At the suggestion of a friend, I've decided to blog again. It's only been almost three years. Ooops. I didn't want to start a new blog and I thought maybe my old readers would be interested in this topic, too, so I'm resurrecting The Neurotypical Mom Chronicles. Makes sense to me. I'm still (mostly) neurotypical and I'm chronicling stuff, so I say it works. This time I'm blogging about what I'm eating.
Let's back up to why I'm blogging about food and what led me to start eating in this (perhaps faddish?) way.
I think something hinky is going on with my body. And as far as blood tests go, I'm pretty much normal. I have your usual run of the mill mid-30s mom ailments, but I also have some other more alarming things going on.. Now that I said mid-30s I realize I'm a liar. I'm in my late 30s. Oof. When did that happen? Anyway, I'm always tired. Always. I often run low grade fevers in the afternoon. I have joint pain almost all the time. I have weird muscle weakness and no grip strength. I had a field vision loss in my left eye (which is what started this whole thing!) and it was recently discovered that I have cataracts already. They're tiny, baby "salt and pepper" cataracts, but they're already there. I was incredulous when my eye specialist told me that --- I reminded him I wasn't 75 even though I often feel like it. Let's see what else is wrong with me. Oh! I'm always cold. My feet, hands, the tip of my nose. Cold. I developed a weird skin rash on my cheeks, I've had some intestinal issues off and on, etc. Basically, I have a bunch of little things that are annoying but when they're all going on at the same time I'm miserable. And I refuse to let this be my "normal".
My doctors are all baffled. I was treated for a B12 deficiency in 2013 and my symptoms improved once my numbers went up. I just had more tests run and my D3 is now borderline low. This is alarming to me because it's the end of summer. I was outside a lot. And I take a supplement. I feel like I should have a good, solid number, and I don't.
I promise I'll talk about food soon.
Anyway, doctors don't know what's wrong with me, I don't know what's wrong with me, but something definitely isn't right. Many of my friends suggested many different things. Yoga, did it. Gluten free, tried it. Less stress, I quit my job. Etc. I don't want to rely on prescription medication if I can avoid it, especially the ones that have side effects worse than what I'm already dealing with.
So now I'll discuss food. I read It Starts With Food. And I'm going to try their recommended food plan Whole30. Basically, I'm going to eliminate a bunch of food groups from my diet and see how I feel. And while I think that many of the conclusions they arrived at are not studied nearly enough to substantiate their claims, I really can't see how eating more vegetables, no processed foods, no alcohol, and no refined anything could possibly be bad for me. Who knows? Maybe food really is the best medicine.
Today was Day 1. I survived. I ate a veritable horn of plenty*. Sweet potato, butternut squash, peppers, onions, carrots, cucumber, greens, sugar snap peas. I ate some grilled chicken with a fresh, homemade vinaigrette, hard boiled eggs, avocado. Coffee, black. No dairy. No grains. No legumes. No added sugar. No alcohol (that's easy, it's a school night). I did a ton of prep work today to get ready for the week ahead. I think I can do this. My friend Allison already did it. She reported feeling better, having more energy, etc.
I'm a Type A planner person, so I'm pretty confident that as long as I have a plan and the right foods in my fridge, this will be easy. I did take measurements and I weighed myself today, but that's not what this is about, even though I could stand to lose about 20 lbs. I want my new normal to be a happy me. Me, starring less fatigue, less aches and pains, maybe just a little less bitchiness.
The Whole30 people made no guarantees about bitchiness, though. Apologies to my husband.
*Many thanks to my friend Eric for reminding me of the horn of plenty.
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