Friday, August 9, 2013

The Great Dietary Shift of 2013

It all started with the sudden onset of weird not really itchy hives at the end of the day, toward the end of November of 2012. They would get progressively worse as time went on – the totally worthless dermatologist tried to give me medicine for my rosacea and then recited a portion on the WebMD entry on idiopathic hives; while looking at the wall behind me and told me to take lots of Benadryl. Oh and a number for a guy that could do the full workup of allergy testing. So, I stopped using my favorite perfume and lotion (Twirl, my new signature cent) because I had started really wearing that at this time.  I was a splotchy mess at my brother’s wedding, on the bright side – I matched my dress!! 
Then one day in May while eating my yummy lunch of tuna and red bell pepper – I EXPLODED in hives within 20 minutes of finishing my meal. I was not very happy about it, but I cut the nightshades from my diet and almost immediately the damn hives were much less.  This is a serious blow to my cooking because I used tomatoes in some form in almost every day (which, now that I look back, DUR!).  Chili’s and salsas are out. My favorite treat: French Fries are out. A totally serious bummer, y’all, I got totally depressed.  I would stand in my kitchen and almost cry because everything I wanted to make had nightshades in it and I had to figure out how to alter it to remove nightshades. We ate a lot of curry till I started getting my bearings. 
I also started drinking way too much – what had been a glass of wine at dinner was morphing into 2 or 3 glasses.  It had more to do with some sort of sixteen year old logic of if I can’t do X then I’ll do Y, so there neener neener. Totally useful. 
I am very aware of my body, where I had put on some weight in muscle; I had also been putting on quite a bit of fat from all the wine. My belly was starting to flop over by pants, not so sexy feeling. Which brings us to: Starting last Sunday (so just over a week ago) I cut sugar and alcohol completely from my diet for 30 days. I’m calling it my Whole-ish 30 because I am still eating some sugar in the form of fruits (because otherwise they would go bad and I can’t bring myself to waste money like that).  I am happy to report in my first week I have lost 7 pounds, and the flopping belly is much less.  This is my 3rd challenge of this sort; I have found that periodically I need to do these to keep myself in line, those cheat meals have a habit of getting out of hand.  (I do these outside of my Crossfit box and their Paleo Challenges because 1) I have already “won” a challenge and 2) I am very unhappy with some of the politics going on at my gym at the moment.)
I can almost guarantee that the wine is also a huge factor in the hives; because it has always been a trigger for the rosacea flairs. I am also happy that I have been able to wear my perfume and lotion again, because they were clearly not a cause of the hives. WHOOT!  I also seem to have acquired a great love of sparkling mineral water, which would have nothing to do with using my pretty glasses for my bubbly drinks (usually mixed with lime/lemon or pomegranate juice).
Let’s see what this week brings – PMS and the sugar cravings that go with it (as well as the bloating, blargh).