It’s been a rough 2017 so far.  Out of nowhere, my phantom nausea had returned mid-January and has been popping up all over the place ever since.  A handful of doctor visits and maxing out all my sick leave has found me here: 5 days until spring break and convinced it’s time to “fix” myself.

Apparently my ailment is functional – there’s nothing seriously wrong but things aren’t working as they should be.  The catchall reason why: stress.  I know that I haven’t been good about making my health a priority and I even see it now in the midst of whatever this is. After being home for two weeks, I went to work and had a few days where I felt wonderful. I thought I was over the hump…until it came roaring back BIG time. I got lazy with the working out and diets; you know, the part where I take care of myself. I had stopped, and my body was not happy.  So I did some reading-research and came up with a plan.

Whole 30 for April

April is 30 days long, which is perfect! Spring Break starts on April 1, also perfect. I’m not going to go into what the Whole 30 plan is; if you don’t know or never heard of it, google it. I had purchased the It Starts with Food book a couple years ago but never finished reading it (a bad habit of mine…)  I’m now in the midst of it and am hopeful that this is what my body needs right now.  My brain could use the challenge of sticking with restricted food choices. My body needs the whole foods.  It all needs a break from excess sugar.  I love sweets but I’m tired of feeling like crap. If all it’s going to take is 30 days to heal this ol’ bag of bones, how dumb would I be to not try it?

Sweat it out

So that’s the food part.  I’m also going to go to hot yoga three times a week because it was starting to work and then I got lazy.  I felt stronger. I could stretch deeper. I had gone down a pound and kept it off for over a week instead of the daily fluctuations that kept happening.  If my schedule allows, I may try to go four or five times. It’s a great way to transition from my work day to me-time at home.  If I don’t go to yoga, the plan is to take a long walk.  Time in nature has been missing from my life lately. It’s all about whatever it takes to keep stress at manageable levels.

Setting up the experiment

This week, I’m shifting my diet towards the Whole 30 but the rules aren’t absolute for this week.  I did bake an egg dish for my weekday breakfasts this week to heat-and-eat when I get to work.  Eating a protein-rich breakfast is a part of the program but since I feel nauseated every morning, I can’t cook at home. I’ve been nauseous most mornings when I get to work so eating is going to be a challenge but we’ll see how it goes this week. I’m also due for my period and tend to feel achy the first twenty-four hours so tomorrow (Monday) should be tons of fun…

I’m really hopeful that I reap great rewards from this program like I’ve read others have experienced. I want to get off the couch and have energy and feel normal, feel human more often than not.  It’s been a really rough couple of months and I need something to change.