Day 2 of 6

About 10pm last night I developed a raging headache, which persisted all night. I woke up numerous times and realised it was still there, but luckily, by the time morning came by, it had evaporated. I'd say that's the evil caffeine beast just parading rampantly through my neurons on it's way out of my bloodstream.

Mostly I've just had a feeling of extreme 'unmotivation' (the opposite of motivation). You might call it 'The Blahs'. You know.. it's taken me hours just to unload and load the dishwasher. I had a few Sana Direct tasks to do, but otherwise put off everything today in favour of.. sleeping in and doing nothing. After the complete madness of last week (exams!), it's good to chill for a week anyway before going headfirst into the next semesters workload. I do have a bunch of other tasks to deal to, particularly updating the Sana site, but it can all wait 5 days. I'm sure nothing drastic will happen.

The one thing I'm not is hungry. The elimination diet does not involve calorie controlled deprivation, although I do note that last time I did count calories as I was still living the calorie-nervous lifestyle. On day two last time I developed a backache that was pretty extreme and only scrawled a few words in my diary ('ugh, backache, kidney pain, hip pain... ugh'). None of that this time, in fact I really haven't suffered backache this year, possibly due to the cleaner diet, or the MSM or maybe even because I'm training with less intensity.

I'm not taking my usual supplements for the six days of the elimination, but will get right back onto those next Tuesday. Some people think that the elimination diet is about identifying food sensitivities, and it does help with that, but the main point of it is to provide a healing experience for the digestive system, which can take a pounding under the insults of daily life. The basic idea is that if the gut is damaged and not fulfilling it's role as regulator of what enters the bloodstream, then naturally occurring substances, such as certain food lectins, are more prone to 'get through' and cause havoc by, for example, binding to glycoproteins in the joints. This is the 'dummies' version of how the gut-joints connection works. There is also some research suggesting that lectins may hinder the leptin receptors (similar name, but different thing), which results in increased appetite. It's all very interesting.

Todays eats on the Elimination Diet

Breakfast: grabbed a pear

Lunch: Baked makerel and kumara

Snacks: Leftover lunch, raw carrots, another couple of pears

Dinner: Lamb chop, baked kumara, parsnip mash, carrot sticks.

I'll probably have another pear before I go to bed. I know.. it's all too exciting.