I had been feeling really good for about three to four weeks.  I was sticking to my WHOLE30 plan, took my vitamins and supplements, saw my chiropractor regularly, and finally caved and started to take amitryptiline.  I got cocky, perhaps even a little delusional.  There were days that I actually walked around thinking “I’ve been cured; I’m glad that’s over!”.  (I was also going through a co-occurring delusional state at this time, where I was convinced that I could sing; I can’t carry a tune to save my life).  Of course as the day turned to night, the pain would settle in, and I would be snapped back to reality.  The pain, however, was manageable, and I was pretty active.

I decreased my visits to the chiropractor because my insurance was close to running out of approved visits.  I started writing a tedious grant, and I ‘relapsed’ on coffee.  I’m convinced that I write best when I am all jacked up on coffee.  I was adding coconut milk and sugar, and convinced myself the sugar was no big deal.  The coconut milk started to bother my stomach again, so I switched to cream.  Pretty quickly, I noticed a couple of things.  Fruit no longer tasted as sweet.  I also started craving sweets in a way that I haven’t since Christmas.  Ice cream has always been my downfall.  I can’t keep it in the house.  I have been known to eat an entire pint in one sitting; It has also been my dinner of choice on more occasions than I care to think about.  I started allowing myself ice cream here and there.

Then I started to be on the road more for work.  It is a bad cycle because the longer my days are, the less I like to cook.  My meals were no longer being eaten at regular times.  I was not filling my plate with veggies.  I started relying on nuts to fill me up.  A couple of times, while at conferences over the past two weeks, I ate sandwiches because I really didn’t have a choice. I figured if I was going off the rails, I might as well have a chocolate chip cookie or a brownie. It is amazing how quickly that old gnawing pain came back.  The face pain is the worst!   It is crazy what sugar and gluten do to me.  I could not manage the pain, and would just crawl into the hotel beds as early as possible and curl up in a ball.  I got home yesterday around 3pm, and crawled into bed until 5pm.  Everything hurt again.

I should mention that two weeks ago, I did travel to Naples, Fl. for a long weekend with my girlfriends from college.  It was awesome to see everyone.  We were celebrating our 40th Birthdays.  Air travel also does a number on me.  I was good while there, but was back in the thick of things (just life) when I returned.  That is a contributing factor to my current pain and exhaustion.

I had contacted my girlfriend earlier in the week, and let her know I was planning on starting the WHOLE30 again on  May 15th.  So I will be at it again and eliminating sugar, gluten, yeast, preservatives, and dairy.  I think I need to get off of the coffee again, and go back to tea.  Anyone want to join me in this 30 day journey?

For information on the WHOLE30 plan check out: http://whole9life.com/category/whole-30/ or read It Starts With Food by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig.