progression

Though, I have still been feeling intermittently crappy this week, I am attributing it to other things (the constant, chronic sinus infection aggravating my lupus.) I talked to my ENT yesterday about it and asked if the chronic infection could be responsible or if I should be seeing a rheumatologist too. He said that he definitely believes it could be the cause, that many people who don't even have lupus feel like they have chronic fatigue syndrome when they have chronic sinus infections. He also said that before he had his surgery, he felt like he had a flu for 7 months. My surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday and I am really optimistic that the surgery combined with this approach to eating will have me feeling a lot better soon.

One very wonderful thing I am noticing while eating this way, is that I am not very hungry. I used to be hungry all the time. I ate 5-6 small meals (or meals and snacks) a day. They were always healthy and nutririous but I would get very light-headed, dizzy and shaky (and cranky) if I didn't eat regularly. I was always thinking about what and when I would get to eat next. I got out of bed specifically with thoughts of breakfast on my mind. That has quite dissipated. I still think about food a lot, but I am not really hungry. I don't even want breakfast for a few hours.

For the first 10 days, I was eating lots and lots of food. I wasn't counting calories or anything, but I was snacking on nuts and berries between meals and eating hearty portions of all of this wonderful, yummy food. A little disappointed with the fact that I wasn't making much headway with this "baby-weight" (if you can still call it that 3.5 years later) and interested in testing this new found lack of hunger, I decided that while I was going aggressive on the auto-immune paleo track, I would also cut calories and see how I do. Since reading Ray Kurzweil's book about life extension and also about the Okinawan's longevity I have been interested in calorie restriction anyway. I just don't have an interest in it, if it makes me miserable (I am done with that lifestyle!)

So, for the last two days I have limited myself to 1200 calories a day, no nuts, no alcohol, no nightshades, no eggs, etc... Yesterday I ate:

Breakfast: 1 pink grapefruit

Lunch: 4oz grilled salmon, salad with lettuce, 1 grated carrot, mushrooms, half an avocado, balsamic vinegar and a dash of olive oil

Snack: an apple and approximately 20 cold shrimp

Dinner: 1 pork loin chop (recipe here: http://gavanmurphy.com/herb-grilled-pork-chops/print/), green beans (cooked in the slowcooker all day with garlic and chicken broth) and 1/2 roasted beet.

Evening: 1/2 apple and Wild Sweet Orange Tea with 1 tsp honey

The wonderful thing is I feel fine and I am not hungry. I think starting out with a relaxed approach and unlimited amounts of the "right" foods got my body ready and regulated my hormones. If I had just jumped into this restriction, I probably would have found it really difficult. Not that I haven't pushed through difficult in the past, but I have done WAY too much of that and I am not interested in living like that anymore. I refuse to return to disordered eating and work everyday to strike a balance that is healthy and sane. Though I do firmly believe that much of the disordered eating of my youth was tied into that fact that I felt miserable and diet was at the heart of it. I just didn't have the solution. I have been dancing around it my whole life.

I am eager to see if this is the solution...