An Elimination Diet Flunkie

Yes that would be me. Last week I shared that I was going on an elimination diet to see if there are any foods that have been aiding in my chronic pain and fatigue -- not to mention the other things that seem to come with those like long-lasting headaches and brain fog. I started last Monday and by Tuesday I was having a rough time. I was having stomach aches and I was hungry between meals but had no clue what to eat as a snack. My blood sugar can get really low and I need to be able to find snacks if I need them. Finally Tuesday night I ate a bowl of Grape Nuts. The good thing was that it appears not to have "white" in it so I just let gluten in early! The next day I brought back in eggs, beans and brown rice -- being pretty sure those weren't the effecting things. I needed more variety and options. I decided to eat some non-white gluten things to see how I felt with that. I made some homemade bread with just wheat flour (and the other grains that it had in it) and continued to stay away from white. So I guess really I just readjusted the diet for me. It was interesting though that oatmeal seem to effect me more than the cereal and the bread. I did stop eating gluten on Saturday to see if I can tell a difference before I bring it back in as well as white. I did mess up on Sunday because I brought in 3 new things! oops! Again I got desperate! I ate corn chips and my stomach was really upset. Then I ate some chips before reading all of the ingredients since they said gluten free but they had MSG. Then I had some chocolate that night because it had been a rough day and night. Then that night I was hurting pretty badly as well as today. I'm not sure what it was though I have a good inkling it was MSG. (Yes I know, we live in Asia. But if that does effect me I can avoid when I can and take my pain pills when I can't.) I was visiting with a teammate this afternoon and she mentioned mashed potatoes and gravy and suddenly that was all I could think about. SO we had gluten free chicken fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. I'm not very good at all of these nutritional things but I decided potatoes were going to be ok! :-) (Goodness I'm not good at this at all! Hopefully I'm better at parenting than I am on staying on a diet!) So it's been an interesting week and I have actually felt pretty well except the headache that lasted 5 days and the past couple days where I have been hurting so maybe I'm figuring something out! We'll see.

Do let me say I am in good spirits today but this has been a rough week-- but PTL for such a great family supporting me!

Also thank you for the sweet words from some of you last week. I appreciated them.