Tomorrow is D-Day - the Dreaded Diet Day! > insert groan here <
I've been eating this week like I was sentenced to death on Saturday - trying to have one last taste of some of my favorite foods. We couldn't afford to eat out every meal, but I did manage one last Chick-Fil-A run (with honey mustard and sweet tea! Thanks Mom & Dad!), one last Decaf White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks, one last Apple Cider with caramel sauce, cinnamon, and whipped cream, and Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing (I've been dying to try the recipe!). I'm also going to have some McDonald's french fries with sweet chili sauce this afternoon, a Sonic Cherry Limeade, and then Rusty is taking me out to my favorite place - PF Chang's - for my "last meal". I'll probably scarf down a Hershey Bar before bed (as I am not allowed to have chocolate on this diet - not even a taste!) and that will be the end of "life as I know it"! :(
Can you tell food is one of my love languages? My Dad called the above list my "Bucket List" of food! Haha!
If I'm being honest though - I really haven't enjoyed myself much. For the past few weeks, nothing has really tasted good to me, and I've been dealing with nauseous feelings that come and go (a lot). I've also been EXHAUSTED. Even when I'm not sleepy, my body is tired. Sometimes the smallest tasks leave me worn out and terribly run down. Rusty keeps telling me that will all go away with this diet, and that is really helping to motivate me!
We went shopping yesterday at Whole Foods to prepare for the coming week. After 3 stressful hours, a month's grocery budget, and a lot of frustration, we finally had a week's worth of food. I can't tell you how difficult it was to shop with these restrictions! If I have learned anything, it's that SUGAR and PRESERVATIVES are in almost everything we eat (yes - even at Whole Foods!) SOY and YEAST were also super frustrating to try to avoid. I read label after label and actually came home with a stye in my eye from it!
I think the most intimidating thing was knowing I can't make a mistake. If I eat the wrong thing, I can set myself back WEEKS in healing. So, unlike a normal "I'm going to eat healthier diet", I can't treat myself with a little bite of chocolate if I kept up my diet all week. And if it were just the Gluten Free and Dairy Free diet and I ate the wrong thing, I might get sick once. With the Candida diet though, we are trying to starve out yeast. If I eat something that will "feed them" by mistake, then my weeks of sacrifice could all be for nothing. I could essentially go back to "square one". So I was super careful when it came to selecting foods!
The expense was definitely one of the worst parts though. As a couple who lives the way we do (very frugally) it was hard to swallow the prices for some of these items. I am usually a WalMart shopping, Great Value Brand buying girl, and "organic", "gluten-free", "non-GMO", "dairy-free" items are about 4 times the price! I'm hoping some of what we bought this trip will last several weeks though... *crosses fingers*. I think it's interesting that insurance will pay for me to go to 11 different doctors, and to take about 30 different prescriptions (none of which helped me at all!) - but it doesn't cover the kind of food I need to eat to actually get better! I just have to keep reminding myself that God has always taken care of us, and He will provide what we need... even if it is not in our "normal" budget.
Just FYI - I've had several friends message me wanting to know more about this diet, and asking for direction/suggestions, so I'm going to try to be detailed with my diet updates. I may share some of my weekly menus, which gluten free/dairy free/candida diet approved foods are less disgusting than others (haha), and how I'm shopping for them with the hope of (maybe) helping someone else out! If there's anything else you specifically want to know - just ask in the comment section.
For those of you who aren't interested in this topic, I'm planning to keep posting other (fun) things in the coming weeks too!
Ericka,
ReplyDeleteThat sounds so hard. Our son was gf for a couple of years and it about sent me over the edge emotionally and financially. I don't know if you are aware of this, but there is tax break for special diets. Anything gf that we bought for him we could deduct the extra that is costs over what you would normally purchase. So, if I would normally by bread for $2.00 and his cost $5.00, I could get the tax break on the $3.00 extra that I payed for his special fool. I don't know how this applies to your diet since it is more than just gf, but you might want to check into it and save those receipts just in case you can get a tax break from the purchases.
I had stomach and intestinal issues for a year after we brought Isaiah and Laila home. Like you, many doctors visits and tests and lots of weight loss(which wasn't so bad. Too bad I gained it all back!). Mine was a mast cell issue. After 6 months of meds, I was better, but because I have had this issue, it can flare up again at any time and don't think my stomach/intestines will ever be normal again. I understand being sick for a long time. Praying for some relief for you.
Laura
Thanks for the info Laura! Did you have to have any documentation for a doctor to get that tax break? We will definitely keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate the prayers. It means a lot coming from someone who understands how it feels to be sick all the time. I really want to be healed, but this diet is proving even harder than I anticipated. Yesterday was a really tough day. My husband keeps telling me to take it "one meal at a time". I've never dreaded meal time more in my life!