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!

Is this thing on?

As I start yet another experiment with my eating habits and stomach management, I thought it was a good opportunity to update where things are and also keep notes on how things are going in the moment.

Overall, I’m doing pretty well.  Still off all reflux medication – although my issues come and go, sometimes for as much as a week, usually due to bad eating.  When they are terrible, I take Pepcid AC for a day or two and that usually fixes it.  I also have not had to intervene much with IBS.  After years of taking Magnesium for severe constipation, since the Cipro incident last year (3 days of Cipro to treat a persistent bladder infaction), my IBS-C has become IBS-D which is pretty crazy.  That said, my digestion overall is better and I think I’ve found a balance where I can eat a fair amount of cooked vegetables without going into the D place as easily (when I am overzealous, I use pepto to resolve it).

I have to say my experience with Cipro left me in a better digestive place but much more frustrated with medicine overall.  It cleared the bladder infection but left me running for the bathroom hourly for over a month.  That said, once that sort of resolved itself, I could suddenly tolerate foods (beans in particular) I hadn’t been able to eat for years.  This is what makes all this so frustrating.  There is something ‘off’ with my digestion but medicine has not progressed to a degree where they can a) discern what exactly the problem is and (b) what the fix is.  But my doctor agrees: the Cipro cleaned something out that was not so great and for that, I’m belatedly (now that I feel better 🙂 grateful.

So, where am I now?

A bit overweight actually.  The ability to eat a more broad array of foods and to get back – perhaps, unfortunately – my ability to drink alcohol occasionally and far worse, tolerate all my old favorite junk foods – has created a bit of a chunky situation.  I actually feel my extra chunk is contributing to the increased GERD symptoms of late.  Inspired by my friend Grace, who is one month into the South Beach Diet, I thought I should likewise come up with a structured eating plan for at least a few weeks to try and drop 15 lbs, get back to my usual ‘fighting weight’ and hopefully eradicate the suspected ‘extra GERD symptoms’ I am having of late.

I have done South Beach before.  It was the kickoff for a long period of very healthy eating for me and I recall not being overly hungry (which for GERD is critical).  Back then, I did the two week ‘induction’ thing (no grains, no potatoes, etc. – low carb) and then sort of went off on my own, eating everything but better aware of amounts and with a focus on protein as the filling aspect of my diet.  What I loved about the diet is what I also liked about Atkins (although I found the level of fat on Atkins offputting) – protein and my brain are a great combination. I don’t know why but I feel really ‘normal’ and strong mentally when I eat a fair amount of protein.  I had hoped to have that result when I did Paleo but instead I just felt terrible but I think it was likely the fat aspect of Paleo.

Over the past year, I’ve been focused on eating a variety but leaning toward a more vegetarian diet when possible.  For the planet.  I was a vegetarian for years but it never made me feel really good.  Stomach-wise, I like the fact that I never felt loguey after a meal of beans, rice and veg, but mentally I am finding that I can’t do too many of these meals in a row.  The reasons I left vegetarianism in my 20s still pervade – I tend to get headaches and sometimes even feel shaky or lightheaded without the meat.  I wish I didn’t but I do.

Anyway – could I do South Beach again?  The only real negatives I recalled about South Beach is that the diet itself as presented is heavy on things I cannot eat at all (real garlic, onion and vinegar) or don’t necessary agree with me (wine, spicy stuff, tomatoes).  But a close look at the book led me to believe that basically tweaking most of the suggested meals to suit me, this diet was something that I could do and that wouldn’t be that much different than how I’m eating now (minus the junk food and rice/potato obsession 🙂 so hopefully a moderate ‘change’ won’t completely freak out my stomach as often ‘changes’ do.   I spent about an hour on Saturday making up a week of meals and snacks in Excel and I think it’ll mostly work.  In any event, I’ll post each day what I ate, any ways of cooking that made it tasty and the impact on my IBS and GERD symptoms.  These stomach things seem highly individual but on the off-chance you have these issues and are triggered/not triggered by the same things I am, I hope this info helps.  See you later  tonight/tomorrow with today’s recap…