I can’t believe I made it to Day 3!
This is me after a shower this morning, with Beth sitting in my lap, eating an apple. We’ve both been eating a lot of apples lately. They’re sweet and crunchy and they’re easy to eat quickly (wash and go!).
General Status:
I still feel crappy. Very worn out. It’s like I just can’t get enough energy. I keep feeling like I want to take naps. Like right now…zzzzzzzz……
Greg says this could be detox, or my just not being used to the diet. We don’t know. I sure wish I’d feel better. This is just really hard.
My morale fluctuates, but is mostly good. While I find all of this super difficult, I resist temptations to quit. There’s too much I don’t know, that I want to find out.
Muscle aches:
I still wake up with aching in my joints, but I think it’s getting better. The reason I say this is that while the aching is still there, when I move (like this morning, shaking my groove thang in the shower), my joints actually feel a lot better.
Sleep:
I went to sleep around 12:30 last night, and crashed hard, with lots of dreaming; in contrast with the night before, when I slept horribly. Last night was a definite improvement.
Anxiety:
I woke up pretty anxious, and after checking my blood pressure and finding it high for me, I took a small dose of anxiety med. Within ten minutes, I was feeling much better. This supports my theory that I’m actually physically addicted to my meds, which isn’t a bad thing in itself, but is noteworthy in how the symptoms of withdrawal are very much the symptoms of anxiety, except without the situational aspect. Basically, the drug gives me “fake” anxiety to treat with…..more drug. And yeah, if you’re familiar with drugs; both meds I take are benzos. The question is, is this treating real anxiety underneath? Or is it causing more anxiety than I would normally have if I tapered off of it? Anti-benzo people proliferate online, and the would definitely suggest it’s ALL the benzo’s fault. I don’t feel that extreme about it, but their stories are interesting to read.
Allergies:
I live in the country, and every field I pass by has cut their hay. Which explains the sore, itchy eyes, and the ridiculously runny nose. It’s been so bad that last night, while watching a movie, I just wedged some toilet paper up each nostril. THERE YOU GO INTERNET. More than you needed to know.
This afternoon I feel like I’m getting a cold or something. UGH. My eyeballs feel hot.
Cravings:
If I think about muffins and pizza and bread, I’ll want them, but if I don’t think about them, I do okay. They aren’t popping into my head all the time, like I expected.
Hunger:
I’m still struggling a lot with getting FULL. I can’t seem to fill up on anything. I’m realizing how much, before this, I just filled up on grain products all the time. I never filled up on fruits or veggies, it was always just grains. I find this whole inability to feel full without grains really interesting – what does that say about my digestive system? Is it just the result of habit? I should be more specific I think, and say “wheat”, because brown rice is a grain, and that doesn’t seem to do much for me.
Weight:
I’ve lost 2.2 pounds. As a data point. No, this isn’t HURRAH WEIGHT LOSS, it’s more like, “Hmmm, how much water weight am I losing as a result of this?” Apparently a little bit. I’m trying to drink a lot of fluids, but it’s hard to remember.
Apologies:
For this being out-of-joint. I’m so tired right now I’m about ready to fall asleep in my chair. Greg just said I could go up and sleep for a bit while he watches the kids. What would I do without him? I don’t even want to think about it.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Greens are good for fiber, which is good for fullness. Have you come across the Spinach Oats idea in other foodie blogs? :)
Are you allergic to the cottonwood too? It’s crazy bad right now. I drove past an area where the ground was completely white. Plus there are little cottonwood blizzards all over the place.
drink lots and lots and lots of water.
I find, when I’m trying to do something new, that writing down the plan of what I’m going to eat helps. That way I’m not thinking about “what now”, but can say “Oh yeah, mid-afternoon, time for the hardboiled egg and hummus. Check.”
And ditto on the greens. Especially cooked greens (maybe because they’re all compressed?). Swiss chard with some onions and a little bit of olive oil, sauteed. Yum.
Meg – Yeah, I meant to do this before I started, but for some reason it’s been really hard to do! Maybe it’s that I’m just not that experienced of a cook? Or that I just don’t have enough variety to work with?
Sonja – I don’t know, but could be! I’ve thought about going to Family Health and asking them to do an allergen test, but it doesn’t feel worth it when it’s usually only this bad for about three weeks out of the year, if that.
Carrie – Oh my gosh, no! I’m surprised I haven’t yet! That looks wild! I’ve been thinking about getting a hand blender, too…… :)
I never felt crappy during my detox, just bored. It seriously made me feel absolutely no different, beyond completely bored with the handful of things I was allowed to eat. One of the things that made me call horsepucky on the idea that I was intolerant of/allergic to all these foods. The muscle aches and fatigue sound more like what they told me to expect.
Cottonwood kicks my ass. Part of my 4-week illness was almost certainly a bad reaction to the crazy amount of cottonwood in the air the last month or so.
Lisa – do you mean you felt like the idea of you being intolerant to certain foods was horsepucky? Like, intolerances in general? Or just the ones you were trying to find out about?
You should taper off the benzos, not just suddenly stop taking them. Especially since you are trying to see what your body is like when you’re not eating all these various foods you are concerned about. Suddenly stopping the benzos at the same time is going to cloud the issue, because symptoms of benzo withdrawal include not just anxiety, but also fatigue, muscle and joint pain, bloating and other gastrointestinal symptoms, etc.
Couple of things –
I agree with Meg, and will go farther – while you’re doing this diet I think you should take a maintenance does of the benzos whether you think you need them or not. Right now I think you’re mucking up your data by introducing an extra variable that doesn’t need to be there. I’m not saying you shouldn’t stop taking them eventually, if you really don’t need them, just that now is probably not the best time.
Feeling crappy at the moment could definitely be allergies; Wayne has been feeling tired and sick for a couple of weeks now and he is very allergic to hay/grass stuff; he says this happens every year. That’s not one you can eliminate, unfortunately, but it could be the cause of your feeling so tired. Basically your body is in full assault mode on what it thinks is a huge number of invading bacteria, and puts all your energy into that.
Ok, a third thing – make sure you’re getting enough protein! Not everyone is like this but I feel tired, weak and cranky if I don’t get enough protein even if what I am eating is completely healthy. Some people just need more than others, and I think the fact that you feel better if you’re eating some meat hints that you may be one of those people.