As this week includes Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, there will be far too much sugar and other treats involved, which can and did increase inflammation and insomnia for me. I didn’t do well this week at all, between the amount of sugar present, feeling too bad to cook plus a ton of leftovers which diminished variety. What time I did feel descent was focused on decluttering and not cooking.
This week was so embarrassing I didn’t even want to publish it. But because I’m holding myself accountable, I went ahead and did it anyway.
Sunday
I was woken up twice in the middle of the night, but I was able to go back to sleep quicker than normal, so I wasn’t a total brain fog, inflamed mess on Sunday morning. I was able to somewhat function, which was good because Sunday began our two-day Christmas Eve celebration.
Sunday morning I didn’t eat anything other than ginger and turmeric tea. The supplements and OTC meds I use to deal with my histamine intolerance were helping to reduce my histamine symptoms, so the morning nausea is now gone, and I’m only left with inflammation symptoms like muscle and joint pain. But I slept in, so I decided to just start with lunch.
When Jeff and the kids got home from church, we started our Christmas Eve celebration (broken into two days due to interruptions by family visits and Christmas Eve church services, as well as me moving slow) and the Christmas treats began.
I had leftover Peanut Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner for lunch with added carrots, cauliflower and water chestnuts. The recipe includes peanuts, broccoli and lime and we served it over rice.
Snacks while we did a Christmas movie marathon included a few buckeyes, a tiny slice of fruitcake (and extra histamine meds, as it contains artificial colors that can further inflame my histamine reaction) and a small amount of Irish potato candy. I tried to keep it to a minimum.
For dinner we had taco salad. Simple, quick and easy. Corn, tomato, onion, black olives, pinto beans, bell pepper and lime.
Monday
Christmas Eve began with pancakes for brunch from a son who got up before the rest of us and decided to cook a nice meal for everyone. We ate at 11am, so lunch got lost in the shuffle once again, as we planned an early dinner so we could make it to our Christmas Eve service at church.
I drank turmeric and ginger tea all day and ate several pieces of ginger to help keep inflammation down.
Dinner was Roast Beast, Who Hash, roasted green beans, Grinch Punch and Who gelatin. That gave me carrot, white potato, red apple and green beans.
This meal likely kicked off the inflammation in earnest, because it contained a good lot of white sugar in the punch and dessert.
Tuesday
Christmas Day has arrived! We started the morning with our tradition, homemade cinnamon rolls. I experimented this year with pre-making and par-baking the cinnamon rolls using Better Batter. That gave me white and brown rice, a little bit of strawberry and a tiny bit of cocoa.
It also gave me yet more sugar.
Christmas lunch saw a family potluck. This gave me broccoli, cranberry, pecan, navy beans, parsley, and sweet potato.
Of those foods, I only made and brought the turkey, cranberry sauce and some gluten-free desserts (I took an assortment of cookies, buckeyes, Irish potato candy and fruitcake) and the rest was prepared by the others we were eating with. My turkey has a reputation of turning out well, consistently, so I always get asked to provide the turkey on holidays no matter who in the family we’re visiting. So I didn’t have much say in the rest of the menu.
Still, it was rather close to what we normally have on Thanksgiving, so it was a standard holiday menu for us. This was my first pass, and I went back and got seconds of the broccoli salad, sweet potatoes, some of the baked beans and another deviled egg half.
Tuesday dinner was all leftovers from lunch and the previous night’s dinner.
I had wayyyyy too much sugar again today. I also had hazelnut, oats, cocoa, coconut and peanut in my indulgences. By Tuesday afternoon I was a wreck of exhaustion and pain, yet I was so foggy that I didn’t yet make the connection that the amount of sugar I was eating was likely contributing to the situation. Because what I ate was spread out instead of all at one time, I didn’t realize how much sugar I was eating until I went back to record it.
Wednesday
So begins the lost week, the week where no one knows what day it is or what time it is. Jeff’s off from work the whole week, so that compounds the feeling. I think every day is a weekend.
Wednesday began our yearly decluttering spree. This year, we’re starting in the garage, basement and other long-neglected areas of the house because they aren’t the main living area. We live on the top floor and the bottom floor often gets forgotten about in my regular decluttering of our living space.
