Days 8-10

Hey there.

I am still on the diet although a winged version of phase 2.  My hunger has returned a bit and I’ve definitely been eating more but much less than I used to and the diminished amount of carbs seems to be keeping my heartburn in check which is fabulous.  I had some heartburn Tuesday after a meal out but there was a REALLY tasty sauce on the fish I had which usually points to garlic and thus….  I ate out again last night without garlic, with a few sips of my bf’s beer and even some wasabi and had no problem at all.  Really wondering how much the carbs have been throwing me off….

Basically what I’ve been doing is eating what I was before, aiming to eat at least 2-3 servings of veg a day for my digestion and then adding one starch serving per day and maybe fruit, maybe not.  I’m trying to have some treats but keep it to around 100 calories when I do that.  So far so good.  I’m trying (and succeeding) to do the diet I did a few years back when I was about 25 lbs lighter than I am now.  Having tastes over super size portions (which slight undereating seems to be critical for my heartburn and IBS stuff).

The addition of the carbs has definitely helped my IBS though.  I’m now going to the bathroom once per day and it’s not difficult.  For a very long time I could not eat so much veg but I’m doing pretty well with that this time around – anywhere from 2-5 servings per day with – maybe -a fruit serving.  I’d say 90% of the veg is cooked which is always better for me.  Any fruits are all things that are not at all appropriate for South Beach (raisins, dried apricot, banana) but my stomach tolerates them well so whatever.  For grains I’ve had quinoa, rice (in sushi) and tonight I’m having some sort of medley with couscous in it.  I’m sticking to about 1/2-3/4 of a cup for the carb portions.

I also feel much MUCH less wonky with a little carbs in my life.  Like wow, completely different. Less spaced out, less dizzy, less THIRSTY, less achy and less dead tired.  What has not changed is that I’m irritated.  This – to me – is less about the diet and more about not eating my feelings.  I eat when I’m feeling annoyed by people/situations which turns out to be often and I’m not doing that right now.  I also eat when I’m working too hard without a break. I’m blowing off an event tonight to take care of myself in that regard.  It’s tough for me to do that but I’m realizing it’s necessary.  Self-care is critical.  My mental idea of what I can do is not always in alignment to what my MIND actually needs. Still learning that one.

So that’s where I am.  Still low carb with a carb serving and maybe a fruit.  I’m away all this weekend and eating on the fly so it’ll be interesting to see WHAT I can find to eat (hard to find cooked vegetables at a fast food place) – sort of dreading not eating well – but it is what is going on.  Hoping for at least the ability not to just eat bread all weekend or the sad fast food salad.  Wendy’s might be a save.  We’ll see.  Wish me luck!

 

Day 7, Recap

Super tired this morning as I mentioned after 9 hours of sleep. Whew.

B at 8a:

2 scrambled eggs with a serving of asparagus, mushrooms and feta scrambled in

S at 10:45a:

Baby bel (these have not been a problem since that first day – score as they are tasty!)

11:25a:

Feeling really hungry today. Weird.  Hoping I brought enough for lunch; otherwise, nuts it is!

12:45p:

Holding out for lunch until 1p but I am really hungry today. So weird.  I had that huge breakfast!  Wow, cramps, like the doubled over kind.  Oof – not fun at office. So positive, I’m sort of moving stuff out of colon more often (just got some movement there but not fully).  Negative, I’m constipated so nothing’s moving so easily and cramps!  Hoping the addition of brown rice or sweet potato helps this.

Lunch at 1p:

• 4 oz or so of turkey
• 1 c. roasted summer squashes
• 1 c. roasted carrots

1:45p:

Already hungry.  Not sure what’s up with me.  Also went to bathroom again.  As I said, slow going but at least there is progress, right? Stomach just feels a little weird today.

3p:

15 almonds

Dinner at 5p:

• Cobb Salad – lettuce, carrot, avocado, bacon, turkey, little bit of feta and olive oil
• Cashews

Wow, super meh dinner.  Was excited to eat out but this salad was LAME.  I added the cashews b/c I’ve been so hungry today which is weird.  Not sure why this day is different from other days.

Snack at 9:30p:

Cheese stick

I never eat this late but I was hungry. Again.  Also the bf was eating popcorn and, being hungry, I wanted to eat something ‘on plan’ so I would keep my stomach going okay.

