Diet Update

I haven't said much about our dieting adventures since I wrote the post about how I can't eat anything I want and how food, in general, has become a big old pain in my keister. After that post, we decided to try a different form of dieting to see if there was anything we could do about my general health and well being. While Weight Watchers was helping me in the weight department, I was still having terrible side effects from my GERD and no amount of Nexium + Tums + Pepcid was making me feel better.

So ... We started on a low carb, high protein diet. It's not Atkins (trust me, I've done that one before) but so far I've already had people tell me "Atkins will kill you." Or "Paleo is a fad diet that will kill you." Rinse & repeat. We have close friends that had been on Paleo and while weight wasn't one of their issues, allergies were and they had reported remarkable results since going on a Paleo diet. The problem with Paleo,  in my eyes, was that there was so much more I would want to eat and being limited to grass-fed or pasture-raised proteins would be the undoing of me as I'm not one for boring in my diet.

We took a look at what our options were and made up a diet that works for us. We are eating a lot of different types of meats - salmon, trout, bass, chicken, lamb, beef, pork - and have large quantities of vegetables at dinner every night (including A LOT of zucchini since our garden has gone nuts with the stuff). We've cut out all whole grains and beans entirely and I am happy to say that while my GERD is not gone, I've had only three nights in the last month that were terrible and one of them was after we went camping and I ate six pieces of crappy white bread so I'm pretty sure I know what the problem was there.

The one major difficulty with this diet is breakfast. I *love* cereal. I cannot explain to you how much I love cereal, especially Frosted Mini Wheats. It never occurred to me that starting off the day with my beloved cereal was one of the things that was contributing to my pain, but I think it's pretty clear that I cannot eat those types of foods anymore. I've also learned that apples are a huge source of acid so they're out. Oh, and nuts.

So, every morning I have either a cappuccino (which does not give me GERD) or bacon and eggs. Unfortunately, I am so over bacon & eggs. Moreso the bacon than anything. I never thought the day would come but it has - I don't want bacon. So I'm looking for alternate breakfast options. I really loved the Strauss vanilla yogurt Alan brought home from the store but then I saw that it was incredibly high in carbohydrates so that made me rethink the whole yogurt thing. BUT, it has a lot of active cultures that are good for me, so I'm going to start weaving it back in to my diet a little bit at a time to see how it affects me.

So far I'm down 15 pounds *and* my health feels improved. Well, the GERD feels improved. I'm still having problems with heart palpitations, dizziness, and insomnia. I guess I can only battle one thing at a time. I had an endoscopy done last Wednesday so I'm waiting on the results from that to see where I go from here with my GERD. On Friday I have a follow-up appointment at my PCP where I'm going to get a referral to the cardiologist to see what can be done about my premature ventricular contractions and how my body responds to them. I'd love to start exercising again so that I can get in even better shape. Unfortunately for me hiking or riding the elliptical machine still makes me dizzy so it's short walks a couple of times a week so that I'm not entirely sedentary.










The strangest lesson I've learned in the last month is that some of the foods and drink I love most but have thought to be like razor blades in my gut are not really the problem. I can pretty much consume tomatoes, wine & coffee at will without wanting to cry afterwards. Of course, tomato sauce without pasta is a crying shame, but if it means that I won't suffer, it's something I'm going to have to live with.