While this is not the beginning of my journey, it is as fine a place to begin as any other. This year I decided to switch to Friday weighins, simply because the year began on a Friday and to me, the day doesn’t matter. So let me catch you up…

December was all over the map. Winter is hard as I have several autoimmune conditions that react to weather changes and this year was no exception. I started the year with several gains in the previous weeks. We’ll start there…

So after several gains in December, I had a relatively reaction free week and lost a good chunk of it. YAY!! But that was not to last as you can see…this week’s weigh in was a big hot mess. Let’s break it down…

⚡WEEKLY WEIGH IN RESULTS⚡
#fearlessfridays
Starting Weight: 298.8lbs
Current Weight: 249.2lbs
This Week: +19.8lbs 😳🤬😭
(yes, in 1 week – actually 3 days)
Total Loss: -49.6lbs
NEXT MINI GOAL: 223.8lbs (by birthday – May)
NEXT MILESTONE GOALS: 198.8lbs (by Xmas)

MILESTONE GOALS
Goal 1: 273.8lbs (-25lbs) 🏆
Goal 2: 248.8lbs (-50lbs) 🏆
Goal 3: 223.8lbs (-75lbs)
Goal 4: 198.8lbs (-100lbs + Onderland!)
Goal 5: 173.8lbs (-125lbs )
Goal 6: 148.8lbs (-150lbs)
Plan: Tracking in iTrackBites on Better Balance / WW 💜 Purple / 🍎 Whole Foods Focused Wellness

This incredibly awesome, oh so wondrous, joy of #justkeepswimming weigh in is brought to you this week by the letter *F, the number 19, a storm front moving in which flared my autoimmune, whale week (girly time) and testing 3 foods to see if I could reinstate them into my diet to which the answer is a resounding No!

If you aren’t familiar with my situation, basically this is an “inflammatory overstimulation response” brought on by my basic blood cells thinking they are Spartan Warriors and attacking everything in sight.

This is not water weight, not sodium retention and it doesn’t go away until the cells calm down and the actual muscle inflammation decreases. Everything swells – my muscles, my organs, my eyes… Literally, sometimes just existing fires them up.

Now you add to that:
🌦️ Weather Changes – especially barometric changes of more than about 20° trigger swelling and we have had snow, then 50°, then storm front moving in again today…

🚙 Environmental Aspects – stress of going out with a compromised immune system, cars, traffic, pollution, crowds, perfumes, cleaning products – they all contribute triggers…

🐳 Whale Week – hormones are haywire and normal PMS aspects in overdrive

🧀 Food Reactions – every 6 months or so, I need to test if I am still reacting to certain ingredients / foods. I had my igG panel rerun last week and I react to 71 of the 92 foods/spices on the list. The only things I didn’t react to were Poultry, Fish/Seafood, Chocolate and Cinnamon… 🤣 But I react to some of those from a Histamine Intolerance so I am really reacting to everything to some degree.

This week I tried 2tbsps of a Kroger light yogurt sweetened with Stevia and still reacted very very strongly. Stevia will not be tested again. The first time I had it was in a Cranberry juice I drank about 4oz of. My eye swelled shut and I had a reaction for days. This was a little milder but I still developed eye and facial swelling for over 24hrs – from 2tbsps of yogurt. This is why I don’t do sugar free. Once Stevia, Monkfruit or especially Artificial Sweeteners are processed – they cause added heart palpitations and numbness in my mouth, feet and hands among other things.

Most foods with Stevia contain the highly processed extract version (Reb A) – it is completely different than growing a Stevia plant at home and is not a natural sweetener…

More about that here if you are interested:
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/stevia-side-effects
https://www.healthandwellnessalerts.berkeley.edu/blog/what-you-should-know-about-stevia

I also tested my reaction to Carrageenan. This is an emulsifier that basically holds dairy and other products like lunch meat together – it’s a binder found heavily in fat free products. It’s also found in everything from toothpaste to oral contrast for imaging scans like MRIs. I bought a Queso Dip that contained heavy cream which is very much Carrageenan filled… Yep, definitely still reacting… It’s why I don’t eat Cool Whip, cook with heavy cream, shouldn’t have most Ranch dressings or eat most processed lunch meats.

Lastly I tested my baseline reaction to Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Benozate – 2 super common preservatives which give packaged products their shelf life. They have usually triggered a minor reaction, something that is copeable if I’m not already reacting to something else. This is about the same. On their own, they may trigger a mild issue that is gone in 24hrs. Stacked with other triggers… Well then we get into days…

So why test at all? Why risk what happened this week if I could just avoid it? Because therein lies another problem.

If I continue eliminating foods, my body reacts much stronger to it if it encounters it again. Think of it like herd immunity – if I don’t continue a mild exposure to non dangerous things, I run the risk of developing a much more severe reaction later – so I have to balance reactivity with rotation in order to avoid getting to the point where I can only eat like 3 foods…

So now what? Well… I keep on keeping on… Same plan, minus the trigger food testing. Whale Week will go away and I have run all my errands so I can stay home now for another 2 weeks or so. Thank goodness for Amazon and Misfit Market.

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📚 RESOURCES 📚
More info on medical stuff can be found here:
HISTAMINE INTOLERANCE
https://www.healthline.com/health/histamine-intolerance

MAST CELL ACTIVATION SYNDROME
https://www.mastzellaktivierung.info/en/symptoms.html

HISTAMINE INTOLERANCE FOOD LIST (the most complete I’ve ever seen… Very helpful)
https://www.mastzellaktivierung.info/downloads/foodlist/21_FoodList_EN_alphabetic_withCateg.pdf

WHAT IS FOOD ROTATION FOR GUT HEALING?
https://unboundwellness.com/how-to-follow-a-rotation-diet

WHAT IS POTS?
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/postural-orthostatic-tachycardia-syndrome-pots