The LBS Plan

I journaled what I ate last week, but I never gave a rhyme or reason to why I was doing that. So here is my plan. I have issues with low blood sugar and its effects are miserable. Since we moved to a new state I started eating out more and it took a while to learn where I could buy the ingredients I was used to. Needless to say, my body was not happy with me.

I have done a lot of studying, but I still don't know or understand it all. From my research I created my own eating plan. The basic version is I cut out all white flour and white sugar. That is a hard feat, especially when you eat out. I try to also follow some other simple rules:

1) no caffeine
2) no liquid sugars (ex. syrup, honey, juice)
3) only one fruit per day
4) no artificial colorings or flavorings
5) drink lots of water
6) eat regularly

It is challenging and I am not perfect, I goof from time to time. But I have found that if I follow these guidelines, I feel much better and have few side effects. Here is a copy of a previous post about my struggle:

Growing up I was quite skinny and I ate like it was going out of style. I ate unhealthy, but so did the rest of my generation. I remember my Senior year in high school my breakfast included a Dr. Pepper and a Reses Cup. MMM! Then for lunch a Dr. Pepper and a Reses Cup. And if I was lucky one of my friends would buy me a slice of pizza. Now, before you jump all over my parents for letting me eat as such, I lived in my own place my Senior year. Paying my bills took its place over feeding myself. I was responsible for myself which I obviously didn't do a good job. Anyway . . . fast forward 10+ years and add a husband and three kids.

After my first child I quickly returned to a size 3 (I know sickening). Again, now I was living on my own, but now having to support a child. I worked at a surgery center where we kept saltines, graham crackers and a soda fountain machine at all times. (Why the sodas? I don't know.) And on Friday's the center bought a catered meal for lunch. So I ate crackers all day every Monday through Friday and drank Dr. Pepper. Then on Fridays I would gorge myself on lunch. Everyone would save the leftovers in the fridge and I would take them home with me. That was my weekend meals. So needless to say, I have had a bad history of eating poorly.

First comes marriage and then comes baby number 2. My shape definately changed after my son and size 3 was no more, but I still only weighed 5 lbs heavier than before I was pregnant. And I started cooking . . . a lot. I started having lots of gastric problems and allergy problems. (Insert here: that I have always had headaches and migraines.. My mother would send Tylenol to school with me starting in 4th grade because of my chronic headaches. My mother had chronic headaches too so she didn't think anything more than a hereditary condition.)

Cihld 3 came and now I wasn't able to shake the pounds. I was having more headaches, severe gastric problems, miserable allergies (I never got sick as a kid and now I felt like I was always sick), limbs going numb, blurring vision, dizziness, and many other symptoms. I started looking into grinding my own wheat because I loved bread and wanted to make fresh bread. I bought a wheat grinder and Bosch machine and recieved the cookbook Set for Life: Eat More, Weigh Less, Feel Terrific. I started following the principles in the book and suddenly I stopped having headaches, I started actually having to go to the bathroom (I know that is TMI, but during school I never used their restrooms. I went all day with no potty breaks and then went potty when I got home. But was still only having maybe one BM per week), and I had energy. Best of all I was happy. My husband didn't know what to do! He actually wanted to come home because his wife was actually smiling and didn't have roller coaster mood swings anymore.

For two years I lived on my new eating plan. Then we moved to AL and healthy eating went out the window. Fast food on every corner and very, very few healthy restaurants. Nearest health food store is over an hour away. And all food is more expensive here than in Texas. So I started eating poorly again. All the old symptoms returned and more! We started to do research and I have come to the conclusion that I am hypoglycemic. This is not a doctor's diagnosis, but just having a knowledge base in which to attack the problem is enough for me.

Now most diet plans for hypoglycemia consist of low-carb/high-protein. I'm not convinced that is the only solution. I'm going to attack this with whole grains, raw vegetables, and lean meats. I will be documenting my findings here on my blog, so if you are interested please check back. I will also continue to post recipes that I find are healthful and tasty. If you have read all this - wow - kudos to you! Thanks for reading.