Zumba

Tuesday:

I weighed 72.5kg yesterday, same as last week. I have my blood test for gluten tomorrow, so this is my last bread day. Except I might have it for breakfast tomorrow before the blood test, so that will be a half-bread day. I don't intent to give up bread/carbs entirely but eating four slices a day for a month has been more of a trial that you would think. I don't think I react to gluten, but I have been feeling heavier and more sluggish than when I eat mainly unprocessed/lower carb foods.

Jasmine and I were sick yet again over the weekend. It was a weird one, on Friday afternoon my heart rate went up over 100 even though I was sitting quietly, and stayed up for a couple of hours. I could feel it racing, and I felt trembly and weak. I was a bit worried. I blamed it on Duromine, although it's never had that effect before. But the next morning Jasmine's heart rate was over 110, lying in bed, and like me could feel her heart racing. Her normal rate is very low because she is athletic and fit - around 55 I think? My normal is an unfit 80. (We both wear fitness trackers, which is how we know our heartrate.) For both of us the heartrate went down and the illness moved on to headaches and tiredness for a couple of days. Clearly a virus.

I was supposed to start work yesterday, but I emailed them on Thursday (again me contacting them, should have been the other way around!) and they had no news, they still want me if the freeze lifts but in the meantime I should keep looking for other work. Lucky I'm not desperate for work/money! Nothing much else around at the moment, except Library Assistant jobs (below my training, but I'd do it for the experience) who want people who can work evenings, which I can't. Or jobs right over the other side of Sydney, with an impractical amount of travel time.

On the weekend I signed up for a 5 day free pass at my local gym, and received the confirmation by email. I didn't go on Monday because I still felt a little unwell, and they called me to ask when I was coming in! Now that is proactive. I went today, to a Zumba class. It was exhausting but fun. I am very unfit. I used to do some Zumba many years ago, all the routines were different of course. I am good at picking up choreography though. My old gym went more hip-hop, which I didn't like, this one was all Bollywood and Latin which was great. The gym has all the usual Les Mills classes, Body Pump, Body Step etc.

I has poured rain pretty solidly for a couple of weeks (all school holidays) and the garden has loved it after a long dry spell. I think columbines look like little fairy dresses.

Gluten

Thursday:

I continue to get lots of pelvic/abdominal pain, even though I had my uterine fibroids removed, so I am no longer sure it is reproductive-organ-related. I saw my doctor yesterday (a different one, they get a new female doctor every six months as part of their training) and we talked about the possibility it could be digestive-tract-related. I had not realised until some internet research this week that I have a number of symptoms indicating possible Coeliac Disease or gluten intolerance. Apart from the abdominal pain, I have lots of joint pain, frequent mouth ulcers (which I had related to sugar, but maybe it's gluten), fatigue, and I don't seem to absorb vitamins well from food (eg I have to take Vitamin B12 despite eating lots of meat, and I've had other unexplained deficiencies in the past). I'm not jumping to any conclusions, just looking for answers.

So that the gluten test will be accurate, I have to eat four slices of bread a day for four weeks before a blood test and then maybe a bowel biopsy. Eating bread certainly isn't a hardship, but I do worry that it will derail my lowish-carb weight loss efforts, and if it's actual Coeliac Disease then every bit of gluten is doing my body real damage. I've decided to go ahead with the test because I definitely want an answer about my abdominal pain and other symptoms. And avoiding gluten is considered a bit of a fad (loved the joke that Californians are so afraid of gluten that you could rob a bank with a bagel) but for people with Coeliac it is a major issue leading to serious health problems and gluten has to be strictly avoided. (And even if  a person just feels better without it, why sneer at them for that?)

I had a lovely roast chicken roll for lunch, and garlic bread with dinner. Yum. I didn't have any stomach cramps after yesterday's bread, but I had a horrible sinus headache in the evening and this morning. No idea if it was gluten making my existing hayfever worse (because it encourages inflammation) or unrelated. I haven't been gluten-free prior to this, just lowish-carb, so I don't know if the increase will make a big difference to how I feel.

Access to our front door is currently only up a fairly steep driveway and this is an issue for some older or unwell visitors (like my 100-year-old grandfather, or my father-in-law's partner Jo who has lung cancer and therefore compromised breathing). We're planning to have stairs and a railing added next to the driveway and we've had two contractors come out to have a look. One very pleasant youngish well-presented clean young man who ummed and ah-ed and looked very uncertain about everything, as if he'd never tackled that particular type of job before. And one somewhat older man with work-stained clothes and dirty boots who was casually confident and looked like he built stairs every day. We haven't got the quotes yet but I'd feel a lot more comfortable trusting the second guy!

Wholemeal bread and sore feet

Thursday:

This morning I did the shopping I couldn't do yesterday. At Bakers' Delight (a bread shop, obviously), buying my usual hi-fibre low-GI white loaf, I looked over at the wholegrain bread. "But I don't like wholegrain," I whined to myself. "But they have a half-size loaf," I told myself. "You could just try it." "It will still be a waste," I insisted. Then I saw that, of course, they have rolls. So I was forced into the decision by my roving eye. I bought a Country Grain roll, just to try.

