5/30/08

White Supremacy

I've been talking, thinking, threatening this for awhile. And I've finally done it.

I've ditched all things white that were beginning to consume my diet, pollute my eco-system and take up excess cargo space therein. I've been feeling really sick lately and my suspicion has been that it's a digestive issue.

So I decided to start eliminating, starting with the evil whityies. But I suppose I should clarify - it's not all things white so much as most things white. On Wednesday, I cut out coffee, dairy, sugar and gluten from my diet. By Wednesday night, I was back to an espresso shot with a wee sprinkle of sugar-in-the-raw in it. On account of the fact that I had my weekly Artist's Way meeting at the local Starbucks and well, I'm weak and insipid when it comes to sniffing coffee fumes. By Thursday morning, I was drinking my morning with coffee mate versus 1/2 and 1/3 creamer. So I'm still consuming about 4 tspns of brown sugar a day but that is it. It beats having to pop aspirin for awhile.

But the gluten and dairy - those are two culprits I want to focus my energy on steadfastly avoiding. So far, so good - I'm more conscious about grabbing whole foods although I still haven't figured out what to do about the grains. I'm just tickled that corn tortillas with salsa is an acceptable, gluten-free snack.

Anyhoo, we'll see how it goes.

And no small conicidence, we've just joined a local swim and tennis club (nothing like an aversion to wearing a bathing suit in public to fuel motivation for an elimination diet) and the kids are busy getting up to speed with swim lessons. They are both 2-3 years behind their peers in swimming ability, from what I've been able to gauge. In fact, Holy Son towers over most of the others in his swim class, including his instructor, a junior or senior who happens to go to his school. But he's cool with it and I'm hoping that with a few weeks of intensive lessons under their swim belts, they'll both be much more comfortable in the water. And of course, a summer spent hanging at the pool should help matters, as well.

I do not relish the fact of hanging by the pool, however. I hate water, as in I can't stand getting my face wet or having anyone splash nearby me. And I'm not a comfortable swimmer although I will consider taking lessons to push past some of my aqua/hydrophobia. Because I would like to take up swimming as a form of exercise now that we have this membership.

I like this time of year though. Where all thoughts are eyeballed to the summer season ahead and the advent of no school. School activities are winding down - Holy Son had his final orchestra concert last night. They played the Pink Panther theme song and he ended up winning an award for Best Sense of Humor amongst his orchestral peers.

Holy Daughter is gearing up for her year-end ballet recital and is still actively nagging us to register her in a summer feis, which is an Irish dancing competition where they compete for trophies.

And I'm gearing up to have nothing on the schedule, which explains why I haven't made any summer plans yet. I am feeling very anarchistic and anti-social lately. There are a handful of visit plans we would, could, should be making back home due north, but to be honest, we have such a crazy, busy schedule for 9 months of the year that I just feel no desire to travel any distance in excess of an hour by plane, train or automobile. And if this sounds rather anal-retentive, so be it. I'm pooped out ~ physically and figuratively.

Which is why like my good friend, Theo LeSieg and his pal Alice Low, I, too, like the things that summer brings. I say, bring it on.

And speaking of bring it on, tonight is date night with Holy Hub - no kids for the entire night. Can you believe we haven't even made a definitive plan for the evening yet? How to tell we've been married 20 years?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

OUCH, Holy, I've done my time with digestive issues, my friend. Good luck handling it with diet! Don't know why you'd ever think of giving up coffee though, you must have some sanity issues too!

I can tell you're feeling anti-social, haven't seen you visit any blogs or even write back in your comments for a long time *wahhhh!*

I hope you work out your digestive demons so you'll come back and talk to us all again. I miss you.

Holy said...

Lynn: I know - I've been bad lately.

I've dwindled down to about 3 or 4 blogs that I visit (you ARE one of them, tho!) - I never could play more than a couple of bingo cards at a time. No real excuses - just preoccupied doing other stuff, including updating my resume. This health thing has been a bit all-consuming, as well.

Anyhoo, I promise I'll be back around to visit - hopefully over the weekend.

Anonymous said...

I hear you on the white-food avoidance! Since we have been controlling/limiting carbs, and making those we do choose complex, whole grains or fruit or vegs, it's definitely helped my energy level. If it works within your constraints - try Silver Hills Bakery Squirrelly sprouted grain bread We aren't avoiding gluten though - just refined flour - so that may not work for you. My focus has been migraine management though.

I would caution you on Coffee mate (I know, there are warnings about everything...) -- it's made of transfats and is a fairly nasty chemical concoction. On the other hand, I can't face my coffee black either. Maybe Lactaid milk?

Best wishes with this! We'll find somewhere healthy to eat tomorrow. :)

Anonymous said...

I hear you on the digestive situation. It's a constant struggle for me... but I've noticed a HUGE difference when I started taking liquid pro-biotics (Canadian company Bio-K Plus - freaken amazing). And the cravings - oddly enough - for all things bad ... got under control.

Seems like you have a busy summer ahead of you... hopefully the weather has been better???!

Ciao bella,
KC

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on 20 years of connubial bliss :-) As for diets, the first three letters of the word sound ominous to me. Be well,
J.

Holy said...

Jeri: Coffeemate is not pleasant - you're right - no transfats but every other gross thing under the sun seems to be in it. I'll try the lactose-free milk because I've heard soy milk is full of hormones and crap - it's pretty clear though that this stomach ailment isn't dietary-related so I don't know.

KC: I haven't heard of that liquid biotic thing but then I don't then again, I don't know much about anything. I've just getting ready to draft a letter to Harper about the Arctic - I know he's on the beat but still - it's scary when Americans start catching onto and wanting a piece of it...I'm not uber tribal but I've always considered that chunk of the map to be Canadian. Speaking of which, we were watching an Alaska travel show last week and it claiming to be the home of Santa....since when was the North Pole in Alaska? Anyways, no further comment, Your Honour.

PS - the weather here has been like the weather map we used to use when we lived in Halifax where Nova Scotia was shitty, New Brunswick was shittier and Newfoundland was shittiest.

Jorge: too funny....yes 20 years is a long time to be married, to have stayed so in connubial bliss, no less ;) ~ yes, diet necessarily entails a kind of death, doesn't it? Anyhoo, if this g-i probbies continue, I'll be flying down to California to see a specialist. Know any? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

NB said...

That powdered stuff is not allowed in prisons. Wanna know why? 'Cause you can make a bomb out of it. I had heard/read that it was highly flamable and decided to check it out for myself by turning on the stove burner and tossing a little into the flame. It created a huge flame!

Just imagine what it does to your guts!

Gross.

I used to drink it, believe it, or not. I no longer do but not because it's flammable but more because it makes me feel like I'm filled with sand. I get all colicky, and shit like that...

(snicker)

Good luck living on the Dark Side. Green leafy is best!
:)

Holy said...

check out Youtube for the flammability of Coffeemate...right some scary! It's all scary - every single processed thing we put in our bodies. Aging studies have long shown that whole grains, fruit, veggies, greens, nuts and the like are all we really need to be feeding ourselves.

Oh well, bombs away!