7/22
I haven't been posting lately because I have been struggling a bit and I figured no one wanted to read about that. However, Suzanne wrote this earlier in Kristina's journal:
Suzanne Wrote: New and old people need to understand that zc is NOT easy. If we only write about the good times, the new people will think they are the only ones who struggle. They need to read about our struggles, so they know it is all normal.
It made me think that I might do better if I posted more often. I guess if someone doesn't want to read it, they don't have to click on my journal.
Since my 90 day update, I had been doing really well, food-wise, while trying to cut out the diet soda. Last Sunday, K and the boys left to go to K's folks for a couple of days and I ended up with a carb day that day. I'm over that and using K's absence to try to do mainly beef. I grilled up a bunch of beef short ribs for dinners and fixed a bunch of ground beef for my lunches. I also have ribeyes in the freezer if need be. The food's going well, but now the soda's back. I'm working on it.
Somewhere along the way, I was exposed to barley. I get an autoimmune response in some glands, usually my throat, when I get barley (wheat is a different response). The glands below the ear, under the jawline, swell and get painful to the touch. I have that going on now, in both glands, which is unusual. It made it very difficult to sleep last night as I couldn't find a position for my head that didn't put pressure on my neck.
It sucks but I have to just ride it out. Ibuprofen isn't even touching it at the moment. The weird thing is I am feeling pretty good except for that. My energy level wants me to bounce around but then my neck starts saying "Ow!!!!".
I am not tracking my weight right now as I am up a bit from the carbs last Sunday and even more from the glutening. That showed even before the throat started hurting.
7/22
KathyAnne Wrote: Also, sounds like you are right back on track!!
I hope so, but I thought that last week, too. I went all week ZC eating and no AS at all. Then I get on the scale Sunday morning and see my weight is UP! The little voices in my head said "F*** it. If that's the way it's going to be, I might as well eat what I want".
I now think I was glutened on Saturday (by some hot dogs that we grilled up while K's dad was here), which explained the weight gain.
Another problem is this idea of restarting. Another part of Sunday's carbfest was the idea that I had just restarted the weekend before, so it wouldn't be losing much time if I had carbs and then "restarted" again.
I'm not counting days anymore. I am just going to try to go day to day now and do the best I can. My biggest hurdle now is that I am not 100% convinced that I need to be ZC. I am not trying to fix any health problems and I am not horribly overweight. My head reads the info on ZC and thinks that it would be the best way to prevent problems in the future now that I am middle-aged. My heart, however, isn't completely convinced I need to do it now. I am going to give it a good try, though. I am fearful that anything else will spiral me out into carb land.
7/23
Yesterday went well. I was hungry early and had two short ribs. Surprisingly, I didn't get hungry again until late. I actually wasn't very hungry when I decided to grill up the flanken-style ribs that I had in the fridge. I basically just needed to get them cooked as they had been thawed several days. After I grilled them up, I decided to eat a couple of them so that I wouldn't get hungry during the night again. However, they were so good, I ended up eating about six of them. Maybe the glutening short circuited my hunger signals for now? These are definitely my favorite type of ribs, though the short ribs were good this time, too.
My neck is still bothering me, though I slept better last night, so I think it's on the mend. My weight is still way up so I still have some inflammation going on. I have had it take a week to clear up so hopefully by next week it will be gone. K e-mailed me that the hot dogs bothered her, too. She isn't Celiac but eats gluten free as we have to keep the household GF because of me and the boys. She can tell when she has gluten now. I don't think that stuff is good for anyone.
7/23
While eating dinner last night, I watched the first half of the Mystery Diagnosis that I had on the TiVo from Monday. That segment was about a little girl that had trouble swallowing, couldn't move very well and was frequently sick with respiratory problems. It turned out she had something called Pompe Disease which is a genetic disorder where you can't utilize the glycogen in the muscles so it builds up and causes an autoimmune reaction in the muscles.
When she was first diagnosed, there was no treatment and she was expected to die before she reached her 20's (she was 11 at the time of her diagnosis). Her family got involved with the experts and got them together and there is now some gene therapy that can slow the progression of the disease. The girl is now in her early 20's but is confined to a wheelchair.
