Diet Mysteries

Recently, I haven't been thrilled with how I've been feeling, or looking.  It's not just about weight, although that certainly is part of it.  I am tired of being bloated and feeling tired.  I'm tired of having dark circles under my eyes.  Tired of feeling gross.  I have been eating gluten free for 6 months or so, but I still felt gross.  Clearly gluten isn't my issues, or isn't my only issue.

So a couple weeks ago I decided to give up grains, dairy and sugar.  Basically following a "Paleo" diet.  They first 3 days I wanted to punch someone in the face.  Really, I wanted to punch everyone who spoke to me or looked at me.  On day 4 I started to feel a lot better.  By the end of the week, I felt amazing.  The next week I decided I need my coffee (with a little milk and sugar).  But that was the only sugar or dairy I ate.  I still felt great.  The circles under my eyes were going away.  My stomach was flat.  My energy was back.  And I wasn't missing anything I wasn't eating. I was only missing the convenience of those foods.  I was eating way more veggies than I normally do, but my diet was basically the same every day.

Then came Little Dude's birthday celebration.  We had gluten free pizza and gluten free cake.  About 15 minutes after we ate, I felt horrible.  I had stomach cramps and wanted to curl up and climb in bed.  I was miserable.  The rest of that weekend wasn't great either.  I felt horrible the whole weekend.  Way worse than I felt before I stopped eating those foods.  Does your body get used to them?  Then when you take them away and add them back, it's that much worse?  I don't know.  All I know was the pizza, cake, beer and crackers weren't good enough to deal with the aftermath.  I would like to figure out what it is that makes me feel disgusting.

So here we are Monday morning. I go on vacation in 5 days.  Vacation has always been a time to be a little glutenous, but I don't want to feel like a bloated piece of poo on my vacation.  But how do you eat right on vacation?  This is a foreign concept to me.  I need to figure something out.

I also need a plan to discover the mystery of which food doesn't agree with me.  I'm hopeful that if I eliminate the common food allergies, then add them back one at a time, I should be able to find the culprit.  We shall see.

In other news...Irongirl is 13 days away.  My training is still non-existent.  I need to wrap my mind around the fact that this isn't going to be a "race".  It's going to be a swim/bike/run with 1000 other people.  And I need to be ok with that.  My physical therapy is going well.  Trying to get my butt, hips and legs stronger.  This is going to be my focus for the next 5 months.  I will try to get in some swim/bike/runs, but more than anything, I need to get stronger (and stretchier).