Thank you everyone for your comments last week, I appreciate every one of you. Hopefully along the way I will be able to help others in their search for a cure for this nasty disease.
Last post I left off in March of 2013 when I realized that beans (oh, that sucks!) were a culprit in this disease that has done its very best to take over my life.
Since that get together I have stayed away from beans altogether. In that bean soup there were kidney beans, navy beans, black beans, small red beans, and cannelini beans. I have had none of those. I know, it could be just one of them causing the issue... I might be able to eat black beans again some day (ah, what a nice thought)... and I might be able to dip a carrot or celery stick into some wonderful garlic hummus (garbanzo beans)... but right now I'm in the infancy of trying to figure out just what causes these breakouts.
Since the revelation of BEANS being the cause, I pretty much put every other option out of my head. Why could there be MORE THAN ONE cause? I mean, other than things like ibuprofen and other drugs that might cause your gut to leak... right?
So in April I went happily along my way eating anything and everything... and experimenting with so many "paleo-ized" foods for sweets/desserts. I started to notice that my previously starting to feel smooth breasts and thighs were a little bumpy... no, nothing huge, but definitely moving in the wrong direction. Then I woke up one day with three huge "aliens" under my left armpit and a few other of those nasty embedded blackhead things... this on the arm that hardly had any scars... I was shocked!
I realized that I had been eating a few slices of tomato on my salad every day. Now, I know I wrote last week that when I excluded the nightshades from my diet for 28 days I had seen no discernible difference in my breakouts. I was even concerned because it got worse during that time.... but since the nightshades were what Tara Grant PrimalGirl had found to be her trigger and because in all the Paleo-related books I had been reading the nightshades were listed as bad-guys when it comes to autoimmune, I figured that I must be triggered by tomatoes. I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say "all nightshades". Not yet. I still haven't proven yes or no on these guys but it doesn't hurt me to exclude them for right now.
Then came May. I now have given up beans forever and cut all tomato products out of my diet. Still eating willy nilly as long as it is Paleo. Of course, during this time (Jan-June) I have gained weight, not lost, because I've been stuffing my mouth full of dates and figs and nuts... and coconut milk and creamed coconut goodness. (Yes, I apparently have an eating addiction - as if I didn't already know that!)
During May I realized that I still have some breakouts going on... a couple of occasions they have been more than "small" but nothing so debilitating that I couldn't move... So I took stock again of what I've been eating. In many places I have read that although mostly healthy, an overdose of nuts is not healthy for your gut and can cause leaky gut. Damn! So there go those cashew nuts!
The end of May marked my birthday and I was on vacation for a few days. At first I was as Paleo as a road trip (16 hours each way!) could allow for... which meant that when we stopped at Wendy's I got a double burger with cheese and bacon and removed the bread.... Even eating at my Aunt & Uncle's house was easy enough to stay Paleo and away from those things that harm me... until about the fourth day. We went out to eat at a restaurant and beer was ordered... well, I drank that.... then I ordered crab cake sliders. No, I didn't eat the bread... but there's breading in it... and after that I pretty much gave up for the next two days while we were travelling back home. I ate almost anything but candy and cakes. I put a dressing from Ruby Tuesday's on my salad - which one? It wasn't oil & vinegar, I can say that! I ate the bread when I ordered a mushroom & swiss from Hardees at one stop. I had a Wendy's frosty in a waffle cone. Yes, I felt the breakout coming on... did I change my eating? NOPE! In the classic, "it's already started, why bother to change now?" thought mode, I had half a ciabatta sandwich and another ice cream cone before the 2nd day of traveling was over! Classic Peg.
Now it is the middle of June and I've been off of cashews since the week before Memorial Day. Paleo - no tomatoes, no cashews.
I had a hankering the other day when I was shopping. I ended up with 2 store-baked giganto muffins. One lemon and one double chocolate chip. I ate them both. Then a few days later I had another hankering (it's emotional, not hunger, and not even craving) and this time I pushed it and pushed it... but I eventually fell victim to it because I was hungry and I ended up eating a full cup of Auntie Anne's cinnamon pretzel bites. Now I've got a breakout. It is relative... it is in a few different places but it is not as deep as they've been in the past... but still... I've stepped outside of my struggle? My battle? My healthy steps toward a healthier me? Yes... that's what I did and I caused this. What was the particular cause? Who know? Gluten? Maybe. Processed garbage? More than likely. But - I also have another factor - stress. Not that we all don't have every day stress in our lives, we do... but I just got a new adopted dog from the SPCA and she was incredibly ill the first 3 days of living with me and she ended up at the vet... and $1027 later she is now home and well. Yes, money causes me stress because I don't have any. I am living as most of us are, paycheck-to-paycheck and anything like this that causes me to have another monthly payment stresses me out incredibly because I am already stretched to my every last dollar of each paycheck. So I have to cut back somewhere and trying to find that area may have just caused this breakout as well. Or, a mix of both. I do not know. That's what this is all about. Helping myself (and you hopefully) figure out what causes this!
Oh, just so you know, I'm also going through Menopause during all of this. Last year, two days before my birthday and during my nightshades test, I got hit with incredible hot flashes... not just flashes... but sweat-dripping events... while I was on vacation!!!!!!!! So I have my hormones to deal with here too. I am not only trying to heal my skin, I am trying to heal my body so that I can get past these hot flashes and night sweats once and for all!
On top of that, I need to lose another 60 pounds (or more). I say another because two years ago I concentrated on me, joined MyFitnessPal, found a great group of friends and I lost 77 pounds. That did not change my outbreaks. I don't care what doctors say... this IS NOT caused by being overweight. It might be exacerbated by being overweight because of skin that rubs together... but it is not caused by it. Do not add another reason to be depressed over your weight. Right now I have pushed my weight to the back burner until I can make my body healthy. Yes, the right body mass is part of health... but as you all know, our skin condition makes all other health moot because we can't do much many times and we don't feel attractive and we don't want to get out there and try to do anything because we may not be able to join in when we want to... yep, I've been there. I refuse to be that person anymore so I want to heal my body... fat I can deal with... there are a lot of people who are overweight out there and they have boyfriends... I want to get my skin healthy, my insides healthy, and then I'll concentrate on losing the fat!
The rest of this blog will be listing the foods I am eating, the exercise I am doing and the books and other articles I am reading. I will point you to wonderful recipes I've found and any skin lotions that I find that help to relieve the issue. I'm also going to share healthy food tips for other people who may not have this disease but have other health issues. Eating real food and learning what foods don't work for you have restorative health features that not everyone seems to understand!
No comments:
Post a Comment