Okay, so we've established that I'm a basket case with chronic health drama. I may never be able to fix all that. But, I'm always hopeful that I can fix at least some of it.
I've made a goal. A dear friend and neighbor has some of my very same and similar symptoms. She's just not as crazy/dramatic as I am. And she's smarter than me. By, like, a longshot. ANYHOW, she has discovered she's got an autoimmune thyroid condition. It started with what she thought was an injury, but it wasn't getting better and it seemed no one could figure it out. But somehow it came around that it could be an illness rather than an injury, and it seems that turned out to be the case. She's been wonderful at listening to all my woes, and lemme tell ya I dump 'em. She's found some interesting similarities.
Now, I'm not saying that she and I have or might have the exact same condition. All I'm saying is that there are similarities in symptoms that may point to some interesting solutions.
The other day, my beautiful friend and neighbor hiked up my driveway and we got to see just how much better she's doing. Holy wow!!! The difference is incredible! She looks great! And I don't just mean weight, I mean skin tone, face expressions, overall in general looks awesome! So she told me what she's done. And now I'm doing a lot of research and planning.
See, here's the thing, there is no one cure all. Just because something worked for her, and just because we share some symptoms, doesn't mean that the same solution will work for me. But, I've got to agree with her, some drastic changes in diet may go a long way.
I'd looked into elimination diets a long time ago. Some where there was something about giving up 7 foods for 7 days and then 7 weeks of re-introducing. Can't seem to find it anymore. But it barely made sense. Something about the way it was structured didn't sound right. And 7 days just didn't seem like it would be enough to really be ready to re-introduce foods and actually know what's going on. Almost every other thing I found hit several of my pet-peeves. They'd be weight loss based. I want health based. They'd be dripping with celebs that push the diet. To me that's annoying and distracting. They'd have Dr. Oz's stamp of crazy. I just have a hard time taking anything Dr. Oz seriously. Or they'd be selling all kinds of shirts, kitchen gadgets, "specially formulated" crap, etc. If I have to buy all kinds of things to work my eating plan, I am not interested. I don't have the room or money to line someone's pockets for something that may or may not work in the first place. Or there would be some serious imbalance.
Another factor, I am not a decision maker. I need something to tip the scales in one direction or another. So when my friend told me what she's been doing, it helped give me a direction. And with an added bonus, she's right there for questions and support.
So here I am. I'm reading and researching on Autoimmune Protocol. AIP. And I am in love. Okay, there's a lot of giving up stuff. The list is very long. But the reasoning behind it all actually makes sense. And I still keep tasties, and even new goodies. It's not about losing weight. It's about eliminating common problem foods for a period of time (at least 30 days) and then re-introducing them over time to find out which foods may (if any) be causing some of my symptoms. It's about letting my gut heal up if it needs it. (And it probably does.) It's about finding out if there is food I'm putting into my body, thinking it's doing me some good, and actually throwing it out of whack.
I was surprised to find that giving up coffee was one thing, but the one that really broke my heart was the idea of giving up tomatoes and peppers. I love my tomatoes and peppers. But, I keep reminding myself, I have a time I get to try bringing them back, and I hope they aren't going to prove to be problematic.
I'm not diving in right away, however, and if at all. I'm making a goal of January 2, 2016. It's a long ways out, but there's some advantages here. I can slowly remove some of the items from the no-no list ahead of time. I can introduce some of the things on the add-in list. I can try recipes ahead of time. Oh and the temptation factor... Garden season is early here this year, and giving up my nightshades right now is just cruel. We camp and road travel a lot this time of the year, and it's especially heard to maintain a new diet plan while on constant travel. And then there's the holidays. January I get a break from all these temptations. So, I get the highest chance of success by setting that as my start date. It's possible that by then I decide no. But in the process of getting ready, I'm still making steps to improve my diet, so it's a win-win.
For now, I've printed out two charts, the no-no's and the good foods. I've got them taped up inside one of my kitchen cabinets where I can refer to them while I cook. I've crossed out the foods I already don't eat, and put marks next to the one's I'm working at eliminating (on the no-no chart) and the new ones I want to try (on the good foods chart). And I'm working with my snacks. I'm going through AIP snack recipes and trying to start relying on those as I graze.
Today I'm baking plantain crackers, dehydrating zucchini chips (with lemon and dill), and making banana chips to eventually make into cinnamon banana chips. I'm kinda excited, because these are ingredients I already love.
Okay, so this, and the last couple, entries are long, and bland with no photos. That'll change, I hope. I'm trying mostly to document things for myself at this point. But I am hopeful to keep it up, and get back to great photos, blogging about the trips we have coming up (as soon as this weekend!), and the garden again. ;-) But for now, bear with me, 'cause I need this loooong story stuff at the moment.
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