Make me Tigger not Winnie the Pooh

Finally found time to sit quietly and write down an update on my Exclusion Diet.  The great thing is that I've felt so full of energy that I haven't had five minutes to sit down and write.

Two weeks ago I began by cutting out a lot of things, and I mean a lot.  The Health Coach (a friend of my sister) helping me was very apologetic about cutting out so much, particularly grains, but for the short term we agreed it would be ok.

So out went:  Dairy, Gluten, Grains, Sugar (including high sugar fruits), Pork, processed and fatty foods.  I'd already cut Alcohol and Caffeine, so that eased some of the pain of withdrawal.

And the withdrawal was truly bad. For four days I felt like hell, but I had been warned that I would feel worse before I felt better. And anyone who's had ME will know that you can get through the bad days, and if there is hope the other end even better.

I stuck to the diet religiously and many meals were fine. I've sen much worse Elimination Diets where you can only eat Pears, Lamb or Lentils and a couple of other things.  It wasn't hard to stick to because I knew what an effect some foods were having on me; within ten minutes of eating some things I would be crawling to my bed, I just wasn't sure what.

Breakfast was the hardest meal.  Call me an old fashioned traditionalist but breakfast was cereal and dairy, or toast and jam.  Eggs in all manner became a staple, with an occasional attempt at nuts, seeds and fruit with Almond Milk.

My greatest discovery though has been my new Juicer.  Why did nobody tell me it tasted so nice?  And it's the first kitchen gadget I've ever bought that I've used consistently, daily, for more than a week.  Every day for the last 15 days I've pulled together a big bowl of mostly veg and masticaced it into rainbow coloured delicious goodness.  I always include apples, but spinach, beetroot, carrot, celery, ginger, cucumber and broccoli stem have all gone in.  I don't even eat Pears!

So two weeks in and I feel amazing.  I've been swimming, walking and been round the block on the new bike I bought.  I have had blips but I think I've been able to them all down to food.  I've now also cut out Citrus (not surprising as I am also a migraine sufferer), the Nightshade family (potato, tomato, pepper, chillies), and after a really bad day Butternut Squash.

I'm now at the beginning of my reintroduction phase.  Yesterday I introduced Brown Rice and made porridge with it for breakfast, but I need to work on the recipe!  

Part of me is loathed to try out things which might have an effect because I don't want to go through the hell it can bring on. But I guess I need to know what I can and can't eat, so needs must.

And finally as a great by product my constant hunger has gone, which was possibly caused by food intolerance or blood sugar problems.

And I've lost six pounds in two weeks!

I feel like Tigger rather than Winnie The Pooh!

Food and ME and I.

I've always had a problem with food, I think I just didn't realise it, or want to realise it until now.

Since my teens I've had migraines, I was diagnosed with Chronic Rhinitis probably fifteen years ago, chips make me cough and I react to our dining room table!

It wasn't until I was getting more and more extreme reactions with my ME that I realised I had to do something about it. To add to the Symptoms of ME I was eating some things and within fifteen minutes had to go and sleep; I felt as if I'd been poisoned. The resulting symptoms could last for a couple of days.

Thankfully a friend of my sister's, a Health Coach in the USA, has come to the rescue and is helping me work out what foods I react to with an elimination diet.

A week in and I'm over the dreadful detox symptoms and feel great; almost like the old me! In a week we start to reintroduce some foods to test my reaction to them.

I know it will be a long process, but I also know even so early on that it will be so worth it!

ME renamed TED

Forget whether it should ME or CFS. I have a new name for it - TED, the Trial and Error Disease.
How many other conditions revolve so much around the patients working out their own treatments? Would a cancer patient be told 'well we don't know you'll have to try it yourself and see'? I think not.
Maybe we don't help ourselves, or I should say, we help ourselves too much. The kind of people who are predisposed to getting ME are the kind of people who are going to try and sort it out for themselves. They are the kind of people who won't sit around doing nothing, even though that is all they have the energy for.
But, although this wouldn't be my condition of choice, give me something with pills and definitive tests, I'm proud to be one of those who won't metaphorically sit back and not help myself and my ME friends through Trial and Error.

PS feels like more error and lots of trial this week!