preliminary decisions, preliminary actions (part 1)

Today, I've had 4 Tylenol, 1 Trammadol, 1 BC Powder, used Watkin's linament and still I have pain. Things leaving my diet: dairy, gluten, yeast, wheat, sugar, & aspartame. Dairy because I've talked to a couple of people with theories on why it would exasperate pain. I never reintroduced it when doing my experiment last year so I have no clue how it affects me. Maybe I'll find out this time around. It was hard to conceptualize removing dairy in this heat until I remembered soy cream. Cool and refreshing.

Sugar- well, I can't say anything more than I plan to limit this category. That should have been obvious when I mentioned soy (ice) cream. lol. Sugar raises yeast levels and yeast was part of the block of things that raised my pain last year.

Gluten, yeast, and wheat were the block of items that increased my pain last year. Once I dropped the diet, they didn't seem to elevate the pain the way I thought they would but in the artificial setting, yes. Perhaps removing them again will help my pain levels drop and become more controllable.

Aspartame- eh. It's said to be bad for us in so many ways. It was also one of the first things I heard was linked to pain. I tried removing it without removing other things once and it didn't make a difference so I don't know how much of a trigger it is. But, as with all things, if other pain triggers were in my diet while this pain trigger was removed, I'd still feel pain and not recognize aspartame as a trigger.

These guidelines were in my head as I went grocery shopping this afternoon. Nitrates allow the possibility of frozen meals. No dairy or gluten seemed to remove that possibility. I have to remember how to eat again. I remember fruit (and corn chips) being my save so I made a large fruit salad today: mango, pineapple, apples, oranges, and grapes. I hope not to consume so many chips this time. Chips are one of my major diet weaknesses. I thought my allowances would allow for a variety in chip type since chips are made from potatoes and I'm okay with nightshades this time around. Nope. Dairy is oh so prominent. If I keep looking, I might find some options but it didn't work out for me today. Plain is an option. Plain is not my favorite. I paid too much for a brown rice chip for work. We'll see how that tastes.

Despite mentally trying to (plan to) live under these new guidelines, I've already screwed up. I bought ingredients so I can make spaghetti forgetting my spaghetti is "good" in that it is whole wheat but not appropriate in that it is not gluten free. * sigh* There's 3 days of gluten and wheat for me but it also gave me the realization that I need to prepare a Whole Foods list for when I'm in Memphis next weekend. Except I also need to curb my spending. We'll see what happens. I'm doing a little more meal preparation now that I'm teaching myself to eat vegetables. Oh. I hadn't told you that. I made potato and leek soup two weeks ago as part of my try a new vegetable initiative. I bought the Food Lovers Weight Lost System but failed because it wants me to eat vegetables (green, purple, orange) twice a day. Proior to receiving the material, I thought I could get away with using fruit as my slow carb. Strawberries are about the only slow carb fruit I eat apparently. New goal: Eat at least 4 servings of slow carb veggies each week. If I can build up a tolerance for those foods, perhaps I can give Robert Ferguson's system another try one day. I do like the concept and seem to lose 2lbs a week using his week 1 guidelines (minus slow carbs) so I'm giving up my right to a refund and looking at what good I can get out of the info. Next up to make myself: yams. I've had them. I mostly don't like them. I like how a local restaurant, Royal Reeds, makes them. Maybe I can make something tasty too?

Some joys of having nitrates, nightshade plants, and caffeine in my diet this time around:
1. I can eat Nathan's hot dogs. They are SO good on the grill. And I bought some pecan roasted beef sausages that look divine. I can't wait to try them.
2. I can drink wine. It tends to contain nitrates so I had to abstain the first time around.
3. I can eat french fries.
4. I can have salsa with my tortilla chips.
5. Oh Lord, I hope there are more....

Here's my new beginning on controlling my food intake to control my pain level. I'm looking for someone to experience this with me. Are you down?