butterbean Posted February 2, 2018 Author Share Posted February 2, 2018 oh, I also wanted to mention that I've had more of a runny nose these past few days. Oddly, I didn't even notice, because it's "normal" for me to have that, but it had been less for most of this W30 until a few days ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterbean Posted February 2, 2018 Author Share Posted February 2, 2018 rats I took too long to edit. It's not so easy to find consistent and thorough information online about yeast allergy, sensitivity, and so on, and anyone who claims to know why something like a yeast allergy develops over time is clearly guessing. Its easier to find people who claim to know why a dairy allergy can develop. Perhaps it's the same development, but for me my dairy allergy literally manifested over the course of a few days/weeks, and the yeast thing, if that is my basic issue and has been my basic issue, developed over many many many years. I clearly remember eating yeast products as a child, but I was very fit and athletic, energetic, and certainly had none of the edema that came a few years later. As a child, I vaguely remember there being some sort of digestive difficulty but I don't remember what or how, exactly, because I was afraid to ask anyone for advice. I was, however, sick a lot. Every cold, strep throat once a year, ear infections, tooth problems, antibiotics constantly. As a teenager, my weight gain coincided very clearly with overdoing it on carbs. I used to be able to drink an entire thing of OJ in one day, and the rest was toast, bagels, pizza, cake, you name it. I burned it off in sports but thats when the constant slight overweight first manifested. Later episodes of great weight gain were definitely healthier but were also always precipitated by (something, PLUS) lots of carbs. The thing that bugs me is that the yeast in sauerkraut is not the same yeast in other things. So what I have been thinking is that I'm just in a sensitive gut sort of place, and that there are certain things which cause more problems for me and exacerbate the problem (which is currently entered around yeast/sugar), but are maybe not The Problem. Years past, my doctors and I assumed the IBS was due to a bacterial overgrowth, and that what I was eating was feeding the bacteria. This is maybe not so far off, and maybe its something that co-exists with the yeast issue but is not necessarily originating in the same place. Perhaps the real issue is something as basic as that my gut is just CONFUSED and upset after years of imbalance, and doesn't have the wherewithal to handle a lot, including yeast, sugar, cow dairy, fermented things. Anything slightly more challenging, and my gut just freaks out, and my whole system isn't equipped to deal with the fallout (eczema, skin eruptions, asthma, tiredness, weakness...). I don't feel dire and depressed, but I am quite ready to NOT have an upset stomach and bloating all the time, and to lose the extra padding around my legs that has plagued me for the last 20+ years. It's not ok with me that I would eat sauerkraut and feel unwell for 4 days, and I'd like to know why that happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterbean Posted February 3, 2018 Author Share Posted February 3, 2018 Day 26 Feeling quite ok today, if anything slightly "hungover". Why is anyone's guess. But I had a very long day yesterday and perhaps I Just didn't drink enough water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterbean Posted February 5, 2018 Author Share Posted February 5, 2018 Day 27 Stomach mostly fine but still clearly working something out. I had a second long day and a long night afterwards, so it was not really optimal. My houseguests stayed up until 8 am but if you're not drinking and everyone starts talking rubbish at some point, it's easy to just leave the party and go to bed at some point. My skin is still not as smooth as I'd like, but perhaps it's a reaction to some stage prosthetics that I had to wear the last few days. Day 28 Bizarre dreams last night, that someone tried to find out where I live and then shoot me in the face. WTF????? Whatever. It's Day 28 and I feel pretty fine, all things considered. I wish I hadn't had the Sauerkraut Episode because I think that was a significant setback. I don't think, for example, that I continued to lose weight after that, and my skin and digestion were all just a bit unhappy after that. But it's not the end of the world, and it's actually useful information for the time beyond this particular set of 30 days. I admit to googling yeast free wines more than once this Whole30. So I think it's time to start making a smart plan for re-introduction. A plan that does NOT include a bottle of yeast-free wine on Day 31. The biggest and most problematic unknown at this point is whether I can find cheeses that don't involve yeast. I love cheese, and my busy lifestyle loves cheese, and I have a recently-developed allergy to cow milk. It's complicated. So I'm going to hold off on cheese and probably give it another month at least, to see what I can find online. I might order some high-quality goat butter from France (it's 7€, so it's easy not to overdo it) and organic sheeps milk so that I have that ready to go in a while, or I might keep avoiding all dairy. That's a decision I'll make in the coming days. I don't think I'm ready to jump back into high-carb foods like potatoes and bread just yet, so I'm also going to cool it on my sourdough bread dreams, at least to Day 45, possibly Day 60. Likewise wine, as much as it would be lovely to have a glass at night, I don't think I'd be doing myself any favours just yet. What's left to reintroduce? Not much, actually. I might try a blood sausage with oats to see how that feels, after day 45. Dried fruit is still, I think, too sugary, and I don't think I could manage to stop after a handful, but I might have some actual fruit. I'm not a huge fresh fruit fan (because it tends to upset my stomach) but once in a while it could be nice if my guts are feeling a bit more stable. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterbean Posted February 6, 2018 Author Share Posted February 6, 2018 Day 29 I just wanted to clarify, for anyone reading through this getting excited about yeast-free wines, that there IS no such thing as yeast-free wine. Sorry, everyone! I did in fact have some dried (unsweetened) mango last night. I expected the resulting bloating but all in all it wasn't too bad. However, this morning I am a bit depressed, which could be partly due to sugar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterbean Posted February 7, 2018 Author Share Posted February 7, 2018 Day 30 So an addendum to Day 29 is that I was quite often dizzy throughout the day. