averygoodun42

So, I (re)started doing the introduction diet this week, which is basically a modified elimination diet. I can eat just about any meat, as long as it's uncured and cooked without most additives. I can (supposedly) eat carrots. Some juices, diluted to half strength, are allowed. If I weren't doing a dairy-free version (I'm testing for diary/casein sensitivity, though, so I've cut them out, too), I could have dry curd cottage cheese (whey-less curds), homemade yogurt (fermented for 24 hours) and make cheesecake from them. Very small amounts of honey are allowed.

I can add one food every two to four days. So far, I have added winter squash.

The premise is that by adding in foods on a very gradual basis I will be able to find out what's bugging my system.

The implementation, however, is a bit... crazy-making. First, there is the hunger. It didn't matter how much meat I ate or stock I drank the first two days, my body was missing those carbs. A glass of diluted orange juice made things bearable, but still, hunger was an issue.

Second, there's this thing called "die-off". The point of this diet is to rebalance the flora in the gut. This is accomplished by starving the nasty little buggers (and resupplying the good buggers - hence the specially made yogurt). Thing is, when they die, the toxins they ate and were storing are released into the system, so your body has to deal with that. Drinking loads of water helps, but really, detoxing sucks and there's pretty much no way around it. (Think hang-overs.)

Third is the fact that detoxing and reacting exhibit very similar symptoms. Very similar. The only way to really know which is which is by systematically experimenting using the data you've collected from the intro diet (and beyond) as a base.

For example, I had the suspicion that dairy aggravates my sinuses. Over the past weekend, in the spirit of the con, I allowed myself some yogurt and cheesecake. This week, my throat is less than happy. Yes, I could be reacting to the Spring air, but I suspect it's more a case of dairy sensitivity. Once my throat and sinus issues have cleared up again, I will try again, this time with goat's milk products, to see if it's casein or just cow's milk I'm sensitive to.

All of this takes time and a hell of a lot of patience. Patience isn't one of my strong suits.

Well, I've been on the expanded version of this diet, more or less, since December. It has helped a heck of a lot staying off of all starches and most sugars (honey being a godsend of an antibacterial sweet). I've gone through a good deal of detoxing in these past months, so I wasn't really prepared to be slammed with fatigue and brain fog for this round of detoxing.

But, yeah, I've been slammed.

Every now and again it lifts. I wrote over 2000 words and figured out how to solve a problem with my outline in a couple of those respites. That was awesome.

Then the fog sets in, and... I'm dumb again. I very nearly lost all of those 2000 words (a complete chapter) because I did something screwy when modifying and saving the story. I have no idea what. I can't remember which draft has what changes, so I need to read through everything again and again and again and again. If I'm suffering from fatigue as well, that makes everything take that much longer because I fall asleep in the middle (or beginning or end) and then need to reread what I read before because I need a refresher before I can (maybe) move forward.

And my complaint is that I don't know whether I'm suffering from detox or if I'm reacting. Because god knows my system is overly reactive. I could be reacting to something in the beef. It could be a reaction to the grape juice. Or the chemicals on the grapes... It could also, in the best case scenario, just be the bugs dying off which means it will lift soon and leave me feeling more energetic and healthy. But, it will be at least a few days before I know which is which.

Which is a few days too many in my book.

It will lift, and it should lift soon. But golldarnit, I'm tired of being tired.