Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

You know how I said this is my year to "act" well one of the myriad things that needs action in my life is my health.  Both Andrew and I have been working at doing more exercise together. We are also seriously considering doing yoga this year so although the exercise part of this equation isn't done and dusted it's at least moving in the right direction.

That has me down to diet..and at least in the short term this needs radical change.   As of Monday the 17th I have been sweetener and grain free and plan to be for a month.  Now before everyone starts yelling from all directions this isn't a diet aimed at weight loss.  If I loose weight that would be fine but as it is the diet is actually about rebalancing my body.  It's about remembering what my body feels like when it is working properly, so I can have the opportunity to let it guide me it actually needs to be healthy.

Sweeteners and grains, particularly glutinous grains, are something that tend to be extremely prevalent in modern diets.  Even the less refined ones are not really the best for us at the levels we often eat them and believe me when I say my diet has been biased too heavily that way, for way too long.  Now some people seem to get away with it. Unfortunately for me a while ago I started turning up grain sensitivities that I had never experienced before.

Yes, the girl who until 2 years ago could sit down and eat anything put in front of her, in any volume she chose suddenly started experiencing stomach cramping.. at times, with wheat.  Now this was a blow both financially and mentally.  If most people sit down and write down what they eat over a day many will come up with at least 2 meals where wheat is a central player and probably a couple of snacks as well.  The reason for this is that generally speaking wheat products are readily available and cheap.  All of a sudden my limit was somewhere around 1-2 pieces of bread.  OUCH!

Thankfully I tolerated spelt better but even so, spelt flour is not exactly cheap, and even there I need to watch out and not indulge too far.

Then I decided to go gluten free for a bit, for some now unknown reason.  About a week and a half in I started to get a rash all over my neck with isolated spots on my face.  It took me about 2 weeks to realise the two were connected and then another week to isolate the problem.. Corn.  Ah ha, and not just corn in it's reasonably natural form but seemingly in every form right down to xanthum gum.  Once I removed all the traces of corn I could find my neck cleared up.  The spots on my face though have remained, and I have to take that as a signal that my body is still under stress.  Thus the decision to go sweetener and grain free for a month to see if things improve.

Those that have read here in the past are probably aware we are mostly no dairy vegetarian.  Put all those dietary restrictions together and you have a recipe for.. well, crying.  Thus as the no dairy bit is non negotiable the vegetarian, for the sake of my sanity is currently on hiatus.  By western diet standards even now we are not eating a lot of meat.  There are still a lot of bean dishes in the meal rotation but they are now only around half our weekly meal plan and the vegetable based dishes that pretty much rely on a grain to make up the balance of the protein profile are now balanced with a small amount of meat.

With any luck in a couple of months I will be able to cut back our meat consumption again and maintain my health.. Until then I simply need to cope with the fact that although I don't think our current level of meat consumption is sustainable, right now, it does feel necessary.