The first day of a 4 day weekend.....

I do love the holidays and the long weekends back to back. I wish every week was only 3 days long.

For the past 6-8 months I've been having some dietary issues. It really all began 2 years ago when my blood sugar went crazy during the Honolulu marathon and I didn't think I was going to finish it. I've had blood sugar issues for years but that was the worst episode ever. At that point I realized I needed to get this under control. Some reading revealed that wild swings in blood sugar levels can cause brain damage - yikes!!! So I began serious work on my diet.

I spent a lot of time reading and learning about blood sugar and then started trying to learn which things effected me. Not being one who can eliminate things completely, cold turkey, I took it slow. I would eliminate one item then slowly add it back in to see if that was what was bothering me. This went on for a while. I've pretty much got the blood sugar thing under control. I've even learned that by keeping it steady the majority of the time, I can have sugary things without throwing it out of whack.

But now, for the last 2-3 months, I've been noticing other problems. At certain times I get very bloated and uncomfortable. I've tried to figure out what it causing it, but my hit or miss method is not working. I've decided it's time for drastic action. I'm going to cut everything out of my diet except fruits, vegetables, and meat. If it didn't swim, fly, run, or grow in the ground, I'm not eating it. I'm doing that for 2 weeks then I will start slowly adding things back into my diet to try and figure out what is disagreeing with me. I'm not thrilled about doing this but when the bloating happens it is so incredibly painful that it's not worth eating whatever is causing it. So, it's time to find out. Also, I'll only be so restrictive for 2 weeks. Just long enough to clean out the system and start fresh so to speak.

One of the things I have to eliminate is caffeine. When I was seeing the nutritionist about my blood sugar, she told me to cut out caffeine. Caffeine can play hell with your blood sugar because of the "excitement" in your system it causes. I of course, knew better, and refused to give it up. But I did cut back to just about 1/2 a cup a day. Well, it's time to cut it out completely and see if that's one of my problems. Today is my first day without my morning coffee. I know I can do it, I've kicked drugs, cigarettes, drinking. I also know it won't be pretty. That's why I've chosen to start today and to do it first. I have 4 days to get over the crankiness, tiredness, jumpy feelings before I go back to work. I'm not starting the 'diet' until the 2nd but I want to get the caffeine out of the way first.

So if I get cranky and bitchy, you'll know why :)