the protein in cheese (but whey protein is okay)
Postive for IgA (gluten intolerance or celiac disease), and (get this) negative for egg protein.


Wheee!


I haven't discussed this with her yet, I've been kinda avoiding her. I'm just at a point where I need to step back, process, and accept. I'm just not at a point where completely removing almost everything worth eating from my diet. No bread, cheese, chocolate or beer? Okay, and no wine either. What the hell? I'm not sure if I can avoid all that. I know that I don't want to end up like my Aunt Caroline who has full blown celiac disease. It just sucks! The woman has to have her own stick of butter lest a crumb from her husbands toast gets into her body. That's no way to live!


Bleh. I'm doing my research, looking at my options, and just dwelling in the moment.


No chocolate? Oy.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh man. That sounds like the classic horrible choice scenario: eat a very limited diet and feel better, or eat what you want and feel crappy. How annoying! I wonder if there are any 80% / 20% compromise positions you can take, where you could get most of the benefit from a small amount of the change. Gah.

[rephetibel.livejournal.com]

That's a lot of stuff to avoid. I'd be bummed, too. Maybe you could drop out one thing at a time, beginning with the worst offender, until you reach a balance you can live with?

I discovered a couple of years ago that there are some vegetables I can grow in my garden all winter long. They were things I wasn't wild about - kale, parsnips, beets, rutabagas, Swiss chard - but I could get one free meal a day in the form of vegetable soup. I decided I was going to learn to tolerate them enough to eat them every day.

I ended up liking them and, in fact, craving the vegetable soup if I didn't get it. Then something else happened. I've had low energy my entire adult life and that went away. I couldn't have been more surprised. I have twice the energy that I did when I was twenty-five.

Good luck on all this. It will likely be a continuing process of adjustments.

[kineticphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh, hon, that sucks donkeys! I'll be bringing you plenty of hugs when I see you tomorrow.