Chameleon willing to change ... but what ?? page

[strong chameleon]

Read the books. Read the 'start here' blogs. Read a bunch of great journals. Thought I knew what I was doing, yet I still can't figure out what is going wrong ... so maybe someone else can.

Got to this site after reading 'wheat belly' and have been reading it ever since. Decided that was exactly the issue - the perpetual six months pregnant look is not the look I'm going for at this point (in my head I think of myself as being much younger, until I pass a mirror - and, oh right!). Thought I'd have plenty of time - 5 months - to lose the belly before going on a trip which is now in 2 weeks and the belly is unfortunately still there.

I stopped eating bread and all grain products and sugars around Jan 1, 2012 or maybe a little before. I never ate junk or fast food; haven't had soda in 30 years; eliminated corn products 12 years ago; stopped all dairy about 17 years ago; went back to eating cheese and then gave it up again 2 mos ago. Never got the carb flu - giving up the grains was very easy and never had any real cravings.

I don't think I've lost any weight (don't have a scale, but measurements are still the same) and I am burping after almost every meal!! What's up with that? And I can't pinpoint it to any particular food - sometimes after having just a glass of water - so maybe it's just taking in air while I'm eating! I don't usually track foods but once in a while I enter them into fitday just to see where I stand - eating enough, not enough, what? It seems to fall between 1200-1300 calories - which may seem low, but I am 5'-4", very small boned and I feel as if I'm eating enough, just often not that hungry. Maybe too much fat and not enough carbs?

Hopefully, by posting here what I eat, I might figure out a pattern or someone will be able to tell me what to avoid. And since I realize it's not just about the food, I'll say in general, I do feel a lot better, swelling in fingers and feet is gone (we'll see what happens in the summer heat!); joint pain is much diminished and overall energy is increased. Probably not sleeping as well as I used to. Was walking or biking at least 1/2 hour daily through the winter with a 2-3 hour easy hike on Sundays. Kind of dropped off that habit since April, but have been doing work around the house: painting, sanding, up and down ladders, cleaning, etc. Out for a bike ride now as it is a particularly beautiful day here after several days of rain.

[strong chameleon]

thanks for responding - don't be sorry! - I was going to backtrack a few days with the food on a separate post as I haven't eaten much today.
But for now, the essentials: 52 yo; female

I stopped eating fruit around Feb/March. Have tried a small amt of blueberries and 1/2 cup of fruit salad that we make (it has everything but bananas), about twice since then eaten after eggs. It doesn't sit well, and even that small amount makes be feel bloated, so I stopped the fruit all together. On the other hand I often feel bloated and need to pinpoint what is making that happen.

Never tried goat dairy, if you mean goat milk - I have had my share of goat cheese, but in the last month have given up all cheese, in an attempt to make this work. Not feeling as if I'm missing anything by not having dairy, so is there an advantage to the goat dairy?

[strong chameleon]

Sunday 5/20: we had a very late breakfast and weren't hungry again until dinner so this may seem a very light day, but it felt good the next day not having eaten so much.

breakfast: 2 eggs fried in butter; 2 slices bacon; Earl gray tea with 2 tbls. coconut oil.
afternoon snack: 1 tbls. salted almond butter
dinner: 4 oz pork tenderloin; < 1 cup of sauteed zucchini and onion in olive oil; glass of tap water
one square Valrhona 71% dark chocolate

I'm hoping it will help and not be too boring to be very specific about quantities while keeping track.

According to fitday this is 926 cals; 70.3g fat; 22.7g carbs; 55.1g protein

I also take one digestive enzyme tablet with every meal; vitamin D - 2000 iu and omega 3 daily.

[strong chameleon]

I recently started thinking I wasn't getting enough fat so I doubled the amount of coconut oil in my morning cup of tea; now I think that is causing me to NOT be hungry by lunch, so not sure that's a good thing bcs I'm not eating enough possibly?

Breakfast: 2 egg omelette with some stewed tomatoes and 1 slice of ham; earl gray tea with 2 tbls coconut oil

Lunch: Baked chicken thigh with sauteed tomatoes and onions ~ 3/4 cup

Dinner: Lamb about 4oz. cooked in olive oil and cooked carrots, zucchini and onions with herbs ~ 3/4 cup.

Usually have a glass of water with lunch and dinner; otherwise I don't track how much I drink during the day, probably 3 or 4 glasses total.

