I tried the diet

For roughly 36 hours. And I felt like hell the entire time. I thought at first it was caffeine withdrawal...then I realized I was just starving. I normally eat around 1400 calories a day; with this endo diet, I was eating less than 1000. No wonder I felt like crap. The food to bring me down wasn't bread or cheese, either...it was tater tots. Made a Sonic run at 9 p.m. two days into the diet -- something I never do.

Then I realized I was doing it all wrong. Yes, I had a 12-day period this month. And a 10-day one a couple of months ago. But in between there, I had a 4-day one. The variable factor has not been my diet…it’s been stress. This diet doesn’t help that, either. (Particularly not the no-caffeine part.) What I really need to do is not revamp my diet (despite what my mother thinks, I eat pretty well already), but work on exercising more and stressing less.

I’m not abandoning the idea, though. I will try to eat more veg and fruit and less wheat and cheese. But I’m not going to starve myself, which is the direction I was heading before the tater tot run. (I didn’t eat dinner because nothing sounded good. Then tater tots sounded wonderful…more wonderful than they were, honestly.)

And if I have another 13-day period (yes, this month's period was nearly 2 weeks long), I'll go talk to the doctor again.

New book, new resolve

Bought a recipe book for endometriosis. (I got the e-book; it is so very cool to buy a book online and have it immediately!) I'm contemplating her other book; I guess I'm just not sure how far I buy into this stuff yet. For instance, there's a section on soy in the recipe book that confirms my experiences with it, and my thoughts (based on research into soy) about how a food full of estrogen would affect me. However, it devolves into a paranoid-sounding rant about the evil soy farmers brainwashing the masses...not sure I quite believe that. So I guess I'm taking much of the intro with a grain of salt.

At any rate, I'm going to start the diet next weekend. I figured the beginning of my cycle was a good time, and since I'm far from regular (I started three days earlier than the pills say I should, and nearly a week before I expected to), I have to rely on the pills for a cycle start date. I may not hit 100% right away -- I still don't have all my food stuffs assembled, and my parents are not exactly supportive of the idea. (My boyfriend's cool with it, even though it will affect him much more than it affects them. One of the many reasons why I love him.) But I figure even if I don't follow it to the letter at first, I can work up to that.

The other thing I need to deal with is my stress level. A friend said something that made me see I don't deal with stress -- I just live with it. And I've been under a fair amount recently. Which is probably why I started early this month. No diet in the world will help with the endo if I don't also get my stress under control. I need to stop seeing stress as an unavoidable aspect of life, and start doing something to deal with it. How, I do not know.

Adventures in vegetarianism

While it's not conclusive proof, I'm even more suspicious of soy now. Last month's period was ten days long; this month's was four. The difference: Last month, I ate soy tacos for a week. This month, no soy. Makes you wonder, huh?

In fact, this month was better all around, though by no means enjoyable. The worst part was this past week; I had a migraine that lasted several days, which may or may not have been period related. (They usually are, but this week was also quite stressful.) Still, a vast improvement over last month. I'm now forbidding myself to eat soy.

I'm also preparing to go mostly vegan (no wheat, no dairy) for a month. Most sources recommend you eliminate one, then the other, but I'm just gonna let 'er rip. If I don't see an improvement after cutting most of the joy from my diet, I'm going to eat whatever the heck I want. I was going to do this for the month of April, but then Mom announced her plan to make apple pie for Good Friday. And there's a cake recipe I want to try as well. So now I'm waiting until after Easter, and doing research in the meantime.

The results of this research:

- I tried Uncle Bob's Red Mill Homemade Wonderful GF Bread Mix. I was dubious about the "wonderful" part...no matter how you look at it, bread made with garbanzo bean flour can't really be expected to taste as nummy as bread made with wheat. What I didn't expect was the first mouthful to send me gagging to the trash can. I don't puke easy, but this stuff is just revolting. A friend has recommended rice bread, though, so I've not given up on wheat-free peanut butter sandwiches.

- I also tried rice milk (purchased to make the GF bread above, but I was also curious). It tastes and smells like...nothing. Compared with soy milk, however (the flavor of which horrified and disgusted me), "nothing" is perfectly acceptable. (I will miss my dairy, though.)

- I've decided (at least for the moment) to loosen my diet plans; since I can't eat that many of them anyway, there's no point in excluding eggs. (Besides, most of the vegan substitutes I've found are mostly soy.) In this spirit, I picked up a can of powdered egg whites, since I can never keep fresh eggs/egg product in the house. Which leads to lesson #2 (same night, unfortunately, as the GF bread debacle):

- Brownies made with egg white powder don't gel. I had to bake those things ten extra minutes before they were even semi-solid, and while they are edible, they're a bit on the crunchy side. One more lesson...

- Brownies don't cure migraines. (It was worth a shot.)

Time for some recipe research. I'll let you know if I find anything good.

Get off yer duff

Confirmed today the theory about movement helping cramps. Bad pain day (Lyrica + Darvocet), yet have been doing some light spring cleaning. (I'm not moving furniture, but I'm doing everything else.) And so long as I keep moving, the pain is tolerable. When I stop (like now), it feels like someone's got my hips in a vice.

So I'll get back to it. Just thought I'd share that.

(Longer post to come...I'm finally going to do the vegan thing. More on that later.)

That sound would be my bubble popping

Or maybe just going "pfft," like the dud bubbles in bubble wrap.

Finally, finally wrapping up this month's period. Ten days this hugger lasted. And while I'm not still gushing, I am still bleeding, and hurting -- more in the 1-4 range than the 7-9, as I was a few days ago, but still.

So much for the shorter period.

I'm not completely abandoning hope, though. It may be the soy. (The "estrogen + more estrogen = period from hell" theory.) I'll give it a month or so, and eat better during those months, before I give up on this pill.

Journal. Now.

Many thanks to the Goddess Kelly for suggesting I start a food journal. Because mine's not just a food journal...no, anal-retentive person that I am, it's a state-of-my-body journal. I'm tracking not just what I consume, but also my mood, severity and location of my pain, and any other symptoms I may have. And just in the past few days, I'm seeing the effect starting has on my mood. I went from slightly insecure and weepy to "get off my lawn!" cranky in 48 hours. Really quite amazing, when you think about it. (I think my bf was relieved that I did not join him for the out-of-town concert he attended this weekend.)

While the main point of the journal is to try to determine which foods may or may not worsen my symptoms, I expect to also see patterns in my symptoms. And maybe from there, I can figure out how to alleviate those symptoms. Or at least make sure my loved ones are far away from me when the crazy hits.

Oh, happy day!

Just filled my new BC prescription (and renewed my Lyrica prescription). There is a generic form of the Mircette! It's called Kariva. So instead of spending $35 a month, I spend $10. I am doing one hell of a happy dance right now. (Well, not literally. In too much pain to sit, let alone dance. But inside, I'm gettin' jiggy wit it.)