🐸 Starting Weight: 298.8lbs
🦋 Current Weight: 252.0lbs
🦄 This Week: -3.0lbs

I think for the first time in more than 5yrs, I am really onto something here. I have known about my food sensitivities for years but it looks like Oxalates were the missing piece.

I am just starting Week 4 of this 12 Week Wellness Reset and I feel better than I have in a long long time. My blood pressure is down, my breathing comes easier, my hands and feet don’t hurt as much and my last trip into town to run errands didn’t half kill me….

Given that this is the beginning of Whale 🐳 Week for me, we have had lots of rain and my body is still basically going – Huh? What? Which way? – I am thrilled with a loss.

It may take another 3 months for my weight to begin changing with any real predictability but if I continue to feel better – I don’t really care…

I am at the point in my reintroductions that it isn’t difficult to have what I want, it just takes more planning to research Histamine and Oxalate levels for everything, especially now that I am reintroducing multi ingredient products.

Although, I got surprised this week by Blackberries. Normally I pretrack and mark everything but for whatever reason I didn’t with them. I knew they were okay with my Histamine Intolerance but what I didn’t count on was how high in Oxalates they are. I ate a 6oz clam shell and it was a whopping 89mg of my recommended 100mg…
💥 KAPOW 💥 Lesson learned – this is why we pretrack.

The time and effort has been very worth it, and once I mark a food with the correct information for me, I don’t have to worry about it.

Each food is marked in several ways –
✅ Nutritional Information verified and edited by me
🔥 Histamine Level
🌿 Oxalate mg (per noted serving)
*️⃣ 0.5mg or less per serving

ITrackBites keeps track of my calories and I add my histamine levels and daily oxalates… Together this is a great system. And very maintainable even after the 12 weeks of testing.

So we are moving right on along and am hoping for a flare free week!

↙️ ONWARDS & DOWNWARDS ↘️

🏆 NEXT MINI GOAL: 248.8lbs [-50lbs]
🎯 NEXT MILESTONE GOALS: 223.8lbs [-75lbs]
🌏 NON SCALE GOAL: Fit in the Hoodie I bought for New Zealand

🎯 MILE MARKERS
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: Currently tracking in ℹ️ iTrackBites on Calorie Command

———————

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

[Mast Cell Activation Syndrome or MCAS is my main issue but also fun things like Fibromyalgia, POTS, Histamine Intolerance, Insulin Resistance and on and on… ]

My weight fluctuations are not water weight, not sodium retention and the gains do not go away until the cells calm down and the actual muscle inflammation decreases. When a flare happens, everything swells – my eyes, my hands/feet, my actual muscle tissue and organs … I can, and do, put on up to 20lbs in a bad flare and this can take 3-4 weeks to lose again.

Foods, chemicals, weather changes, environmental elements… literally, sometimes just existing, fires them up. Some things I can control and otherwise it is a #justkeepswimming kinda life.

———————

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

FOOD LIST I WILL BE USING
https://www.mastzellaktivierung.info/downloads/foodlist/21_FoodList_EN_alphabetic_withCateg.pdf

HISTAMINE INTOLERANCE
https://www.healthline.com/health/histamine-intolerance

INSULIN RESISTANCE
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/insulin-and-insulin-resistance

FIBROMYALGIA
https://www.healthline.com/health/fibromyalgia/signs-of-fibromyalgia

POTS
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/16560-postural-orthostatic-tachycardia-syndrome-pots

———————

MY TOP 3 WORST INFLAMMATION TRIGGERS
These are not the same for everyone and in 90% of people they don’t trigger a reaction – but if you are constantly dealing with being bloated, headaches, muscle or joint pain or digestive distress – they may be worth considering as potential inflammation triggers.

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
https://www.eatthis.com/artificial-sweeteners-side-effects

WHY “NATURAL FLAVORS” ARE A NO NO FOR ME
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/natural-flavors#TOC_TITLE_HDR_7

CARRAGEENAN (Another big no no)
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/carrageenan

———————