Back at home; I cut it in half to make a single-slice equivalent, put a scrape of butter on it, and had a nibble. Actually not too horrible. Rather than the sponge-cake experience of white bread; it was denser and kind of nutty. The seeds/grains/whatever they are -- detested as a child, like little crunchy bugs in the bread -- were surprisingly ok. So I put my cheese ration on top (camembert today) and ate it up. And enjoyed it. Satisfying and yummy. I can't believe it. Am I sick or something? Me, eating wholegrain bread?

Then I went on my walk around the lake. Today I decided to be wacky and different and walked around the lake clockwise instead of the other way. I'm full of surprises today. But I didn't like it so much. Firstly, when crossing bridges I was now next to the traffic rather than on the outside so I got more noise and pollution. Secondly; as Australians walk/drive/cycle to the left, I was now walking that little bit further! When counter-clockwise I was right next to the lake, on a fractionally tighter circle. Every step counts, people! Thirdly; which is completely pyschological but/therefore important, it felt further. Where I park is close to one of the bridges, so usually when I cross the second bridge I am nearly "home". Walking the other way, after crossing my second bridge I still had a long way to go.

I was wearing my new joggers, and actually did two short jogs of about 50 metres each. My feet were just as hot and tired and sore by the end as they were in my cross-trainers.

Now here is the possible deal-breaker. Every (i.e. all three) times I have done this long walk, after sitting for a while at the end (library or even just driving home) my feet are horribly painful when I stand up again. It isn't the muscles or tendons; it feels like the soles of my feet have been sandpapered and I can literally hardly walk. It is worst initially, but still sore for the whole rest of the day. I hobble out to my car, trying to stand on the sides of my feet rather than the soles; hobble around the school getting the kids, trying not to look like I just had an enema that went wrong; and collapse at home. This cannot continue. I can accept muscle stiffness from exercise (my thighs are sore right now) but this pain just feels really wrong. I assume that my feet get sweaty and rub against my socks, even though I wear sports socks. I have tried different socks, and now different shoes, with the same result. I exercise for just as long and more sweatily at the gym without even a hint of this problem. I might try once more next week, taking a change of shoes and socks in the car to see if that helps, but otherwise I will have to give up my walks which would be a shame.

My feet get a bit sore while I'm walking, but the pain doesn't really hit until I have been sitting for a while and then get up.

After school pick-up we went to a friend's house and I had a cup of tea with Jodie while the kids played. She put out some food for us -- with things I liked including camembert and the rice crackers I had brought -- but I had no difficultly saying no. I had actually brought a piece of fruit with me, as that was my allotted afternoon tea, but I didn't eat it. I was happy with my cup of tea. I still felt full from lunch (is this the wholegrains kicking in?). One thing we chatted about -- for just about the whole visit actually -- was dieting and exercise. She had the book I am dieting from and loaned it to me which was lovely. I had looked at it again at Caroline's house on Tuesday and found something I was doing wrong, and looking at it again today I found something else. So it's good to actually have a copy to read carefully, and it has lots of recipes in it too. I am getting a copy from the library but I was about 4th on the waiting list.

The things I was doing wrong were 1. you can only swap out one of your slices of wholegrain bread for pasta/potato/etc, not both, you have to keep one slice of bread -- presumably for the graininess -- and 2. my protein at lunchtime is up to 100g. I don't have to force down the whole 100g, which turns out to be quite a lot of meat. I do still have to eat a whole 200g at dinner.

Jodie had tried this diet and said she liked the recipes and still uses them and that she lost 3 kg in the first week she went on it. Trying not to get my hopes up. Hmm, didn't ask why she isn't still on it, if it works so well.

Because she is about to start a new diet. Our Biggest Loser trainer, Michelle Bridges, has a book called "Crunch Time" and now has an online program to go with it. You sign up for a twelve week course and get menu plans and exercises and chat to other people on it and watch little videos from Michelle. A whole lot of people start at the same time. She had registered and paid without really checking it out, so we looked at it together this afternoon. The exercises looked alright, for week 1 at least, 6 days a week and a good variety. But the menu plan! OMFG! I was heavily critisized for going on a 1000 calorie per day diet, but this is lower! Most days were around 900 calories, one day was 805. Saturday you got to splurge on 1200. Jodie is going to lose her 6-8 kilos in about 2 weeks, I reckon, but she will be fainting at work every day. And cranky and miserable. How is she supposed to exercise on that?

I should say that I haven't seen the whole plan or read it carefully and maybe there are snacks that you get to add in every day or something. But it didn't look like it. I will keep you posted. Jodie said that a friend of hers did it last year and it was "hard" but she lost a lot of weight.

Don't you lose a lot of muscle with weight-loss that dramatic? It sounds unhealthy to me. Caroline, my dietician friend, would have a fit. The funny thing is that Jodie actually works for dieticians, I wonder what they will think of it.

I am very happy with my CSIRO diet. Oh, but if I don't lose weight in this first week it will kill me.