One Year In and a Lifetime to Go

This was supposed to be published last year in June, but life got in the way.

20 June 2010

It's been a year since I realized that what I was eating greatly affected my energy levels, digestion, mood, emotions, behavior, monthly cycle, etc.  I thought that I was eating healthy.  I was eating whole grains, lots of vegetables, and fruit.  I rarely had red meat and ate mostly chicken and fish.  Beans were a staple in my kitchen.  Yet, my health became progressively worse.  One fateful day with a whole wheat roti (Indian flat bread) changed everything.  I never realized all the "good" food I was eating was causing all my pain.  Within a month of taking out grains, sugars, vegetable oil, dairy, and any processed foods or foods with additives, I became a different person.  I was happier.  I wasn't always in pain.  My husband didn't have to avoid me for two weeks every month.  Things started to look up.  It's been a pretty good year (in the past 365 days, approximately 60 of those days were off-track diet days), but I still have a lot of work to do to make up for the 31 years of damage I've done.  Here's a recap of the last year and what I'm looking forward to for the future.

The evolution of my diet:

• I eliminated wheat in late May 2009.  This helped my digestion, but problems still lingered.  I knew rice, corn, and legumes needed to be removed, but everyone thought I was crazy and I kept trying to eat these foods to be "normal".  "Normal" kept me sick.
• I found SCD in early June and eliminated all grains, legumes, and sugars (except honey).  My digestion normalized and any "illegals" I unknowingly ate gave me stomach issues right away.  I started with the full SCD diet and did not limit fruit, sweet veggies, or honey. I stayed with this for about a month without many digestive issues.  My energy was somewhat stable, but the fatigue remained.
• We went to Italy for 2 weeks in late July and I let myself have sugars and dairy.  The last 3 days I started eating wheat again and that brought on binge attacks.
• I started the SCD Intro Diet when we came back from vacation in August.  I found that honey and fermented dairy were causing me to feel worse so I eliminated them.  I had to jump to a low carb, high fat diet to kick my sugar cravings and keep my energy stable. 
• I started reading about the GAPS and Body Ecology Diets and introduced fermented foods.  I did this after a few days of eating only meat.  This killed all sugar cravings I had.  I did well with meats and fermented veggies.  Not quite ready to give up the sugar addiction, I clinged to fermented fruits and dairy, which caused the immediate reaction of muscle aches.  I still binged on fruit after eating out and on sweet veggies. 
• We went on vacation for 3 weeks to the states in November and I binged on chocolate before we even landed in Los Angeles.  These 3 weeks I ate anything and everything.  I remember sitting in the Atlanta airport bound for home and asking my husband to quickly get me a chocolate chip muffin from Dunkin Donuts because this was my last chance before we got back to Seoul.  I didn't really want the muffin, but I had to have it!
• I restarted the diet when I came back in December, introducing bone broth.  My sugar addiction did not let up and I let it get the best of me every weekend in December and through January and early February.  Thankfully, I kept my consumption of grains to several days during this period, mostly just focusing on sugar. 
• On February 11 2010, I was sick and tired of being sick from the carb binges so I decided it was time to stop.  I gave up all sweets including honey, fruits, and sweet veggies under a modified full GAPS diet.  The first few days I was deathly sick, but my appetite eventually came back.  After the first couple of weeks I had cravings after meals, but eating nuts and cheese helped.  I also went back to the states for a couple of weeks in March and didn't knowingly ingest any of my poisons.  This was a first for me. 
• I decided to start the GAPS Intro Diet in May and dropped the dairy and nuts. 
• In early June I had an emotional day and binged on all my poisons.  The next day I had a splitting headache and an uncontrollable fit of rage.  I binged again.  The next morning I was fine.  I increased my Vitamin C intake and the cravings were almost nonexistent.  I let myself have nuts one day it was particularly bad.
• I restarted GAPS Intro Diet in June and have been on it for about a week now.  I have twice as much bone broth as before and am eating more cooked veggies.  I try to eat fermented veggies with every meal that I can. 

Things I've Learned:

• Any kind of sweetness will make me crave more sweet.
• The more carbs I eat, the more carbs I crave.
• The more protein I eat, the fuller I get and the less I eat for my next meal.
• Bone broth is very healing.  I attribute it to my quick turnaround from my 2 day binge earlier this month.
• I feel much better physically without sweetness. 
• Sometimes I would like to be ignorant and eat whatever I want and take pills to take my aches and pains away like everyone else.  Then I see all the people around me that look like death and I'm thankful for the decision I made.
• Chowing down on junk is so unattractive.  I didn't realize how much of a pig one really looks like when stuffing her face. 
• Epsom Salt soaks do wondrous things when I'm feeling bad.
• I handle stress better when my digestion is working properly and I'm eating good fats and protein.
• I'm a much better wife and being a slave to the grind is easier on this diet.

My Goals for the Future:

• Continue focusing on bone broths, meats, animal fats and coconut oil, fermented veggies, and cooked low-sugar veggies.  I'll introduce raw veggies before my next trip since salads are easy options for eating out.
• Keep sweetness to a minimum.  Fructose affects my body physically, mentally, and behaviorally.
• Work towards being able to digest nuts and coconut easier. 
• Work towards being able to do yoga daily again.
• Work up to having coconut oil without significant die-off.
• Work towards being able to eat eggs without a reaction.
• Release my fatigue and bring back my energy.
• Control my addictions to sweets.
• Control my urge to binge on poisons.
• Maintain my current weight for life.

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40 weeks in and I'm not dead yet

It's been a hellacious few months, to say the least. Today marks the 40th week since I declared my freedom from the Neolithic agents of disease (see right column of things I don't eat) that were causing so much of my bowel distress. It took a bit of experimentation and lots of wasted food hurling from my mouth and into the toilet to realize what works for me, but I'm better now for it. No high cholesterol, heart attacks, or whatever everyone was scared of.  During the last 40 weeks, I've cheated an estimated 10 weeks, causing me to be sick for about twice that amount of time. On February 11th I said enough and finally gave up the sugar for good. It's my crack and we all know how whack crack can be. The grains, starches, and oils were no problem. Sugar, however, was a different situation. It told me I wouldn't be able to live without it. For days it showed me that I couldn't keep anything down without a taste of its sweetness. I told myself this would soon pass. And now 7 weeks later, I really can do without it. Yeah, I would really like that slice of 1000 calorie cheesecake, but it's really not worth the holes in my esophagus and looking like a toothless Appalachian because of the puking.

I'm back and will be posting again soon...

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