Please watch what you eat....

I just wanted to share with you that what I eat greatly affects how I feel, how severe my fibromyalgia symptoms become.

Yesterday my fiance and I went to a favorite restaurant and I ordered my pan fried almond crusted walleye. I had checked a while back what kind of oil the walleye was fried in, it checked out okay. They use canola oil. Now I don't eat this dish very often, because it is still unhealthy even though it's pan fried and not deep fried. But it's a treat when I do order it.

Yesterday my walleye looked and tasted different. I thought they may have pan fried it longer than usual. It was very crisp. So I went ahead and ate it. Afterwards I became very tight especially in my chest. The remainder of the day I was more tired than normal and I felt a little bit depressed. A little depressed is not normal for me. (Read up on mood foods.) When I climbed out of the bath tub last night my heart was palpitating bigtime and my muscles and chest were even tighter. I took my sleep supplements and tried to sleep it off hoping I would feel better in the morning. (I had a fitful night of sleeping, thank goodness sleep supplements can be taken again and maybe again in the middle of the night. I couldn't do that with sleeping pills.)

This morning, I still have the heart palpitations and I'm weak. Not tired weak, but energy weak. My muscles are still burning and I'm still pretty tight. I'm going to take it easy today but still be as active as I can within reason because sitting or lying around too much make me worse. (Luckily I have a wonderful man in my life who is very supportive and understands.)

What I figured out was, perhaps the cook took a shortcut and deep fried my walleye. Now that I think of it, it did look deep fried and it tasted deep fried. (I googled this morning deep fried foods and heart palpitations and I found a couple websites that mentioned when you eat sugar, unhealthy carbs, caffiene, and deep fried foods it increases your cortisol which is a stress hormone which can cause several side effects like heart palpitations and even weight gain in the stomach.)

What I'm trying to say here, everyone, is please watch what you eat. Pay attention after you eat to see if you feel any worse. If you do, when you eat it again, see if your symptoms worsen again. Opposite that, see if when you eat something healthy your symptoms improve like mine do at times.

Eating healthy is called eating "clean." It helps to think of it that way. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Try not to eat heavy sauces, fatty meats, no butter or margarine or perhaps cheese too, no dairy products, no sugar and at least for me--caffiene and wheat products. You get the picture.

I believe we have to be our own best detectives and we should not rely so much on our physicians to try to fix us or help us with pills.

Thanks for listening. 

I attribute my crazy, fanatical, clean, healthy diet to 100% of my IBS remission, and no less than 50% of my Fibro remission {the other 50%, being that I work out like my life depends on it.... which it actually does, 60-90 min a day, 7 days a week}

And BTW, I personally believe that diet is one aspect where Fibro sufferers need to be as fanatical as I am. Reason being, you can eat, pretty clean, and pretty healthy, most of the time >but even that little splurge on the weekend, or your occasional little treat, can be enough to just completely negate any / all of the good, healthy things you do eat......

Maybe you don't hardly ever hear about other people like myself, who have knocked IBS and Fibro "almost" completely out, because you also don't hardly ever hear of anybody, with Fibro, that goes ridiculous fanatical with their diet and exercise, like I have ???

But I'm telling you, it's been totally worth it to me.

Just saying....

Peace,

Fish

Post Edited (Fishchris) : 7/15/2012 10:06:31 PM (GMT-6)

After I got onto this fanatical fitness kick, it still took 12-18 months for my Fibro to get to where it is now (90-95% remission). My IBS showed improvement right away, but it still took me probably 12 months to put it into 100% remission.

In case anyone is wondering what my crazy diet consists of;

Lots of fresh fruits and veggies, lots of lean meats, chicken breast, pork tenderloin, fish, lots of nuts, peanut butter, olive oil, avocados, rolled oats...... Oh, and 1 doz jumbo egg "whites" with every breakfast ;)

Zero bread, pasta, rice, potato's, fried food, fast food, pizza, candy, chips, and in general, anything heavily proccessed. < I call this my "crack rock" food list. I don't eat even a little, because then I'd have to use self control (that I probably wouldn't have enough of) not to eat a truckload, and fall right back to where I was before.

The only processed sugar I eat, is with my cooking sauces (like BBQ, or Yoshidas) and I do eat quite a bit of salt. My food "has to taste good" to keep me eating / living the way that I do. I honestly NEVER feel deprived, as I enjoy the foods I eat SOOO much  :)

And BTW, crazy as it may sound, I eat 3800-4000 cals a day, just to break even ;)

Yes, I LOVE to eat :)

My BP has gone from dangerously high for many years though, to totally healthy, without BP meds.

Then like I say, the hard core workouts are the other half of the deal....

Speaking of which, I need to finish my days workouts right now :) But it's all good. Today is my "Friday" :) Whooo Hoo ! :) On the water tomorrow ;)

Peace,

Fish