Truth be told, though, my stomach was weird all day.  I moved my bowel 2X but never really felt GREAT.  I’m super tired and eager for sleep.  More tomorrow.

 

Good morning, reflections….

Today I start day 7 and have reached the end of the first week. Whew.   Observations of this week/weekend (it’s Monday today):

• I am desperately thirsty all the time despite drinking a lot.
• I am pretty achy, more so than usual, and when I roll my body does not seem so tight – what?
• Stomach is mostly quiet.
• A little burping but nothing even remotely approaching ‘reflux.’
• I am never hungry until I am and then a protein snack knocks it out for at least an hour.
• My sugar/dark chocolate cravings are gone.
• I really really wanted treats as I worked this weekend.  Noticing this allowed me to reflect that I pretty much take breaks over these work periods by eating snacks and watching TV.  When I’m working on these huge school projects, I get very overwhelmed. This weekend, I was able to just watch TV and drink water to get through it but the snacking is clearly habitual b/c, until I was distracted, I was craving the snacks like a junkie and even when I got through it I was impatient and short-tempered.  I ended up hand sewing more than usual due to wanting to not snack – which worked – but sometimes I’m watching TV to get AWAY from sewing so I’ll have to work that out.  In any event, good to know.
• I am still intensely tired.  I slept 9 hours last night and had to FORCE myself to get up today and still felt tired leaving for work.

Last night, I did some quick internet research about the fatigue and thirst.  Apparently you can go beyond mild ‘acidosis’ (the goal) into something called ‘ketoacidosis’ (not the goal) which is not as healthy and can also lead to kidney stones.  What?  In any event, the extreme thirst is the warning sign of that.  Other symptoms are extreme fatigue and more aches than usual.   Hmm.

In that light, I thought I’d move onto Phase 2 of South Beach sooner than later.  I don’t want to ding the weight loss (which is clearly happening) but I also don’t want to overtax my system especially as the semester begins to wind down.  I did a half hour study of the book last night and that lead me to another South Beach/IBS conundrum:  It looks like P2 is pretty much adding 1 serving of low glycemic carbs – which are often high-fiber which, due to the IBS, I can’t digest, and some lower sugar fruits which again, due to IBS, I can’t digest.  That said, there are a few things I do eat on the acceptable list so I’m going to add them back in, a little at a time, to make sure I don’t throw my stomach off.  I’d really like to maintain this level of peace as long as possible if not on a more permanent (as much as anything is permanent) basis.  The foods I digest well are:

• small amounts of sweet potato
• small amounts of brown rice
• green peas

I’ve had terrific success with sweet potato in the past.  It’s one of my super safe foods so that’s awesome that it is there.  I’m going to add half a sweet potato a few times this week to my dinner to see if it helps with the fatigue and thirst without changing my reflux or IBS situation.

As for fruit, my one safe fruit – banana – is still verboten. Ooops on that one.  Almost everything else is super sketchy in other than ‘flavoring’ (1-2 bites) amounts.  I live a life of almost no fruit now, so I’m going to keep that going for the first few weeks of P2 so I can really get a feel for the carb experiment to see its impact, testing each carb on its own for a few days.  This is a great opportunity to determine if I’m NOT doing as well on a currently ‘safe food’ as I thought I was.  Of course everything is a bit of a reach due to this work lunch tomorrow (I’ve eaten at this restaurant before.  I’m not sure they even HAVE plain protein and veg (it’s Italian pizza/pasta and it’s already a challenge to stay away from garlic and tomato there which are total no-gos for me)) but I’m going to do my best.  I think if I have real fallout from lunch, I’ll likely do P1 for a few more days to clear out and then add my beloved sweet potato.

Ultimately, I’m very comfortable on the diet as I’m on it now.  If I were feeling no side effects, I’d just keep going, but the achyness and fatigue are super intrusive so they’ve got to go.   Work in progress but I’m really loving the relative stomach silence I’m getting. I’m almost like a normal person.  Wow.

