New "diet"-one week in

So I'm horrible at sticking to a diet.  For this to truly to be an elimination diet, I have failed miserably.  Alas, I knew that going in so I tried to make a goal for myself that I could attain-to eliminate aspartame and to avoid msg.  We have done well with grocery store trips not to buy anything with msg in it but I've been out to eat twice now and that's really a no-no unless you purposely order stuff that's msg-free.  At least I didn't eat Chinese.  I have done well with the no aspartame though.  As of now, I can't tell any difference really.  It almost makes me wonder if I have a "sugar" trigger.  Ha! 

I've been keeping all this stuff on a spreadsheet.  My meals, snacks, beverages, weather for the day, stress level, symptoms for the day, and a place for anything else I feel I should note.  Based on one week, I would have to say weather seems to be having the most effect.  We've had a snowstorm and today it's raining.  Yesterday, I had 2 vertigo spells that required valium.  Luckily, the valium did the trick. 

The only other thing I should probably add is some kind of column for my level of activity for the day.  Since I've just come off of 2 surgeries since November, I'm way out of shape.  Over the past week, I've done more than I have since last October.  Could be that it caught up with me yesterday.

I've lost more weight and am still struggling with my lack of appetite.  My Gyn says my appetite should be back to normal in another week or so.  I still have a hard time getting 3 full meals in a day.  Now, I'm down to about 113.  That's okay for now as I'm only 5'3" but if I lose much more, I'm going to start looking rough. 

New "diet"-the early days

I've started a spreadsheet of what I'm eating, drinking, snacking on.  It also includes the weather for the day, my stress level, my symptoms that day and a miscellaneous category.  Although this diet is to mainly get rid of MSG in my diet, I have also cut out all aspartame which came for me in the form of diet cokes.  I have switched to regular sodas which are too sugary for me and will probably soon lead me to drinking more water.  Yay!!  The aspartame withdrawal is causing me some headache problems already.  Starting day one.  Some of the reading I've done on it is pretty scary.  I don't miss it and I'm not addicted but I am not enjoying the headache aspect of this at all. 

When we went to the grocery store this past Sunday, we did try to read through some ingredient lists and avoid the main MSG culprits but MSG comes hidden under so many names!  There's no way we got them all but at least we've gotten started.  We will continue to fine tune it as we go along.  My husband is being supportive. 

My stress levels continue to be high and the weather has been either rainy or very windy most days which signifies a change in barometric pressure.  I'm feeling it in terms of dizziness.  I'm also still pretty weak and have noticed I don't have much stamina when I'm out trying to get things done.  My Gyn told me a couple days ago that this was "deconditioning" and I guess the only way to beat it is to try to get out and do more.  Hard to do when you're dizzy and it's so cold. 

Anyway, that's the early report.  Still don't have my appetite back fully from the last surgery and just being nauseous in general.  Have lost a few pounds and don't need to lose anymore but I'm just not hungry most of the time.  Since this last surgery, there's only been 2 days that I've managed to get 3 full meals in.  Most days I skip a meal or only eat half of what's on my plate.  That may play a role in all this as well.  So many variables...