So its been about a week since I started the Plant Paradox diet advocated by Dr Stephen Grundy. Ive been having green smoothies for breakfasts, wild caught fish plus allowed vegetables such as spinach, roasted cauliflower, fried onions, mushrooms etc, plus nuts ( macadamia, pistachio, hazelnuts) and using avocado oil for cooking boosting fat/calories, drinking herbal/fruit teas ( no sugar).
Ive continued with my regime of looking after myself, listening to my body, getting good sleeps, drinking plenty, pacing everything I do carefully, resting as needed, accepting help/asking for help when Ive needed it, keeping stress levels low, taking all my supplements/vitamins but omitting D Ribbose for a couple of weeks.
So far the only noticeable change is that I have increased clarity in thinking, my brain fog is massively reduced in the last couple of days - now this could be a coincidence or down to my new diet and all the other measures Im putting into practice. I will keep monitoring daily.
I am still experiencing all my other symptoms and my body is continuing to struggle. My energy levels dipped even lower - to rock bottom for a few days after starting the diet - this is hard to explain but when my energy levels are at rock bottom and I try to do something simple such as brush my teeth - I get totally exhausted and the muscles that I am using for the task feel painful, like a burning feeling, but also as if they are not getting energy/oxygen to the muscles Im using. I feel mildly breathless and unable to complete the task - having to stop quickly as my muscles /limbs cannot function. Its really hard to explain this feeling to anyone who doesnt have M.E. - yes it is an exhaustion/fatigue but unlike any exhaustion Ive felt prior to having M.E. The only thing I can liken it to is when I used to go hiking and climbing mountains or cycling - when I would push myself to my limits ( I did this a lot as I wanted to cycle fasted each time) - at the moment of pushing myself past my limits I could quite literally feel the burn in my muscles - when I ran out of energy/fuel/was getting hungry etc I could feel this in my muscles - I could feel a different sort of pain in my muscles - whether it was overuse, lack of energy because I had burned all my body fuel - so was hungry/thirsty needing to eat/drink, or I was so out of breath that oxygen wasnt getting to my muscles enough. Possibly all of those. But that burning /aching feeling and difficulty in keeping going because of lack of whichever fuel is very very similar to the feeling I get with M.E. when my energy is low - but through careful pacing and all my management techniques Ive managed to help reduce this feeling, despite incredibly low energy levels. My energy levels are always low since having M.E, but this last 18 months or so of relearning more pacing techniques and being stricter in sticking to my regime as resulted in my energy levels being more of a 15-30% level instead of the 5-10 % that I get when I cannot manage anything. The 5-10 % is where I estimate that my burning /minimum energy levels cause my most of the exhaustion and inability to do simple tasks. So I feel starting this diet has knocked my energy levels back down to the lowest they have been again.
However, I listen to my body carefully and I know that my body functions better on higher levels of animal protein than the 3-4 ounces that Dr S Grundy suggests in his dietary plan. His plan isnt created with people who have M.E. in mind its to help people with many illness and is not specific to energy levels/energy manufacture - where as Dr Myhills paleo keto diet which encourages higher amounts of animal protein and fats is specifically aimed at helping M.E. patients to produce energy more efficiently. So given this reasoning, plus my nursing knowlegde and knowing during healing our body's require more protein, I decided to increase my animal protein intake to twice a day - double what Dr Grundy advocates - I started eating closer to 200grams wild caught fish each day and within 2 days could feel some difference - I need to monitor this carefully and observe how my body responds whilst keeping everything else the same.
After the 3 days phase one I moved into phase two of the eating plan which allowed me more food choices and I follow this for another week, after which I can also add in Olive oil and coconut oil - the extra fats will hopefully give me more energy. I am looking forward to that. I remain in ketosis - tested with urine sticks daily.
I heard today that my aquaintence who largely recovered with this diet is eating a mostly normal diet now although gluten free, and is living a normal healthy life still - this gives me so much hope. So I am sticking to the plan for another 7 weeks - and evaluating as I go.
As usual I like to round off on a positive and add in my positives for the week. This weeks positives - There were a couple of articles about me, my photography and how it helps me to cope with M.E. on the Evening Chronicle website ( well written I thought) and in the Sunday Sun newspaper. It is myy are f hope that my story raises awareness of M.E. and also that it gives hope/inspiration to those with it.
I submitted a bit about my story to the M.E. association and heard back that they are going to share my blog on their website, they already shared it on their facebook page. They also replied to say that they will include my story in their publications for M.E awareness week in May. Im particularly happy about this - its good to be involved and to help with raising awareness.
I got to spend a half hour photographing my favourite flowers this week - Anemones - Anemone mistral pastel blues and I have some some Anemone neros to photograph in the coming days - Im trying to keep them cool enough to last a week so I can have a couple of short sessions photographing them.
Yesterday I did something I rarely manage these days - I baked cakes! My partner set a high stool in the kitchen for me - I gathered the ingredients ready on the bench the previous day and my partner grated a couple of carrots ready for me. I made carrot cakes - but following a recipe in the Plant paradox cookbook - theyre not bad and its nice to have a snack type food. It might not sound like a lot making some simple cakes - all I did was weigh and mix the ingredients - but it took it out of me. But its a little achievement, its nice to actually manage something with an end result and nice to contribute to making food - not that I will do it often whilst I am like I am at present. I only manage doing something that uses that much energy about once a week or fortnight at the moment, but it beats sitting on the sofa!
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