 

Day 6

I was in more of a groove today with the diet and got a little creative.  Stomach is doing well (although I just ate dinner with a lot of dairy so we’ll see). Here’s a recap:

B:  1 c. Fage 2% plain

L:   Chicken salad* and Carrots and Hummus

S:    Baby bel

S:    15 almonds

D:    Taco Salad**

Chicken Salad:  Half a chicken breast mixed with Miracle Whip (which is suspect is NOT on South Beach, oh well) and chopped almonds and served in a lettuce roll up.  Was tasty enough.

Taco Salad:  Half a hamburger cooked with 1 c. black beans with cumin and coriander, mixed with 2T of shredded cheddar and half a plain greek yogurt over lettuce.  Very tasty.

Other pertinent facts:

I’m a bit constipated.  I don’t feel badly and I did actually clear out this afternoon (after lunch ended up with deep cramping for about 10 minutes and then it cleared out) but I think the lack of carbs is leaving me a bit slow.  In point of fact, whenever I was constipated before, I could count on a dinner including rice to move things along.  I’m hoping as I eat more vegetables (which I really didn’t do too much of today after all), this will be less of an issue.

Had enough free time to roll out which is good b/c I’m really feeling like my legs and ankles are tight.  This is putting a HUGE crimp in my ability to exercise.  I’m going to restart my achilles tendonitis PT stuff (just a little) to see if it helps. Otherwise, off to the chiro.  That said, my back and hips are in pretty good shape which is nice.

I’m feeling super tired.  Some of it I suspect is from school work but I’m hoping to get some real sleep tonight.

Tomorrow is Day 7!  Wow, have almost made it through a week of this.  My goal is 14 days total, which will take a little over 2 weeks as I think there may have to be some breaks in there due to a business lunch on Tuesday and a weekend away next weekend.  But I’m going to attempt to stay on the low carb.  I’m really feeling overall well with no heartburn.  That almost never happens.  We’ll see if my body is just having a moment or if there’s something real going on.  Interesting.

Day 5

Yes, there is a day 5.  It was a little touch and go as I was running out to Pilates this morning but it dawned on me.  Tired, yes.  Bored with food, yes.  Heartburn, practically non-existent, even after the Bunny incident of last night.  Hmm.

I really want to live in a world of no-to-little heartburn.  IBS, I can deal with but the heartburn really drives me bananas.  So that led me to skip ‘picking up a Clif bar’ on the way to Pilates (even though I really wanted that for breakfast) and to nuke up a couple chicken-maple sausages and eat them quickly instead.  I’d like to see if the heartburn thing is temporary or if – like other people have reported – this diet really helps that.  If so, I will make this work.  It’s important to me.

I’ve scrapped my food plan (too rigid) but have made notes of things that challenge me.  I’m working and taking classes with a lot of work attached to them.  I need to be able to not have to cook each day.  I *prefer* to eat fresh food but it’s just not tenable.  So when I came home from Pilates (having picked up plain almonds as a post-Pilates snack – easy to get everywhere , must remember that), I made 6 hard boiled eggs and roasted up Asparagus and baby carrots so I’d have them for the week.  Then I ate the crock pot chicken I’d blown off with carrots and hummus for lunch.  Easy enough.

Finished my frozen bananas for a snack and just finished a great dinner of scrambled eggs with feta, mushrooms and asparagus with a side of sausage.  I’m still hungry so I’ll eat a cheese stick.

So my new list is:

Keep handy protein on hand – Fage, cheese sticks, supermarket turkey

Keep cooked veg on hands.  If no time, roast up baby carrots b/c you don’t even have to wash or clean them.  Also frozen spinach for omelets.

Breakfast doesn’t have to be eggs.  It can be chicken or fish or even a hamburger.  I love eggs for dinner – but if I eat them what to have for breakfast; well why not dinner?

I need to get more bananas and avocado.  I love these things – I’ve run out. I need to keep foods I love around.

So today:

B: 2 sausages

S: 15 almonds

L: half roasted chicken breast, fair number of carrots with hummus

S: 1/2 frozen banana

D: 2 scrambled eggs, sausage, feta, asparagus and mushrooms

S: babybel (we’ll see if I survive this time!)

Good night!

South Beach, Day 4

3p and I’m bored.  Let’s recap the day though.

Pretty much sticking with my food as described this morning.  Still woke up too late to roll or meditate although a cup of Tazo Zen tea (green) was drunk this morning and really did help to wake me up.  (Since I almost never drink caffeine, even a cup of tea can help me.)