I was curious if there was any kind of dietary treatment. It seemed that if the body couldn't deal with glycogen very well, you would want to get as little as possible in there. I did find that there has been an attempt to treat them with a "high protein, low carbohydrate" diet but only about 25% of the people responded to it.
I know I am just a layman and just thinking "out loud" here, but it seems like a "high fat, adequate protein, zero carb" diet would work better. From what I could find, it is just completely unfathomable to researchers that people could actually not eat any carbs at all. From the description of the treatment diet, it sounds like it is also unfathomable that "high fat" would work.
As the segment on the girl ended, it showed her and her family sitting at the table, eating pizza.
7/24
Another good food day yesterday though I still haven't been very hungry. I had a cheeseburger bowl at work at about 11 am. In the evening, I wasn't very hungry but ate a short rib and a half and a little cheddar, mostly so I could take a handful of ibuprofen without upsetting my stomach.
I thought my throat/neck was getting better but it isn't. It was kicking my butt yesterday (and so far today). It has moved to it's typical spot on the left side and intensified. If I hold my head in one position for very long (like when working on the computer), it will clamp down hard when I next move my head.
This is getting irritating but I can't do anything about it but pop ibuprofen and wait it out (and eat right). Oh, and I can whine about it here. LOL
Some people on another forum that I'm on were posting pictures of themselves from their childhood up through current pictures. It was fun looking through them and I went through my pictures last night so that I could post too. I was struck by the fact that I was actually fairly thin up 'til a year after I got married and then God flipped the fat switch (actually - I blame my wife LOL). I never saw myself that way (thin) at all, which meant that I never got to enjoy the feeling, either, if that makes sense.
7/24
About 3 1/2 years ago, I had been studying gluten intolerance in an attempt to get to the root cause of a lifetime of stomach problems and some bad headaches. I didn't know for sure that I was intolerant, but I was willing to give it a try to see how I felt. I didn't have any trouble at all being extremely strict and sticking with it because I felt great right away. After accidentally eating something with gluten and getting sick about three months in, there was no question I needed to eat that way the rest of my life and I have never been tempted to stray. There are times it sucks being different and having to be a pain when eating at other people's houses but it really hasn't been that difficult and except for a surprise brief period of mourning, I haven't really missed anything.
I would like to get into the same mindframe with ZC but it hasn't been very easy so far. For one thing, I didn't get the immediate feedback of feeling good like I did dumping gluten. It makes it harder to stick with when you feel run down, have leg cramps and "bathroom issues", especially when the scale slows down.
That said, I have been feeling motivated lately by looking at my old pictures. I don't want to go into my later years carrying a belly and feeling tired all of the time. Heart disease and diabetes runs in my family. I actually have had a bunch of issues clear up, as listed in the Benefits of ZC thread. I want to give it a fair shot and I am feeling pretty good about it right now.
Must be all of the beef I'm eating while the family is gone.
7/26
Everything is still going well, except for the neck thing. I'll think it's finally getting better and then it flares up again. Oh well, it's my own damn fault.
I was worried about this weekend since I'm home by myself. However, I haven't been tempted at all to eat stuff I shouldn't. In fact, I haven't been very hungry. I didn't eat yesterday until after 1 PM (hamburger) and just had one and half short ribs and a slice of cheddar at about 9 PM.
I've dropped more than five pounds of bloat this week. I am still a pound above my lowest weight but hopefully that will be gone soon as I continue to eat right and as the inflammation dies down.
When I got up yesterday, the weather was much cooler than expected so I went out to do some much needed yardwork. It was mostly pulling weeds with a little mowing thrown in. I worked most of the morning and got a bunch done. However, I kept having a problem of getting really dizzy when I would stand up to move to a different spot. One time, I seriously thought I was going to black out. It felt exactly like my blood pressure was dropping too fast. It could be because I hadn't eaten yet but I don't think so. It's just something I will have to watch (and get up a little slower).
No comments:
Post a Comment