Week Three – Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

I knew Spring Break meant I would depart from my elimination plan. I’ve tried to make good choices as much as possible, but I knew this week I would be eating out and having some special meals. I am learning to be kind to myself and give myself a lot of grace with this plan. This isn’t an exercise in weight loss or a practice in self-restraint. This is purely an experiment to try to figure out what foods nurture my body and which foods my body wants to rebel against.

This weekend I set my self-imposed limitations aside and had popcorn and a soda at the movies. Listen, there’s no judgment for this. When you are a mom, you’d think that simply taking your video-game obsessed preteen to the movies to watch Super Mario Brothers on the big screen and seeing his excitement and beaming smile would be all the reward you’d need, but you’d be wrong. Movie theatre popcorn and a large cola is the true incentive. I will not allow anyone to make me feel badly about this. I worked hard for that $672.49 I spent on concessions Saturday.

Then Easter I indulged in a number of dishes that had sugar, dairy, oils, and grains. All of it. It all tasted so, so good. And, honestly, it was exactly what I needed to convince me to continue in this process.

This morning I woke up with my joints screaming. Head and shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes), and eyes and ears and mouth and nose ….. they all hurt. I ached and my body was stiff getting out of bed. One of the points pointed out in Dr. Cole’s book is that this type of inflammatory joint pain is typically on both sides of the body. This helps to distinguish this type of pain from an injury. My morning achiness was consistent with inflammation based on this claim. In fact, I noticed my knees starting to feel achy last night.

Other things I noticed today — increased pressure in my neck and head (this is an ongoing problem related to my migraines), tiredness, an overall feeling of “bleh” (which is a very scientific and research-based phrase), and pressure in my sinuses. A visit to the chiropractor always helps the pressure in my head and neck, so I was happy to have an appointment today.

I have a feeling I’m going to have to deal with some cravings again as I did in the beginning, but no worries. I’m ready for it. At least this time around I’ve got my migraine medication. Today I’ve tried to shift back to eliminating dairy, refined seed oils, grains, and added sugar. I’ve increased my water today to help flush out my system…..or at least to try to flush out the 52 slices of cake I’ve had in the past 24 hours. I didn’t really want to eat so much cake, but I felt like I really needed to see if cake was the culprit for my inflammation. One slice might have made a difference, but really, why take chances? I needed at least three-fourths of the cake to be certain. It was all in the name of science.

I am hopeful the two plus weeks I’ve been diligent to limit my foods will give me an advantage in getting back on track. And if not, my heads and shoulders, knees and toes should give me motivation.