Breakfast at 8:00a:

• scrambled eggs
• sausage

Tasty but meh, totally over eggs.  And I like eggs. Hmm.

Super busy here at work so I was very aware when I got ‘actually’ hungry for a snack:

Snack at 11:15a:

1/2 2% plain Fage and some enzymes

Tasty and did the job at least for a bit.

Lunch at 1p:

Again, suddenly hungry so I stopped working and ate:

• Couple slices of turkey
• many carrots (20?) with hummus

I’m suddenly having some heartburn (it’s 3p) after nothing all day which reminded me to type this up.  I suspect the tea and is why I don’t normally DO tea but really this is so minor I suspect it will pass when I snack.

Snack at 3p:

15 almonds. Yum.

‘Dinner’ at 7p:

Rest of Easter Candy: Reese’s Bunny.

Oh well.

Day 4 – is it?

Having a sort of rough time here, although my stomach is feeling great.  So I’m torn.  I’m just so tired (not sleeping – suspect hormones) and I’m super bored with the food which really, is that such a big deal? It’s been three days.  The degree to which I’m unhappy makes me think this is more mental than anything else.  It’s not like it’s been weeks without something.

Oddly enough, I’m not missing sugar at all (despite the chocolate last night) but rather carbs and the ‘comfort of food’.  There’s nothing really comforting about these meals.  They are healthy and that’s it.  The fatigue is a likely contributor too (I got about 5 hours of sleep last night).  But I’m bored to a degree that I’m not cooking which I don’t hate to do (although I am busy).

Today’s meal plan is eggs/sausage; turkey with carrots and hummus for lunch, crockpot chicken breast (cooking now) with asparagus and pea pods (which veg I’ll have to make later) for dinner – snacks of Fage, almonds and banana for dessert. This is not a terrible food day but I resent it because I’m realizing how much ‘treats’ get me through the day.  I resent it even though I’m not hungry and my stomach is better than it’s been in a long time, despite its moments, and that overall I feel way less bloated than usual (although I doubt I’ve lost any actual weight yet).  The brain is weird.

South Beach, day 3

Rough morning. I feel like I said this yesterday. I completely overslept, missed doing about half the things I usually do (no rolling, no meditation) and barely made it to work on time.   I also completely screwed up my food for today and after yesterday feel like the plan I made is completely blown and maybe I should just throw in the towel on this whole thing….

But I am a resourceful person and I’m determined to be creative and pull out some great meals today that are (a) not (totally) the same as yesterday and (b) not too labor intensive because I have another full day ahead of me. I managed to make 2 fried eggs and grab half an avocado out of the fridge as I ran out the door.  Surely between this and the supermarket near my office and leftovers here in office fridge I can come up with something?

Positives:

My hair looks great today.  Not sure why but I’ll take it.

My ankle which has been bugging me (old injury) due to too much activity last week actually felt better today (perhaps the few stretches I did last night? or the time off I’ve given it since Sunday?) and I got in a 25 minute walk today and it still feels fairly good.

Supplements:

I did manage to take these before I ran out of the apartment.

• 2 fish oil
• 1 black currant oil
• 1 Align probiotic

Breakfast at 8:30a at office:

• 2 Fried eggs in EVOO
• 2 Applegate chicken-maple sausages (office freezer!)

Drinking water.  I really feel like this diet is making me more tired or it could be hormones/PMS combined with rainy morning but I felt SO TIRED when I went to bed (but then didn’t sleep for half an hour) and just felt laid out this morning and confused.  Hoping this passes soon – I have a lot to do!

Tonight was supposed to be crockpot chicken but I forgot to set it up.  The chicken was actually supposed to be LAST night’s meal as well but I got sidelined by having to take dinner (and not be home for dinner) to the meeting last night.  So now it will be TOMORROW’S dinner but honestly, I may make it while I work tonight and eat it for lunch tomorrow because I’d scheduled a special treat of sauteed scallops (my favorite) tomorrow and honestly I think I deserve that at this point. We’ll see.

