And so it begins...

Wednesday, November 6th

OVERVIEW:  How I'm going to do this

So, I'm going to try to eat nothing but organic foods for the next 14 days and see how I feel.  With the latest organic craze that's been sweeping the nation, that might not sound like much, but for me, I am pretty unhealthy.  Pretty, as well as unhealthy, perhaps-- but I mean pretty unhealthy.  I'm skinny and active but I've been having a myriad of problems with my bones, joints, numbness in my body, heart, headaches, and just all sorts of other problems.  I'm only 30.

My current diet consists of McDonald's, Subway, more McDonald's, and even though I've done my best to lay off fast food recently, I still eat a lot of foods that I know I shouldn't.  For the last several years, in my defense, every time I've tried to give up fast food (Supersize me, anyone?)  I tried to quit cold turkey and completely start eating healthy food right away and I ended up feeling 15 times worse than I did before, reverting back to my old lifestyle very quickly.  Last year, I gave up fast food all together for Lent, but did so with certain exceptions (Subway was allowed and I could still have coke if I got it from a non fast-food eatery) and was able to do it, so well-- that I continued on two or three weeks after Lent ended.  And that was hard, y'all- it was during not only Monopoly, but also the limited re-release of the McRib.  That's dedication.

Recently my health problems have gotten so bad that I think I have no other choice but to try something very quickly.  To give you a brief idea of just how bad -- I will tell you that I'm usually the person that's going out even though she's sick, and working even though she's bleeding profusely from the elbow or something.  I try to be a trooper.  I also forget about pain when I'm having fun or busy.   Yet, in the last week, I've had to completely stop everything I was doing and sit down for a period of 30 minutes or more because I thought I was going to pass out.  Once in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome during a SAINTS GAME, and once at the ROULETTE table.  If you know me at all, you know these are two of my favorite places in the whole world--   the location terrified me almost as much as the dizziness. 

People have thrown around a lot of possible diagnoses- the winner seems to be GERD, or some kind of acid reflux stemming from an ulcer somewhere, probably in my esophagus.  I've had a lot of symptoms (heart pain, chest pain, trouble swallowing-- NO DIRTY JOKES,  acid reflux, problems after certain foods, etc) - so I'm tempted to believe that's it-- but I know there may also be other stuff going on.  A doctor friend of mine said that I should start taking Prevacid, and I had heard that before- so I started on the once-a-day treatment, which in my case, is a pack of 14.  So, I decided to match those 14 days with 14 days of healthy eating, as much as I possibly can.  I've also been told I have a pinched nerve, so I'm going to continue yoga as well.

I buy storage units for a living and have a retail store coming soon (January 1st) so every little bit of spare income has gone into that-- I had a surprise $300 purchase the other day and was actually excited to get to, for once, spend some of it at Sephora or someplace cool like that, but for some reason the car steered me towards Whole Foods (another symptom of this illness, surely) and I ended up spending $102 on just a few items.  Whole Paycheck, absolutely -- I see why people call it that.  But, I figure, if you're sick it doesn't make any sense to have money anyway, right?

Here's the plan for this grand experiment:

* Eat nothing but organic as much as I can,  at least one organic thing at every meal, but hopefully more

* Put all of the fresh produce on the top shelf of my fridge instead of in the crisper so I remember it

* Try to learn something new every time I go to the supermarket

I also vow to:

* Stop drinking coke (except 1/4 glass each morning -- I'm ALREADY having caffeine withdrawals)

* Not eat at least an hour before bed

* Refrain from eating greasy or fried foods (I do this anyway), coffee, and certain acidic foods

I'll post every single day with what I'm eating and where I'm getting it.  I'll also throw in a few (hopefully unpathetic) lines about how I'm feeling.

To start:  Feeling weak, dizzy, always tired, heart palpitations, chest pain, numbness and tingles in the body, and gassy-bloating or heartburn and acid reflux after most every single meal.  Headaches once a week.  Vomit profusely every time I eat steak, especially when it's rare.  Queasiness after certain foods (and no, I'm not pregnant, thank you for asking!)

Stay tuned!   Day 1 (also coming today) will provide you with my shopping trip as well as my first meal.  Here goes nothing!