End of Week 6: Having a Bad Week!

My husband was away again for part of the week. But he diligently kept to a plant-based diet and lost another half a pound, as did I.

On Tuesday we woke up to a power outage because of a storm. Amazing how much we depend on power; I kept forgetting I didn’t have any! First I tried to put my kettle on to make coffee and realized I couldn’t. Then I tried to use my blender to liquidize some ingredients I was using for a dahl and couldn’t.  Neither could I use my slow cooker to make it in! It’s not till we lose something that we really appreciate it.

Last Saturday we were invited to two parties in one night, and decided to go to both! The first one was a karaoke party at which there would be pizza. So we had dinner at Chipotle before getting there. I had a vegetarian bowl with black beans, lettuce, guacamole, brown rice, onions, peppers, hot sauce, and corn. My husband had the same, only in a burrito. The next party was a farewell for a friend who was leaving the country.  For that one, everyone was asked to bring a favorite snack to share. This suited our diet really well and we took hummus and pita bread. I was surprised at how full we still were because we hardly touched the snacks. We had a really late night and when we got home, I couldn’t sleep.

In the morning I woke up with pains in my joints as I get sometimes. Then I remembered that I ate peppers and tomatoes, inflammatory foods that I react to.  I was too tired and ill to cook that day, so I got my husband to make us a salad for dinner. The rest of the week, I continued to feel tired and to have trouble sleeping. When I tried to sleep, I was hyped up, as though I had consumed too much caffeine (which I hadn't). I'm also getting out of breath after my 20 minute walks. I’ve had these symptoms before, when my thyroid dose was too high. I wonder if this diet is helping my body produce more of its own hormones. At my last check-up, my thyroid levels were a little raised but my doctor made no changes to the prescription. I’m waiting for my current test results to find out what's going on. I’ll have to wait till next week because my doctor is out of town again. In the meantime, with her consent, I'm halving my thyroid dose because I can’t function like this.

Another change I experienced this week (and it might also be related to the thyroid) is that my cravings  have returned. I can’t understand it because I was doing so well at controlling them on this diet.  One day when I was craving cheese and knew I would be eating alone, I bought myself a soy cheese pizza (although I'm intolerant to soy). I planned on eating just half, but it was so yummy that I ate the whole lot!  I was surprised to find that I was still feeling hungry afterwards. The following day after dinner, I had a really strong craving for something sweet. Then I remembered the chocolates I found in the other room a few weeks ago, that my daughter had stashed away since Christmas. I should have just thrown them away! Suddenly, these year old, probably stale candies looked so appealing. But after eating them, I felt guilty and disgusted with myself. They didn’t even taste nice!

 I didn’t let that these setbacks affect me for too long. The following day at our health food store, I made better choices. I resisted the urge to buy vegan chocolates and other sugary snacks. Instead I bought some fresh fruit. However, I did buy some brown rice crackers and some organic, oil free, microwave popcorn. I know these are still processed foods, but it’s better than some snacks I can think of.

Well nobody’s perfect and we're going to slip up from time to time. We just have to do the best we can.