So what can I make that’s quick tonight and different?  If I hadn’t had eggs this morning I’d say eggs as I like that for dinner.  I’m thinking perhaps I’ll thaw a chicken breast or 2 and make a stir fry of chicken, peapods (which I have) and carrots (which I have) in Coconut aminos.  Stomach friendly and tasty.  The trick will be to make it filling enough so I’m not hungry without the rice which would normally be a component to this dish.  I also do want to roast up some asparagus and saute up some mushrooms which I’ve had for days and are not going to last much longer.  I’m determined to figure this out.  Anyway, off to work….

11:45a Feeling a-okay.  Stomach 95% silent this morning even after the spicier sausage. Cool.  Still no colon action.  Nothing since Tuesday. Hmm.

Snack at 11:45a:

• 1/2 Fage 2% plain yogurt
• 4 Now Super Enzymes

Sometimes these enzyme capsules help me with dairy.  After the other day, better safe than sorry.  We’ll see.  Experiment!

12:45p

Wow, hungry.  Off to pick up some lunch.

Lunch at 1:15p:

• 3 oz. roast turkey (the nice kind)
• 1/3 avocado
• 1 c. leftover roasted carrots
• 1 c. leftover roasted squash

Big lunch. Perhaps too big but I thought I’d just kill the last of my office leftover vegetables.  Actually a little cramping DURING eating (passed after 5 minutes), perhaps due to the volume of food or the fact that my colon is on vacation (apparently).  My actual lunch tasted pretty good once I was eating it but much like when I was doing Paleo, I just have no appetite for this food, good taste or not.  We’ll see if a few ‘recipe’ meals can change that. I hope so.

3p:

Got very crampy for 5 minutes and finally cleared out my colon (as much as it ever is).  Things seem a little… smoother than normal but given I’ve had no carbs for 3 days, I think that’s probably to be expected.  Also got my period which should mean better sleep tonight and cramps of a different variety – I’ll deal. For now, I feel good and not hungry.  I’m making a little pack of almonds to take with me this afternoon as I won’t be home until about 6p. I hope I don’t starve!

Snack at 5:45p

15 almonds while walking around

I am SO TIRED.  Could be anemia which I get sometimes (and period) but I’m exhausted after 1.5 hours in the garment district.  I could lay right on the street and fall asleep. And I have a lot to do tonight. Ugh.

Dinner at 6:45p:

I just couldn’t with dinner.  In an effort to stay on the diet and not cook:

• hamburger
• large portion raw carrots and red pepper hummus
• half banana with cinnamon

I really need to do some cooking, even tonight (that chicken breast is going to go bad) but I also need to do school stuff and also really need some down time.  Hoping this dinner doesn’t upset my stomach.  Hummus has been untried lately and raw stuff *sometimes* does not go over well.  We’ll see.

Pooped.

7:10

Easter candy: 20 dark chocolate cadbury eggs/15 jelly beans.

It is what it is.

South Beach, Alex version, Day 2

8:45a

Off to a slow start today.  Got involved in a project for class last night and got to sleep late which meant I slept through rolling and meditation but I did make breakfast so that’s good.  That said, I should make a few hard boiled eggs so I have a grab-able breakfast for emergencies.

Morning supplements:

• 1 Fish Oil
• 1 Black Currant Oil
• Align probiotic

Breakfast at 8a:

• Turkey bacon in EVOO
• Eggs scrambled in turkey bacon debris.

Tasty, but I look forward to having leftover asparagus and/or mushrooms so I can make a feta/veg scramble, mix it up a bit.  Will cook that soon.

Snack at 11a:

• 15 almonds

Was planning on half a Fage 2% but still feeling a bit ‘wary of dairy.’  I have a very long day ahead of me today.  Need to keep things calm.  So far, stomach is silent.

Just getting through 1st 20oz water.

11:15a

Stomach acting weird.  Oh, come on.  If this becomes an issue, I’m going to not snack tomorrow and see if it’s just the time of day or putting food into my stomach is pissing it off for whatever reason. I felt completely fine pre-snack.  Annoying.

11:40a

After a lot of gas, seems to be calm-ER but not perfectly okay.  Think I may just be slow in the colon this morning….

Lunch at 1:15p:

• hamburger
• 1 c. roasted carrots (leftovers)
• 1 c. roasted squash (leftovers)

Stomach felt better since about noon but I haven’t been hungry.  That said, after eating lunch, I still feel hungry (realized how hungry I was when I started to prep lunch).  So we’ll see.  Hoping for a quiet afternoon but just burped post-lunch so it remains to be seen.

