Friday 22 August 2008

Finding Out What Makes Me Sick - My Food Diary



A comment left by Catz on Frugal Trenches' blog sparked off my own decision to keep a daily food diary. Like Catz, I also have a health problem that can be made more difficult to cope with if I eat anything that my body doesn’t agree with, and although my problems are very different to hers, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would benefit from keeping a diary.

The strange thing is, the idea was suggested to me by the nursing staff on the unit when this first happened to me, but I was never organised enough to follow it up. Some may scoff at the idea of keeping lists of things but for me, lists are part of making my life much more simple. I used to have them years ago, but gave up when my lifestyle changed. I’m just glad it’s gradually changing back again now. I don’t just want simplicity, I need simplicity.

It’s early days yet, obviously. I’ve only been keeping my food diary for a very short while but already I’ve seen that there’s a pattern forming. Nothing that I can say for certain is affecting me yet, but it’ll interesting to see how things develop.

Of course, unlike most, I don’t really need to track whether I’m getting enough proteins, dairy, fruit & veg etc each day, because my body can’t make use of the nutrients anyway; it’s how my stomach reacts to the different food stuffs that’s important to me so I’m actually keeping a track of those things anyway because it could be that I react if I get too much of one type of protein rich food or something. I really don’t know. I’ll see how it pans out anyway.

Hopefully, once I’ve been doing this for a while I’ll be in a better position to plan my menus without having a night spent on the loo or an afternoon with my head in a bucket.

Sharon J

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4 comments:

Catz said...

This is well worth doing Sharon, it might take a while but you will see a pattern forming.

I've found (by keeping a note of all I have eaten) that I am in the very bad habit of reaching for something sweet in the afternoon like a biscuit or 2 or chocolate, this has not helped my symptoms at all as my sugar levels go up and then plummet afterwards. Now I have a bowl of yogurt (protein is very good for cfs) with some fruit instead and feel much better.

Anonymous said...

jeesh...there you go teaching me stuff again!

Sharon J said...

@ Catz. Looking back over what I've eaten over the past couple of weeks, I don't think my diet's too bad really although, as I said, when it comes to nutrition, it doesn't make a blind bit of difference. I've started to notice that fats upset my system, though, and it seems like too many acid forming foods leave me in pain. If this can help me feel a bit more comfortable, it'll have been well worth it :)

@ Pink Bunny Ears. I did? Hehe.

Anonymous said...

The things you have to do when you arent well. I'm glad I have my health.