Playing the Spoons

Yesterday I ran out of spoons before I could get a blog written and posted. I was at work until after 8pm full of energy. The short drive home, a snack, medicine for both me and the cat (which was a wrestling match), I crawled in bed and was out like a light. I was spoonless! For all the spooonies who may stumble across my page I know you know what I mean! Exhausted past the point of exhaustion. Seriously, I was a worried I had dipped into today's supply of sppons. Luckily when I woke up this morning,  today's supply was intact. I was even able to grab of couple extras out of the draw by actually exercising like I know that I should. Whoo hooo! (As a bit of a side note, please rest assured that I haven't wasted a single spoon on housekeeping this week).

For those of you who don't know the spoon theory, you should check it out. It is one of the best theories or explanations of life as a person with a chronic illness. I'd try to explain it but the condensed version does it no justice. You have to read it for yourself.

TheSpoonTheory by Christine Miserandino www.butyoudontlooksick.com

Over all these years I've discovered that rest and exercise replenish my spoons. I also found out that the healthier I eat the better I feel. In that vein I tried the No Starch Diet. I'm not sure I believe the premise but I figured it's just food it's not going to hurt to try it. Well when your number one vice is breads and cake it does hurt a little bit. Okay, it hurts a LOT. I learned some things the summer I tried it, however.  The number one thing I learned was that I did feel better when I decreased my starch intake.

Mostly, for me, I have problems with complex sugars. I already knew that Lactose and High Fructose Corn Syrup do not agree with me. I have a major intolerance to both. With the No Starch Diet I did a lot of investigating and found out that starch is just a complex sugar similar to the others. Sadly during my investigation I also discovered that most of the foods I eat are starchy. Not just the obvious ones like my love-love relationship with potato chips but also the ones I thought were somewhat healthy, like my cashews, the light green just turned yellow days of the bananas, and even some of my favorite "vegetables" like corn. I did it though. For one summer I gave up starchy foods. I gave up breads, potatoes, rice, pasta, cashews, and even my beloved Sweet Corn. To do this I had to double check all the food labels for any form of starch. Did you know that some lunch meats have modified food starch in the ingredients? Why does turkey have ingredients other than turkey?

If you ever decide to try the No Starch Diet might I suggest you try it during the summer. I lucked out, thinking summer would be easier because my schedule is more flexible. As it turns out summer is the time to do it because of the fresh vegetables available. I ended up cooking things I had never cooked before the diet. I made soups and salads. I grilled up vegetables and made various side dishes. Cooked up meats in the crockpot and generally had myself a time. A starch free good time. In my area, fresh vegetables are almost impossible to find during the winter but in the summer Farmer's Markets sprout up like spring flowers. I spent every Saturday finding new fresh fruits and vegetables to try during the week. All during that one summer.

You'll notice, however, this is all about that ONE summer. I personally can't maintain that diet. No way. No how! I am such an immediate gratification girl. First off I have not met a cake I do not like. Secondly, eating the cake in the immediate wins over the thought that I might feel better tomorrow if I don't eat the cake today. Also a year or so later when my TNFa blocker stopped working, I discovered that no diet of any kind was making enough difference that I could go off of medicine. That's when I figured, forget it I'm eating the cake! I did make some permanent changes after that summer. I kept the vegetables, the label reading, and the healthy all natural food choices. I still don't believe that anything good comes from modified food starch, I don't buy processed meats with long lists of ingredients, and making meals myself helps me to make better food choices.

All that being said.... I mostly wrote this trying to talk myself out of having egg rolls for dinner. The egg rolls won out. Guess I'll use some of tomorrow's spoons doing the dishes so I can cook up a better food choice. First, I literately need to clean some spoons.