[strong chameleon]

Yikes, I am a week behind in tracking the food, so I guess I will not bother going backwards; let's just move forward!

So I tried a little experiment yesterday (ok just a little backwards) and had about an ounce of cheddar cheese in an omelette for breakfast. At lunch I had about 2 tablespoons of a cheese mixture my husband makes (goat cheese, cream cheese and herbs) and I was quite congested all night - I have not had any cheese for at least 6 wks. So no more cheese for me, I decided .... until tonight when my husband (who does 90% of the cooking and I forgot to tell him no more cheese) made a layered casserole of zucchini, tomato, goat cheese and olive oil baked ... mmmm, that was so good, with pork tenderloin.... We'll see what happens with the congestion.

Also yesterday we had tuna steaks and spinach with butter - a nice simple meal, really good and satisfying. I do wonder if I'm eating too much salt which may be causing the inflammation. Yesterday's lunch seemed a bit on the salty side with capers and olives mixed into canned salmon - not particularly satisfying either.

Today was quite warm and muggy and usually when the weather gets this way, my right foot swells making shoes nearly impossible to wear. Today it was slightly puffed up, but not nearly as much as it used to be - we'll see how this goes as the summer gets hotter. Actually most of my joints are sore today, so I'm wondering if this is all weather-related or due to the tiny bit of flour used in a roux that was in some leftovers I had for lunch today.

I did manage to get some exercise in this morning with some EM's: wall presses 20; plank, 60 sec; side plank, 45 sec (left side is much weaker than the right side, which makes sense and I could barely hold on for 45 secs on the second round - not very strong right now); jack knife press, 10. Can't do squats right now as my knee is not holding together. But went for about a 2 hour stroll through town late this afternoon and am completely exhausted.

[strong chameleon]

Weird day yesterday. Felt like I wasn't eating enough and by mid-afternoon was having the same crankiness that I used to have when eating bread and having a blood sugar crash - haven't had that reaction in months. Not good. Yesterday's food: 2 fried eggs, 2 pieces bacon, tea with CO for breakfast; lunch leftover salad from day before (lettuce, tomato, zucchini, mushrooms, olives, OO&BV dressing - less than 2 cups of salad and 1.5 sardines - cause that's all that was left in the frig!) and a small square of chocolate; dinner - vegetables sauteed in OO: zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, green pepper, tomatillo, kale with steamed codfish. After the first serving, I felt as if I hadn't had anything, so I had a smaller second serving and half-way through that I felt like I had over eaten - ??. Guess it finally caught up to me. Still getting the bloated stomach after almost every meal. Very frustrating. And burping - not really acid reflux - just burps or hiccups after every meal. I've been trying to slow down how fast I eat - I used to be an extremely slow eater - as in everyone else would leave the table and I'd still be eating! And lately it seems I scarf down the food as if it's going to be taken away if I don't - I don't know what that's all about. So now back to being conscious about speed eating.
The last 2 days we've had dinner about 6 and went for a walk after - that feels much better than the usual habit of eating at 7:30 and going to sleep right after. Which may be contributing to the lack of weight loss.

[strong chameleon]

Hi Sihana - it's taken me a while to get back to this - too much to do this week before going away. So in answer to your questions: it's not really acid reflux so much as just burping - in other words it's not burning; and it's after almost every meal, sometimes after having just a glass of water - so is it just air? -not sure. Will have to pay more attention to when it starts, but I'd say within a half hour after eating. I often eat tomatoes - is it a nightshade issue? No meds. BM normal-usually type 3. No fermented foods or probiotics. Haven't tested nightshades; otherwise I've eliminated the dairy bcs of congestion issues not stomach issues and I eliminated corn years ago bcs that seemed to cause a muscle weakness in some strength testing I was doing at the time.

Regarding the fruit: I stopped eating it bcs it seemed to make my stomach swell like a basketball right after eating. But I should point out that we almost always have it by way of a fruit salad (my husband loves to make it) and it usually includes oranges, grapefruit, canned pineapple, canned peaches, grapes, apples, kiwi, mango, pears. I have not tested the fruits individually to see if there is any one culprit. I could start doing that today, however, as we have a few things that need to be eaten before next week.

And I should also add that we don't buy organic; don't often peel the nightshades, depending on what we're cooking; and we rarely buy grass fed meat, but hoping all of that will change this summer.

Thank you so much for your interest. And congratulations on the amazing amount of weight you've lost - I assume you'll soon be a Friday Success Story??