I feel I owe you all an update on my ‘boring food only’ diet. If you remember, I started this elimination diet to see whether my snotty nose is caused by food intolerances. I have been on it now for four weeks and while I would love to give you a straight forward answer I find myself swinging between two extremes of feeling about it, probably depending on how tired I am.
At the end of week one of the diet I thought there was something to this intolerance business for sure. I felt so energetic, so good! I had a sense of smell all the time and I won’t bore you with the other details of my health but they had all picked up so much that I just knew that I had finally found (or would shortly find) the magic bullet and my life was never going to be the same.
And then my throat started to hurt. It started and it didn’t stop. And I started to wonder why. I stopped taking the nasal spray that I had been taking just in case it was the cause of the sore throat. I also felt tired again. Then it was time to go back to the doctor and she said it was just a virus and that I would have to wait for it to go away. And I waited, and it did go away.
But now I’m not taking the nasal spray, my nose is snotty again. Not too bad, possibly improving and possibly not. My sense of smell is back to being erratic (possibly better than it was, possibly not). And I don’t feel like I’m back to the excellent levels of energy that I had.
So part of me thinks that perhaps the excellently energetic feeling that I had back in week 2 was due to the mid-semester break, and the not having to give lectures every day. That nothing has changed and I am wasting my time and energy fighting my way through a stupid diet.
And part of me thinks that the diet is actually working and that the reason I feel tired now is that I have more energy and am fitting more in to every day. More energy = more activity = more tired at the end of the day.
Also, if I’m emotionally tired from spending too much time about other people then it doesn’t matter what I eat, I’m still going to feel emotionally tired, even if I’m physically doing really well.
As a science experiment, this one has had too many confounding factors. But because I have started and I have now spent four weeks on this experiment I am going to see it through to the bitter end.
Next stage: The Challenges.
I told DH today that we could have sausages for tea tomorrow night. That I had bought sausages, and that I was going to eat four of them for the sausage challenge. He tried to figure out what kind of ‘ice bucket challenge’ thing this was. I told him it was #awarenessawareness and that I was going to get sponsorship through social media. Not sponsorship towards anything, just general sponsorship. Nah, not really.
The challenges I have been set are pretty weird though. There’s the four sausages with preservatives – sulphites. And the six teddy bear biscuits – atrazine. And the two vegemite sandwiches – MSG and yeasts and stuff. And the plain crisps – not the ones I’m allowed, but the ones with antioxidants in them – that’s going to take a bit of searching. And the 200g chocolate – that one is waiting for a Friday night.
I keep a health diary, I wait a few days after each challenge and see what the effect is, and then try the next one.
I’m hoping that if I react, I react badly. I hope that I can clarify the situation by doing the challenges. Either way, it’s another four weeks of interesting eating.
So that’s my update. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures.