Tomorrow I am starting anti inflammatory diet, for those of you who pray please do pray for me, I love sweets and I know this is going to be hard, but I need to try a drastic change to at least try to get rid of all this numbness tingling and burning. If you have any suggestions I welcome them, and any encouragement is so appreciated. I also am going to see a homeopathic Doctor in the next few days, I guess this is all a good start, I just hope it takes me down the road to recovery. Thanks, Jan

"By His Stripes I Am Healed"

I did the same about 4 months ago. After seeing my new neuro he said I had to lose weight no ifs it had to be done and I knew it

I needed to stop the swelling in my knees and ankles along with very painful neuropathy 5-8/10 . I went cold turkey no carbs at all, if its white dont bite so I switched to veges, salads, fruit and red beans, the beans made a huge difference in reducing my food cravings also have a big sweet tooth and I knew no way could i give it all up without crash and burning so the sweets stay

I did have an advantage and that is Tramadol 200mg a day. Being an opiate (see link below) it suppresses food craving. Ever seen a fat drug addict ? the difference for P/N people is its a desirable side effect,


""tramadol 100 mg intramuscularly or intravenously was equivalent to 5–10 mg of morphine""
http://www.australianprescriber.com/magazine/27/2/26/7/

ALA is a wonder supplement and I have lots more energy.


Long story short. 6 months ago I would not consider approaching long stairs
especially on the way down. I had very weak legs that would buckle and it scared me.

Today I walked all around Bangkok in the stinking heat for 1 hour non stop
and back home and no pain what so ever. My feet are still very numb though
and Im getting tingling with some heat as I type this but more discomfort than pain.

A super clean diet and the right supplements HAS to make you feel better inside and out. All the best with it and dont beat your self up if you re lapse just accept it and start fresh again the next day

Good luck!

Many years ago I was diagnosed with borderline high blood pressure, and rather than look at medication I decided to lose 40 lbs and, along the way, move toward a high-fiber, low-inflammatory diet.

These are rules that worked for me:

1. Eat all the vegetables you want. Steam 'em, stir-fry 'em, eat 'em raw in salad, stew 'em, bake 'em. Eat all you want!!

2. Strictly limit high-calorie foods: concentrated carbs like bread, cookies, pancakes, etc. Watch out for prepared foods containing high-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar.

3. Limit most fats -- no deep-fried stuff, little butter, no lard. Especially, limit saturated fats.

4. Eat still more veggies! Eat all you want! For example, baked sweet potatoes have less than a third the calories of toasted white bread, and far more vitamin A and C. I keep a pan of sweet potatoes in the fridge for quick snacks.

Watch out for saturated fats that come with some meats. Beef has twice as much saturated fat as salmon, while salmon has five times more anti-inflammatory omega-3 oils. Yes, you have to watch out for mercury in fish -- though in general, salmon and herring have much lower mercury levels than tuna and swordfish. But eat fish in preference to beef or pork.

You know all this already, I'll bet. And it's nothing radical -- weight-watchers uses a similar rationale, with some foods "free" due to high nutritional value and relatively low caloric content while other foods are strictly rationed.

The other part is exercise. Do whatever you can to get your heart rate up for awhile each day. When you exercise blood flow increases to your muscles and decreases to your digestive tract, with one side effect being that you don't feel hungry as much.

A story about that -- the day after Christmas I was in Fairhope, Alabama, and thought I would walk to a nearby marina and eat lunch at the Fly Creek Cafe. Well, it was closed. So I decided I would walk north along the road and find a place to eat in either Montrose or Daphne. NOTHING was open. I ended up walking 12 miles round-trip with no lunch, but I found that as long as I kept striding along at a good pace I didn't feel hungry. Of course that only works if you start out well-nourished and don't keep it up for too long -- eventually ya gotta eat! But the point is, vigorous activity can help you resist unnecessary eating.

The common advice for those losing weight through changing diet is, make the diet a lifestyle change meant to last a lifetime. I still follow my dietary rules for the most part, and I like eating my way.

Again, good luck!

Post script -- I wrote the above before reading your post on hypoglycemia. If you have blood-sugar sensitivities (I hesitate to use the word "problems") then perhaps you'll need to monitor your carbohydrate intake and not necessarily cut it as drastically as I did at first.

Oh, and on the subject of fats and oils -- I found a cooking oil in my supermarket that has a blend of olive, soy, and canola oil that yields a 1:4 ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 oils. I use it pretty much exclusively for cooking now.

Thanks Don and Zorro, hey Don how do you prepare your sweet Potatoes? I really appreciate both of your suggestions and will use them in my diet. Thank you do much for taking the time to encourage me, I really pray that this diet will help my neuropathy and the hypoglycemia, I have not exercised in a long time so that to is yet another challenge but I know I have to. Blessings, Jan

Regarding exercise take it very slow IMO. You dont want to many drastic changes especially since the diet and exercise will flush toxic matter from your system and that's going to hurt. I didn't do anything in the first 2 weeks then progressed to short walks and now long walks including the gym

Changing your diet will take some adjustment. When I changed us to the Zone type diet, it took about 3-4 weeks...there were 3 of us...one a middle school child.

So don't try to jump in 100% the first day. Make changes daily, and when shopping, and you will likely have more success.

This website gives the inflammatory index for most foods and is very helpful:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/

It lists whole foods as well as common store bought processed items.

Keep in mind that some veggies can cause burning. The Nightshades will do this. Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant.
It you consume alot of these and burning increases, please pay attention to that.

MrsD,

As always you are so wonderful and detailed in explaining things thank you for all of your help.

Zorro, I will start slowly, thanks so much. Blessings, Jan

"By His Stripes I Am Healed"

I'm looking at ways to do the same . My neurologist told me to do the Paelo diet but after looking at that I found the Primal Blueprint and I"m reading it and found it very good . So once i GET IT all lined up that is how I"ll do it as I"M a VERY Big SWEET Lover so it will be so hard but he explains how this way of eating you don't have the urge after a few days . So good luck and keep us posted on any tips . Elizabeth

I sure will and I hope your diet goes well too. Blessings, Jan

"By His Stripes I Am Healed"

On sweet potatoes -- I just scrub them, cut off any blemishes, and bake them in the oven. But I tend to eat very simple foods, and many people would perhaps find my food a little less than exciting...

You can also slice pre-baked sweet potatoes and fry them gently, sprinkled with cinnamon.

A friend of mine suggested cutting them like home-fries and baking them in a really hot (475-degree) oven until they "puff" -- I haven't tried that yet.

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I'm curious about the paleo and primal diets, but I have a reservations. I tend toward more plant foods (high in anti-oxidants and phytochemicals) and away from high-protein animal foods. Partly, I intend to live longer than the (probable) 40-year lifespan of a prehistoric hunter-gatherer, so I think I ought to be watching out for late-life killers like heart disease -- which might, just might, suggest limiting those animal foods.

But what works for you is best! I certainly won't discourage you! As my health-educator beloved says, you will be healthier on almost ANY diet because you will pay attention to what you eat!