Easing into diet

Haha, I hear you, it can be daunting. Def a good idea to ease into it. I throw out these ideas: could try to first work on eliminating the most potentially problematic things in your diet. In my view refined sugars are one of the worst things for us, so if you can, start reducing those. The next idea would be try to cut out processed foods. It can be hard initially because cravings can be bad (especially with sugar), but over time our body adjusts. I find fruit to be a great substitute for refined-sugar snacks. Cherries are nature's candy so they say...

Some people find cutting out gluten and dairy helpful. Can always experiment with that. Personally I found the most benefit by eliminating refined sugars/processed foods.

The core of my diet is rice, oatmeal, vegetables, fruit, fish (salmon/sardines), nuts, some meat, and eggs. I know some people do well on the paleo diet.

Good luck with it! I'm sure you'll find the right path with your diet that works for you.

The biggest motivator for me was looking for anything that might improve my symptoms. Once I realized diet might play a role, I would've been willing to perpetually eat cardboard if it meant I'd get symptom relief!

Thanks for the replies y’all! I’m going to ease into it. My fiancé is willing to try out a diet with me. I would be more motivated to eat better if I could work out.. I’m not close to being able to tolerate any exercise so it’s frustrating. I should probably try to do minimal workouts but it’s hard on me mentally calling a 5 minute session on a stationary bike a workout literally this time last year I was bench pressing 400 pounds. Gonna have to adapt I suppose

It's hard to do because our diet is based off habit, how we grew up (what our parents fed us), our culture, our want to fit in, price, convenience etc. etc. The majority of Americans follow the Standard American Diet (SAD) which is a terrible diet. I followed it to before I got sick. Even after I got sick it took two years for me to get my diet to an acceptable range. It's really hard to change your diet. It's worth it though. You can do it.

Here is a few things that helped with my diet:
1. food allergy test-abx builds up yeast and eventually your body stops trying to deal with it and the yeast will poke holes in your intestines and viola! food allergies. These food allergies don't always show up as itchy, rash, throat swelling, ect. I rarely had those symptoms and never suspected I had any. However, once I stopped eating those foods I noticed a BIG difference in how I felt and also in my neuro issues I was chalking up to just lyme brain.

2. Stay away from sugar-it also feeds yeast

3. detoxinista . com has some great recipes and ways you can make food fit your diet, e.g. when baking use sugar free apple sauce instead of eggs

4. tofetti is a great brand (obviously made from tofu) they have cream cheese and sour cream that has the same taste and texture as the real stuff

I stayed on my very strict diet for about 2-3 years and then slowly started reintroducing these foods back. That took another 2-3 years to get back to eat "normal". Meanwhile here is some tasty recipes:

Brownie Pizza:
Bob's Red Mill gluten free mix
instead of the 3 eggs use 1 of the sugar free apple sauce to-go cups
1/4 c melted tofetti butter
-mix well and bake as normal, using apple sauce will make these more moist than normal so you may need a few extra minutes in the oven.
-while it is cooling mix 8oz block of tofetti cream cheese with raw honey (or sugar sub.) until desired sweetness
-spread this cream cheese mix over the brownies, chop up your favorite fruit and place on top. I recommend: strawberries, pineapple, kiwi and/or bananas.

Veggie Pasta:
-cook gluten free pasta as directed
- chop garlic (I use about 6 cloves), zucchini, yellow squash into small bite size pieces and place in a deep pan over medium low heat, coat generously with olive oil and spices (I like greek seasoning, a pinch of chili powder, garlic powder, and salt and pepper); stir every few minutes (keep it covered otherwise) until the veggies are nice and soft
-drain pasta and add to the veggies, you may need to add more olive oil (especially if you heat up leftovers)
-depending on your diet I like to add: grilled chicken, bacon, and / or parmesan cheese