On 3rd 20oz cup of water.

2p:

Feel a little weird (heavy stomach feeling) but so far so good. YAY!

2:20p:

On 4th 20oz water.  I really really really want a piece of dark chocolate.  Dark chocolate isn’t even my ‘jam.’  Weird.

4p:

Yeah, totally have the munchies.  I have a long night ahead of me so I decided to have some snacks.

Snack at 4p:

• 1T almond butter off the spoon
• Half frozen banana with cinnamon

TMI, but this whole blog is TMI so… but I think I’m a little constipated.  Been crampy off and on all day but no action.  Taking turkey roll ups with me tonight and hopefully will get dinner around 6p and then that’s it for food for the night.

Reflections:

I really have not been deprived/hungry at all all day.  Very strange.  My mind is hungry but my stomach seems satiated.  I got hungry this morning, ate almond snack and it passed quickly (IOW, it didn’t take a lot to get me to not hungry again).  I recall that the last time I did this I did go through a munchie craving phase for a few days when I started out. I’m totally there again and trying to mentally push through that.  My body wants junk and carbs and comfort, etc. but I really do want to drop some weight so I soldier on without indulging.  We’ll see if I can get through the day! I’m doomed if there are snacks at the event I’m going to tonight. My resolve knows limits and I think, should be they tested today, I would fail big time. We’ll see.

Dinner at 6p:

Turkey rollups with avocado

Not exciting but I was eating on the fly so this was a handy and tasty enough ‘throw in the purse’ meal.  Tomorrow I REALLY need to change up the food as I am bored after the same thing 2 days in a row.  Sadly, I suspect I am having the turkey rollups for lunch but I’m hoping to have some roasted d different veg for dinner Yum.

I am not feeling so great this afternoon/tonight (typing this at 9:40p).  A little dizzy and very gunky. Perhaps I’m getting sick, although I feel like I recall getting an almost cold when I did this diet before – something about a ketosis hangover or something that goes away in a couple days.  In any event, I am still not at all hungry which is just weird but I’ll take it.  I’m also really tired and going to bed.  All in all another good day and stomach is *silent* (although I also haven’t had any colon activity today at all so not sure what’s up….)

Good night!

Supplements at night:

• 1 fish oil
• 1 black currant oil
• 2 prescript assist probiotics
• Singular
• 400 mg. Mucinex (SO GUNKY – drowning. not fun).

South Beach, Alex-version, Day 1

I made notes over the course of the day.  My stomach got upset after a cheese serving at 11a and I had to make some changes on the fly to accommodate it.  In the interest of keeping records, I posted my planned menu anyway and then crossed out what I did not end up eating and posted replacement foods in red.

***

It is 10a and I am 2 hours out from breakfast.  Feel a little gunky (asthma? allergies? non-acidic feeling reflux? who knows!) but overall pretty good. Excellent start to the day so far.

Breakfast at 8a:

• 2 slices turkey bacon, fried in olive oil spray
• 2 eggs, beat and scrambled in the turkey bacon/oil debris

Thoughts at 10a:

I am not hungry yet so that’s cool.

The turkey bacon was good but honestly turkey bacon feels like eating THE MOST PROCESSED THING EVER but my stomach seems to be liking it so fair enough.

Body stuff:  I rolled out my body with the foam roller for 20 minutes before work.  I started doing this about a year ago and it helps my back and hip tension (I sit a lot at work).  I also think it helps my circulation stuff of yore.  Ultimately, I hate it but it’s worth it.

I am halfway through my first 20 oz of hot water ‘tea’ – also a regular habit that seemed to fix my circulation issues of yore.  Going to try to get through 3 of these at the office today.

Meditated for 10 minutes pre-work.

Morning supplements taken:

• 1 Now Black Currant Oil
• 2 Wiley’s Best Daily EPA Fish Oils
• Align probiotic

***

Snack at 11a:

Mini Babybel Gouda.

It’s hard to tell when I’m hungry or when my stomach is just acting up.  Started feeling maybe hungry at about 10:40 and by 11 was fairly sure I was hungry and thus, cheese time. These Babybel things are not low-fat.  South Beach would say it should be low fat but I’m cool with this.  Fat is filling after all (and to be fair, this thing has like 70 calories – whatevs)

Until 10:30, stomach was pretty quiet.  Then some very very minor burping.  Lots of gunk but again, allergies.  I’m also sort of wheezy today.  We’ll see how the day goes.

