Hi!
Sorry for not checking in for awhile. I've headed back to work on Friday after a long period away and I'm just trying to adjust.
I have to admit, I'm having a VERY hard time with this diet and eating the same foods over and over again. I am usually "always" on the low choline diet except when I cheat so many days a week when I feel it's "safe." But even when I was on the low-choline diet I would eat a larger variety of foods but still keep it low. Now we're trying to keep to this small list of food, and it's HARD!
For instance, I would eat a pre-cooked sausage, or they call them "bratts" but kind of account for it in my choline count to still keep it somewhat low. I would cook one bratt and cut it in half (lengthwise) and eat it on two buns like two "hotdogs." You really don't notice that it's only a half while you're eating it. Or you can just eat have of it at once on one bun.
I am missing being able to do that. And I have to CONFESS, last night with the stress of being back at work I ate a bratt!!! Of course I feel terrible now, but....
Do you think it matters what we eat as long as we keep the count low? Even if we eat something not so good, if we eat a tiny bit of it??? I don't know if I could stand eating these same foods over and over and over again..... but I really want to be able to do this. Maybe if I keep trying, the longer you do it the easier it gets??? What do you all think?
Here is what I had done up until my "mistake" last night
:
I had been eating about 3 to 4 meals a day. I precooked a bunch of stuff in the beginning of the week: white rice, bake chicken breast, green peppers, white potatoe chopped in bite size pieces, sweet potatoes chopped in bite size pieces, and I made a pan/dish of sugar-free Jello. Also had stocked up on baby carrots, grape tomatoes (great cuz you don't have to cut them up), English muffins and jam or All Fruit.
Here is what my week looked like, up until last night (although I plan to jump right back on the horse:
For
breakfast I would have 2 cups of Crispix/Rice Krispies with 1/2 cup Rice Milk. (kind of dry but that's ok.)
I'm afraid the rice milk might be bothering my stomach. I'm going to keep trying it for a while, but my stomach seems to hurt after I eat it. So sometime I would just eat the Crispix dry with my hands like a Chex Mix kind of thing. I really hope the rice milk isn't bothering me because then that's just one less thing.
Then for
lunch I might have 1 cup of white rice with green peppers and grape tomatos heated in the microwave.
Then for
dinner I might have one cup of chopped white potatoes with green peppers and heat it in the microwave.
Or dinner might be some rice with just a little bit of chicken to get some protein in. I'm talking about just like four normal bite sizes, but then I cut it smaller to spread it around within the rice a little, then I'll mix in, AGAIN, green peppers. Thank God I like green peppers!!!
Then what I've found for a
snack with a low-choline count and low calories also (just a bonus) is an English muffin with some All Fruit. You can split one tablespoon of jam or All Fruit (all natural/no sugar added) between one whole muffin, both sides. You can even eat two muffins and not be that bad.
That was what I had done for this week, up until last night. Also sometimes, if I was really having a tough time I would have a Pot-Tart. Even with the Pop-Tart I was able to keep my choline count below 100. But I discovered the English muffin is a better choice.
Some days the white potatoes would be sweat potatoes. I love them with black pepper and cinnamon on them, baked in the oven. M-M-M-M-M. Some days I would not eat until late in the day, because sometimes I'm not hungry for a long while (I know it's probably not the best though), then, in the evenings when it's harder for me to be good, I can eat more of my "choline grams."
When I went to work on Friday, Monday and Tuesday, I just didn't eat lunch. That was hard and I worry about the "empty stomach" bad breath. So I think I will have to work something out for that. Maybe some fresh, raw carrots and pepper strips or canned pears or fresh pears cut up with cinnamon.
I've been reading what Leonor is writing on the forum that it's a life-long thing, and it may be, once we get past this VERY STRICT period that we're trying to do here. It would be nice, if we have TMAU 2, that we could "cure" it by doing a SUPER STRICT DIET and supplements and probiots for a period and get this bacteria out of our body! But just in case, I am also picking up tips to carry thru life if I have to continue this.
For me, the best thing I can do to help stop myself from making a mistake is to make sure I always have certain things prepared in the fridge such as baked chicken breast/thigh, white rice, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, sauteed green peppers, fresh grape tomatoes, and a bag of baby carrots that I can reach in and grab. I also always have English muffins and All Fruit. And up until this week when we began the SUPER LOW plan I ate the bratts a lot, but decided to cut them out for this.
When I look at the food here in a list, etc. it doesn't seem so hard, but it's that "not feeling satisfied" feeling that makes us want to eat other things that's hard to handle. Wish I could just eat what's on our list and that's it. Why is food such a big deal? But it is, probably especially for us who have to think about it so much.
What IS helping me is (if the diet is working and my odor is reduced or gone) the freedom or being able to be social when I want and not having to plan around my cheat days, or not worrying at work. I guess that's what we need to think about.
I'll also share that I had two challenging situations this last week. One was a social dinner out at a restaurant and the other was dinner at a cousin's house. I told them both I was on a very strict diet and it wasn't necessarily for weight loss, but it was more for digestion, and that pretty much worked. Eventually I hope to tell them the whole story, but right in the moment wasn't the right time.
At the restaurant I ordered chicken and potatoes and ate a small amount. It wasn't the type of restaruant that had baked potatoes, but that might have been a good choice. Then I went home and ate more of what I was okay to eat.
My cousin, last minute, invited us to dinner and she was making pork chops. She actually asked if pork chops were okay, not knowing about the diet or anything, I think just being nice to everybody. So I told her about my diet and the only meat I could really eat was chicken (just so I wouldn't hurt her feelings if I didn't eat her pork chops), but to please not worry about me, I'm happy just to eat what I can. And she actually threw some chicken breasts on the grill along with the pork chops and it worked out because some folks ate the chicken, some the pork and some both.
She also served green beans and I was afraid. I don't know if those count as beans. This was a little uncomfortable but I opened up the beans with my fork, trying to be inconspicuous, and took out the little bean things inside and at the green part??? Don't know what's okay on the green beans??? Anyone? She also made mashed potatos and I didn't think they would be THAT bad, but wasn't sure at the time, so I just had a couple bites on my plate to be polite. Again, I ate a VERY small amount of each, so I just ate some more when I got home later of things that were on our list.
I'd also like to hear how everybody else is doing and what your days have looked like dietwise or if you've had some public or social challenges and how you handled them. Look forward to hearing from everybody.
Wendy