Diet is Die with a T

When I was at Ricks we had a poster hanging above the kitchen sink. Garfield was on it and the words said "Diet is just Die with a T" and we thought it was funny. Back then I could eat just about anything and still fit into my jeans and look good (if you can call what we wore in the 80's looking good)

But as I get older I find that eating whatever I wanted has placed a toll on my body. I have mentioned before that I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and Ankilosing Spondalitis. I have also given birth, a lot of times. I also used to be a dancer and a choreographer. And my joints ache from it all.

When the doctor told me that the pain in my stermun was from the RA and Ankilosing, I started asking questions- What did I do to cause it, how do we make it go away, cure it, make it better, all those things. He told me that there is no answer to the what causes it, no cure and he could give me medicine to help me tolerate the pain. He also told me that both of them are programmed in my DNA. However that doesn't mean that they will activate and that science and doctors don't know what causes them to activate, probably stress and wear and tear on the body- dancing, having children, living with an abusive husband for way too many years, those types of things. Then he gave me some meds to try and sent me home. They didn't work and we tried some more and did that dance until we found something that helped.

But to tell the truth, I didn't want to spend my life taking a handful of pills everymorning and evening and giving myself an injection every Tuesday morning. Especially because I can only do the injections on my thighs, back of my arms or the worst place of all, my stomach. I can't even touch a pen to my leg without my thigh muscles tensing. Because I didn't want to live forever with these meds, I started doing some researching and experimenting.

I may not be able to go back to what I was and did in college, but what I do and eat now makes a huge difference. Yes, I can tell you when a storm is coming and if I am outside when it is cold, it will take me 40-50 minutes before I can hold a pen or pencil. So I just make sure I wear gloves. Wearing heels makes my back and tail bone hurt more, so I need to stop being so vain and find cute flats. And if it is cold and the pin holding my foot together gets cold, heels are just going to make that pain worse, so I am in search of a new shoe wardrobe.

But the most important thing I learned is that the food I eat makes the biggest difference in how I feel. And the biggest surprise of all? When I stick to what I have learned, I lose the weight I have been fighting for years. I didn't make huge changes, just small things over time so that they were easier to continue doing.

What I did:

1. I started to eat like a baby. Really. When I am hungry I eat, even if it has only been two hours since I ate last. I no longer make myself wait for the meal and then stuff myself silly because I am so hungry. I keep a few low calorie things in my desk and a water bottle full of ice and if I am hungry, I eat. Graze.

2. I started drinking soy milk. It took me a while to find one that I like, but I finally did.

This is the brand I like the best. I use the original for cooking and the vanilla to drink. Once a day I add a scoop of Whey Protein powder to 8 oz. of the vanilla.

3. I stopped eating processed foods.

4. I identified the way my body processes foods. I learned that my body burns protiens much more efficiently than it does carbs. But I have to be careful, high protien diets are very hard on the kidneys and liver.

5. I became a lable reader. No sugar, high fructose corn syrup, asparteme, words I can't pronounce. The kids have started reading the labels as well. (here is a good blog on why you don't want this stuff in your body) Sometimes this is the hardest of all. Sometimes the manufacturer changes the ingredients and if you are not reading the label regularly, you might be surprised. This past summer I told my mom about a drink mix that I was using instead of Kool-aid. It had no sugar, tasted great and the kids would drink it. Guess what? What I didn't know at the time is that one of the ingredients is asparteme- just under a name I didn't recognize as asparteme. Bummer.

6. Water, water, water. When I get to work I take my water bottle to the lounge and fill it with ice. I then eat the ice and as it melts, I drink the water. I usually fill it again after lunch. If I am wanting something with a little zip, I add a packet of True Lime, True Lemon or True Orange.

Is my diet perfect? No. I still wish I had someone to come in and make me some menues complete with recipes, but I can tell the difference. When I am on track, I feel good, when I give in and eat that piece of fudge at the office party, I feel it in my joints and see it on the scale. And you know what else? I no longer crave the fudge, the cherry coke, the cinnamon rolls. We had no candy this Christmas except what the neighbors gave us. No one noticed or complained. And I am not going back to work having gained those 5-15 holiday pounds. In fact, my doctor mentioned that I had lost since I saw him last month.

And I no longer fell like Diet is Die with a T.

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Indeed.