See ya, wheat.

People keep asking me how my diet is going, and have I learned anything yet? I figured an update was due.

Today is the 40th day since I began my investigative eating. I have grown pleasantly accustomed to "no symptoms at all" being the default entry in my journal. I've got a list of about 30 things I can eat with no problems, and another list of several things I'm in the process of re-testing, because I either had a bad reaction the first time, or I ate the item in combination with other things and so couldn't really tell which food was the issue.

I keep the list of things I can eat on a post-it on my wall. Grocery shopping has become much easier. Harris Teeter Express: produce section, dairy case, peanuts from the snack aisle, and I'm out the door.




My ability to DO things hasn't been limited in weeks, which is great. I haven't had to put off a run because my knee hurts, or wash my hair with one hand because my shoulder hurts, or leave the dishes dirty for a couple days because my wrists are too sore to pick up my cast iron skillet. Normal has become the new normal. Which is what I wanted in the first place.

Bad news... I re-tested wheat on Sunday and had two giant bowls of shredded wheat before going to bed. After several straight days feeling 100% fine, I woke up the next morning with both wrists stiff and sore. So I won't be eating wheat for a while, which sucks, but I at least feel confident that I'm not giving up one of my favorite foods for no reason. The relationship between food and pain was pretty clear. So I bid a sad farewell to my cereal collection. It was like the post-breakup purge of things that remind you of your ex. It was hard to do, but I feel better with them out of my house.

I also re-tested beef last night. Same reaction. Later that evening and into the next morning, my hands and wrists were stiff and sore. By this afternoon, I felt fine again. It hurts throwing away the perfectly good leftover beef in the fridge, but it hurts more having pain shooting up the backs of your hands when you're trying to brush your hair. So...I can deal.

Apart from these two specific tests, I had one cheater night last week that confirmed the existence of a relationship between what I eat and whether my joints hurt. I recently have gotten involved in a small at church and there's always snack food. The first time I went to the group I just didn't eat anything, but this past Wednesday I decided I was tired of being rude and not eating their food. So I had potato chips, ranch dip, mixed nuts, red wine, wheat thins...I don't even remember what else. Some chicken salad spread, or something? Anyway, the next morning my wrists were both puffy and sore, a knee hurt, a shoulder hurt, and an elbow hurt. Tada!

So, what now?

I've been trying a new food every day or two, and recording how I feel every day. Today I tried bacon. I REALLLLYYY hope I feel fine tomorrow. Pork has been okay, so I'm hoping that the handful of unintelligible additives in my Oscar Mayer bacon don't trigger any problems.

According to the magical Dr. Mansfield and his book, and everything I've read on the internet, what I need to do now is cut out any foods that cause problems for a period of at least six months. During this time, allegedly, my body has the potential to "heal" itself, or to repair my "leaky gut" or "intestinal permeability" or in some other way get its shit together. After I've given it a break from whatever was causing problems, I should (again, theoretically) be able to reintroduce problem foods slowly and gradually, and hopefully then be able to tolerate them in moderation going forward.

I guess I'll see what happens. At this point, I'm not madly craving carbs the way I was for a while. As long as they're not paraded in front of me (someone brings brownies to a meeting, or there's leftover cake sitting around at school)...I don't really miss them very much. I've been kind of amazed at how your body can really learn to stop WANTING certain things - it really feels like kicking an addiction. I've stopped feeling like I need to have a pile of starch to feel full by the end of a meal. Today for lunch I had an orange, a banana, a bunch of grapes, a bunch of carrots, and some cheese. I felt perfectly satisfied by the end, whereas I used to feel like I needed a muffin or a granola bar or some bread to feel full. So it's reassuring to know that my body seems to be impressively capable of adapting.

So I guess we'll just keep seeing how things go. I'm incredibly thankful to feel solidly and consistently GOOD on a daily basis. I'd kind of gotten used to having one knuckle or another be stiff on any given morning, or having my shoulders feel sore every morning, or having my wrists twinge with pain if I moved them too far in one direction. I've started running regularly and I'm trying to actually get in some kind of semi-adequate shape for the first time in a while. I can finally rely on my body to be fully functional all the time, instead of thinking "Well, I can start thus-and-such exercise program but it's all going to get screwed up if my [insert critical body part] starts acting up."

I've got an appointment scheduled with my rheumatologist in March, but I'm going to cancel. I'm much happier eating food than I would be taking drugs. Until I have cause to do otherwise, I'll continue giving my body the benefit of the doubt, and trusting that it's much more capable of taking care of itself than I (or the medical establishment) give it credit for.