Breakfast was peanut butter oatmeal. Lunch and dinner were leftovers. So there were plenty of veggies, but no new veggies.
I also had multiple cookies throughout the day, a peppermint stick and three mini-Snickers. Later I finished off the buckeyes. Thankfully, that is the last of most of the homemade junk food. There’s still some store-bought stuff left.
There is still chocolate bark I haven’t even pulled out of the back of the fridge yet. It’s made from maple syrup, cocoa powder and coconut oil, but it needs to wait. I’ll save that for New Year’s.
Thursday
Another day in the basement, throwing away most of what is down there in a fit of ‘why is this even here, we never use it!’ Everything hurts and I’m moving very slowly. Very, very slowly. I’m so foggy I still haven’t realized that the amount of sugar I’m eating is likely to blame for how bad I am. Which left me kicking myself once I realized it.
We started with pancakes. At noon, after 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep which I needed so badly.
For lunch I had leftover Roast Beast, carrots and green beans around 3pm. Dinner was late for us, about 7pm, and we had leftover turkey, cranberry sauce, hummus and raw baby carrots. That gave me chickpeas and sesame seeds.
I had one ounce of dark chocolate, a small peppermint stick, a packet of chocolate hazelnut butter, a homemade peanut butter and chocolate chip monster cookie and I ate one King-Size Reeces Peanut Butter Cup. Whoops. I also ate multiple handfuls of candied almonds. And a couple of tortilla chips to help me get my evening supplements down.
Totally not a stellar food day for the many-th day in a row thanks to holiday treats, which was reflected in my joints, brain fog and my pain level from inflammation. But I did get enough water to drink, which was good as I’ve been drinking far less than what I need to feel well.
Friday
Everything hurts. So it’s detox day to bring down my inflammation and histamine levels. I finally begin to realize that the amount of sugar is an issue once I sit down to begin putting this blog post together and look back at what has really gone in my mouth the whole week.
My plan was to enough water, gentle stretching, no sugar, juicing some anti-inflammatory veggies, eating low-histamine and plenty of rest. Three solid meals that don’t contain sugar, inflammatory or high-histamine ingredients. Using essential oils and muscle rubs and a detox bath to help the joint and muscle pain.
Then a kid got up in the middle of the night and me not getting back to bed until 5:15am meant I wasn’t human again until 2pm.
The kids also spent the night at Mom’s house Friday night, which meant I had no help to prepare food and I was too much of a foggy, painful mess to do it alone. I was too tired to safely cook, so I continued eating leftovers instead of doing anything new.
I had fried plantains for breakfast. Lunch and dinner was leftovers. So while I did eat and I did get plenty of veggies and stopped eating junk, I ate nothing new as planned, as I just far too exhausted to cook.
Saturday
Today was a day of eating whatever someone else would push at me. Insomnia and inflammation had me down for the count.
Breakfast was skipped, as I slept through it. Lunch was leftover turkey, cranberry sauce, carrots and hummus. Dinner was leftover roast beast.
That now finishes all of the leftovers except some turkey. So next week will be turkey and rice soup.
I did take a detox bath Saturday night, which helped significantly with the joint and muscle pain.
Overall, this week was a colossal failure. Too much sugar, not enough veggies, and not enough variety. Next week begins a severe restriction on white sugar and a savory instead of sweet New Year’s celebration.
Final Tally
- Ginger
- Turmeric
- White rice
- Brown rice
- Water chestnuts
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Peanuts
- Cocoa
- White potato
- Corn
- Tomato
- Onion
- Black olives
- Pinto beans
- Lime
- Green beans
- Red apple
- Pecan
- Sweet potato
- Cranberry
- Navy beans
- Parsley
- Oats
- Hazelnut
- Chickpeas
- Sesame seeds
- Almonds
- Plantains
And partial servings of:
- Cherry
- Pineapple
- Orange
- Lemon
- Bell pepper
Photo credits- wsilver, Robert Couse-Baker, Damian Gadal, and John Morgan on Flicker.
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