What I eat

I am trying to put this up periodically, in large part as a reminder to myself, for when I'm feeling down about my diet, or to remind me how far I've come. Because folks with MCAD so often have very, very limited diets that I am doing REALLY well, and I want to hold on to that for the days when I'm feeling down...like right now when I need to lose a bit of weight and have to diet, ouch.

So, reminder to self!
Two weeks after going gluten free, I was reacting to so much that my diet of 'what I can eat without reacting' dropped down to:
Bison meat, carrots, sweet potatoes, quinoa, avocado, and salt.

Within a few months, I tried and discarded a few more items and was able to add amaranth, too. I don't think it was really any improvement, considering how little I liked the texture of amaranth.

And what I can eat now (without an unpleasant reaction):

Doctors and patients with chronic conditions

A lovely letter to patients with chronic conditions, written by a doctor. Does a nice job of discussing the patient experience while sharing some of the doctors' too.

http://more-distractible.org/2010/07/14/a-letter-to-patients-with-chronic-disease

Why I'm a paranoid little SOB

I'm writing this mostly as a reminder to myself, about WHY I am as careful as I am. About WHY I need to listen to myself and not the people who think I'm paranoid because they don't have to deal with the consequences of my actions. Because seriously? It comes across that way.

Surprised

Yesterday, a friend mentioned that she'd been sick lately. A nasty flu going around. And she mentioned that it was a surprise how long she'd taken to recover, because she's never sick. She's healthy so much that she never expects to get sick.

I hadn't until that moment realized that I'm the complete opposite.

Judging Others

With all the food issues that my family has to deal with now, we've run into various reactions from others. Some people are curious, some are sympathetic, some are annoyed, and some are downright antagonistic, which truly, I just don't get. I've had people look at our food and start rolling their eyes, or making snide comments about us in a perfectly audible undertone. Seriously, why do they even care what we eat?

And besides, it's an instant judgement based on a mere sliver of information. When that type of judgement is enough to make someone say or do something negative to another person? Not cool.

While I'd love to sit on my high horse and say I would never, ever make this type of judgement about someone else, I can't. If I tried, my high horse would buck me off into the muck filled with times I have made a judgement like that, without even thinking. I've formed opinions about a person because they have the same religion as someone I know who is rude and thoughtless. Or made judgements about someone because they are in the same tax bracket as an ex-roommate of mine. I know I have done this.

I try not to, and I'm definitely not proud of it, but I know it's happened. However, I have one memory that keeps me from going too far down that road of judging precipitously and acting on it. This memory reminds me that you never know what's truly going on with someone else.