I’m eating this a little stressed out due to snobbery on the WSJ.  Hopefully that won’t contribute to funkiness (Facebook is closed now).

Halfway through 2nd 20oz water.  Go me, sort of.  I am crazy thirsty today.  Due to allergies, I took a Mucinex before bed last night and now am paying the dehydration price. Makes drinking easier though.

***

11:40a

Feel allergyish – tongue itches, coughing.  We’ll see.

12p

Stomach feels a little off.  Too much dairy?  Something with the cheese? We’ll see.

12:15p

Stomach definitely did not like the cheese which is a bummer b/c so tasty.  Also our office bathroom is under repair so I have to take an elevator to a bathroom.  Yikes.  This is not fun. Not sure how to get through lunch or if I should even eat it.  Will eat carefully. On 3rd thing of water.

***

Lunch at 1p:

Had to make some adjustments due to stomach:

• Burger (cooked last night)
• 1 c. roasted carrots (coated in EVOO, nothing else)
• 1.5 c. roasted summer squashes

Was starving but eating half of lunch seemed like a good idea.  Carrots are usually a safe bet – we’ll see.

Bathroom is fixed now – score!!

***

2:30p

Overall feeling pretty quiet in the stomach.  Holding pattern.  Sadly, though, hungry.

Finishing 4th 20oz water.  Very thirsty today.

***

Snack at  3:45p:

Mozzarella stick

15 almonds

1 tablespoon almond butter off the spoon

Same calories as a serving a real almonds? No brainer after a long hard day.

4:10-4:45 – nap!  Did not expect that.  Suspect hungover from stomach issues.

***

Dinner at 5:30p:

Zzzz Chef Salad which is 2-3 oz. deli turkey, 2 oz. swiss, 1/4 avocado chunked, 1″ cuke chunked, cup of lettuce, 2 T feta and EVOO.

Going to baby my stomach tonight and go in a different direction for dinner.  Above was the retrofit ‘salad’ I was aiming for but given the stomach freakout earlier and as I have class tonight I’m going more basic:

Turkey roll ups:  4 deli turkey roll ups filled with avocado mash (1/3 avo total). No veg. 

Dessert:  half a frozen banana with cinnamon on top.  I wasn’t planning on dessert today and for bullshit reasons fruit is forbidden on Phase 1 of SB while fake sugar crap is ‘allowed as dessert’ but in the interest of being full, I had some banana. So so good.

10:30p

Made it through class with a totally calm stomach.  My stomach is weird – sometimes it freaks out and is a mess for a week and some days it is just completely better (although I feel sketchy for a few hours) after I go to the bathroom.  Thankfully today was one of those latter days.  That said, tomorrow I’m going to pretty much eat what I did today without the cheese as I have a busy day and these are my safest foods.

I’ll be honest.  I really REALLY resent when I get sick from eating healthy food.  If I get sick after snarfing a bag of Doritos, I’m good with paying the price.  But eating something that should be fine (and is usually/often fine) and then feeling terrible – the unpredictability being a hallmark of IBS for many people – is maddening.  A big part of me wanted to come home from work and just eat junk food b/c I was sick anyway.  That said, I didn’t do that – I napped instead – and I’m amazed that I made it through the first day of the diet without ‘cheating’ per se especially given the hunger/feeling crappy aspect of the day.  Losing weight is always tough for me – I hate to be denied but today I made it through.  This is no real milestone; it’ll be just as difficult tomorrow especially since I am concerned I am undereating a bit to avoid certain foods.  I’m going to try to eat a little more tomorrow.  Worst case scenario, I’ll eat a rice cake or two with almond butter just to fill me up. This is not about starving after all.  Still, my experience last time I got on the path of healthy eating is that not binging and building up a history of dealing with my stress without food does make it easier to not use food like that over time.  It’s not a straight path – there will be struggles and I’m sure failures but hopefully not tomorrow!  See you then.

Evening supplements:

• 2 Prescript-Assist probiotics
• 1 Wiley’s Best Fish Oil
• 1 Black Currant Oil
• Singular (asthma prescription)

Good night!