Nutrition, diet change, schedule change.......change, change, change

So here we are, a little over half of the year is gone in the dust and what do any of us have to show for it? I know for me I have made some progression in my quest to find answers to my health woes and feel that I'm on the right track to getting back to feeling good - now if only I could find the major energy zapper within me and eliminate it I think I'd be in pretty good shape overall!

This past week I've been free of headaches which has been a blessing. I hate the headaches I've been dealing with and am pretty certain between the massages I've been getting and the chiropractic adjustments they are starting to give me the relief I'm after. Well, that and the multitude of vitamins I'm pushing into my body are starting to build up to have their own effect on me as well.

I am finding some short bursts of energy on occasion, not as often or regularly as I would like but hey, I'll take what I can get when I get it...it's not enough to sustain me all day most of the time but enough to push me through when I need to push. This weekend was the first weekend in MONTHS that I actually had the MOTIVATION AND ENERGY to do the things that a "normal" person can do everyday...it was nice to be out and about without wishing I was in bed or that it was time to go.

(Monday 8/8) I had my 5th and final (for now) massage. It still hurts like a bitch but I think I'm actually going to miss the massages. Starting next week I will be moving into Phase 2 of my treatment which is a more active phase and will start with Soft Tissue work as well as continue with the adjustments. The Dr told me if I find the soft tissue work doesn't help as much as the massage I can go back to massage if I want so there is some flexibility with the treatments. I'm actually looking forward to the Acupuncture part of my treatment which will come in about a month - I'm ready to do it and see what kind of relief it offers. I've heard so many great things about it in helping with CFS and Fibromyalgia pain.

Juicing has been going well - I've been doing it faithfully every morning since starting back up. This past week I've been having what's called "Morning Energizer" - this is made with 1 peeled lemon, 1 peeled cucumber, 4 carrots, 1 in. of ginger root and 1/2 to 1 small beet (include 2 stems and leaves) - it makes a nice kind of mildly spicy drink. If you have never had beet juice, it's a bit earthy tasting, but not bad with the other ingredients all together - too much beet and it's kind of rough going down so if you try to make this, make sure you use only 1/2 of a small beet until you get use to how fresh beet juice tastes. It doesn't bother me but I do try to drink it quickly so I don't have to taste the beet for very long.

I had my nutrition counseling today (8/8) at my appointment. The Dr said I am already doing pretty good with the juicing and with what I normally am eating. She made some suggestions for me to work on such as eating a small handful of baby carrots or an apple before a meal with some water. Also to make sure I'm eating something healthy every 2-3 hrs. She explained it to me in terms of giving my pancreas a "treat" by eating something little and often so my body doesn't have to #1 work hard at processing larger meals that are spread out over longer periods and #2 so my body stops holding onto everything I put into it. She said that part of the problem a lot of people with these conditions face is that their body is always working in a "stress" mode or the "fight or flight" mode so the body is afraid to burn or use up fats, calories and nutrients since it doesn't know when it will get more. Instead the body stores these things making it very difficult to get energy and nutrients from the food we eat. She said our goal is to "re-boot" my system so that it will start to better process the things I eat and with that I will see my weight also change for the better. You see, I've always had trouble with my weight - not wanting to fall off! No matter what I do it seems to just hang on - she explained to me that because I tend to not eat on regular 2-3 hr basis my body won't use what it needs to use for energy, fuel and nutrients and thus I will gain more than I'll ever loose in this cycle, even when trying to drop weight.....and I won't have the necessary energy I need to do the things a healthy woman of my age should be able to do....it's a vicious cycle that needs to be broken. Hopefully by doing this, my body will start using up the things I put into it instead of storing it all away for later use.

So my next challenge is to eat something, not a lot, but something every few hours, eliminate as much sugar, artificial sweeteners, dairy, wheat flour and gluten from my diet as I can. I've already purchased a couple things she suggested and am going to give it my best shot at trying to change my diet even further than I already have. I've been watching my sugar intake for many months now, it's been really hard especially for this ice cream and sweets loving girl! I will never 100% eliminate those indulgences from my diet, however definitely choose the lower or no sugar versions when I can and try not to have it except maybe on the weekends or just on a special occasion.

Some suggestions she made are:

*use corn based/gluten free pasta instead of the normal wheat/flour based - pasta is one of those things that can really taste terrible in other forms I think - but I did try it last night and it is actually just fine, tastes pretty much the same with a good sauce on it. The new pasta I'll be using is Quinoa - it's gluten free and corn based, give it a try, I bet you'll like it! The link I've included above has all the products and tons of recipes for using them......I'm excited to try some on my family and see if this is something I can make for them as well without a lot of fussing from them about it.....I bet I can since it tastes good.

*Lara Bars - these too are gluten free and come in many different flavors. I tried one as a snack, they aren't bad and have a pretty good taste to them. I can easily make that addition to my diet so I'll start having those as a snack option.

*Add an Omega3 vitamin to my daily vitamin intake: She recommended the one I linked to as being the best that she has tried - being that I'm not a fish lover, or even eat any fish, those that are fishy or have a fishy taste will turn me off and won't get in my body. In fact she pointed out that any that smell or taste fishy are because it has gone bad.....SOOOO, getting one that is in it's natural trigliceride form is what she suggested.

*Add a Probiotic daily - 12 billion per day/adult 8 strain - she recommended a specific brand but I'll just be sure to grab one that falls into the 12 billion per day category.

*Instead of milk, use unsweetened coconut milk when I find the need to use or drink milk. I'm not a big milk drinker, especially since watching my sugar intake so I already stopped drinking milk months ago other than what I have used in my smoothies which has been a lower sugar, lower calorie version. I purchased some of the coconut milk and it's not bad at all, so this is another easy one to work right into the plan. Cheese and plain yogurt are also ok to have as snacks in small amounts.

So overall I'm already on a good path to changing my diet and will work on the above suggestions to further refine my diet and nutritional intake to help with this process of re-booting my body and helping it work the way it should. This is a 6wk plan and after the 6 wks I can try to reintroduce things into my diet to see how they make me feel - such as gluten. However, if I find things that are gluten free and will work for the family as well, there is really no need to re-introduce it to our diets. I'll have to play it all by ear and see how the next 6wks of changes go.

So I need to make a trip to the vitamin cottage to pick up the additional supplements that she wants me to start taking - these two would be something I should plan on taking for the rest of my life as they are essential to have.

I really need to start looking for a cheaper way to get all the vitamins I'm taking. At the point I'm at now, this is about $100 a month extra for all the vitamins I NEED.

Until next time!