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was the extra sugar from the dried mangos, since that is the only significant change to my diet whatsoever in the last weeks (post sauerkraut). It's already much less today, I've just felt it 5 or so times all day when I turn my head quickly. It's very disconcerting but I have had this symptom on and off for years and have long associated it or assumed it was associated with extra sugar. I'm glad I accomplished the 30 days! I learned a lot. I'm going to do a post-mortem tomorrow morning, and decide tonight if I want to reintroduce anything tomorrow after all. The options are sheeps milk, sourdough bread, potatoes, and fruit, but fruit is out for now, after the mango thing. Potatoes are probably going to be it (just because it's easier to cook!!), then sheeps milk a few days later. I can hold off on bread, maybe the extra carbs would not be so easy for me right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterbean Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 ...aaaaaaaand scene. Here's my post-mortem with results and next steps. Day 31! I sure am glad I did the whole 30 again. It was long overdue, but clarified a lot of things for me at just the right time, and it empowered me with stability during an extremely emotional, busy, and volatile time. I have done the W30 before, and have lived the past several years very strictly gluten- and cow milk-free, so I wasn't worried about not managing it or lacking the willpower. I just did it. Nevertheless I posted here because I wanted to keep myself accountable so that I wouldn't have ANY reason to weasel out, and I also wanted to be able to give anyone else out there struggling with similar issues a chance to peek into my story. I know how much I appreciate that so hopefully I can help someone, too. Why I started this Whole 30: I am a performing artist who had, for the third time in her adult life, been experiencing and increase in particular symptoms, especially weight gain (+/-30lbs), really poor digestion (IBS-D), exasperation, bloating, puffy legs, low libido (I don't think I mentioned that in my intro but it's definitely a more irritating factor) and just constant exhaustion and rotten mood swings. Another thing I might mention is that I've had fertility problems, including miscarriage. Since the last time this symptom overload happened, I've been strictly GF and had properly identified a new allergy to cow milk, and so it was especially frustrating to notice it all happening again. But now I can say that's because I misidentified the actual problem, which was yeast and sugar. So while it was good that I avoided gluten while I was eating Paleo, and thereby also avoided yeast and sugar, it was mucho non bueno when I started to gradually add back in all the yummy gluten-free foods that contain yeast and sugar. It wasn't so clear in the beginning, and though I eventually realised that stuff probably wasn't doing me any favours, I couldn't identify why or how it was affecting me, or whether there was more to the story. Also it was all sort of ok until I was away for a month and HAD to eat lots of soy sauce, fermented foods and soy products every day... or starve. From that point on it was all downhill. My rules: Obviously, to be totally compliant. I also avoided fruits other than occasional berries. Other than the dried mango a few nights ago, which I definitely regretted afterward, I think I had raspberries or blackberries a total of about 6 times all month. This felt totally right to me. That was the ONLY fruit I ate. I also avoided fermented foods (except for the very horrible Sauerkraut Incident) and anything remotely mold-, fermented-, or fungus-like, such as mushrooms, fish sauce, and vinegar. (For anyone who is now thinking of the AIP protocol, indeed I do mostly eat according to the protocol with the strong exception of coffee, eggs, nuts and several spices derived from seeds, but this is because I don't really care for forbidden foods like most legumes and nightshades; I do not believe I have an autoimmune disease.) My challenges before + during: I am really busy, and I work very strange hours, and we had a lot of houseguests this month. I expected it to be a constant challenge to give up my nightly glass of wine sitting around chatting with everyone (it was easy), and my nighttime snack attacks (this got easier). During the whole 30, it was indeed a challenge sometimes to find enough physical energy. There were times that I was literally dragging myself to bed just barely able to keep my eyes open long enough to find the pillow, and I had a few marathon sleep days of 10 hours. I was often really drained, but this has improved a lot since those early days. I think that also having lost SO much weight so quickly is a factor, and I have to catch up and maybe still kinaesthetically learn how to function without sugar. But it's worth it: My results: I lost 15 pounds! It really just dropped off. I did not work at it at all, and I think most of it happened in the first two weeks. I am also much more even-keeled emotionally, which was a blessing during all the emotional turmoil of the month. I no longer have IBS-D 5xs a day; there is some room for improvement but this has already been really drastic and is a major reason for me to keep going with the W30 (45? 60?) without changing too much. My bloating is 95% reduced, and my legs are retaining way less water than usual. My libido has also sparked back up again. Going forward: There won't be a big reintroduction for me, because I'm not finished yet. I would like to continue to lose weight, so that my pants fit again; another 15 is my goal. My skin has also not really consistently left the "looks like detox" place, and I would like to improve that. I'd also like to continue to improve the IBS-D situation to the point where it's totally normal. I do plan to ultimately reintroduce very specific foods: potatoes (which makes life so much easier for me), occasional artisanal sourdough bread (later! much much later!), and I would love one day to see how wine feels, but for now I'd say its very much a no-go, as is dried fruit, most fruit in general, potato chips (my kryptonite) and sugar, for the next 6 months or so. I'm going to need to spend a bit of time looking at cheeses to find things that don't use yeast in the fermentation, but I will probably try some sheeps milk back in my coffee in the near future. If it doesn't feel good I won't miss it too much. I'm permanently removing all GF foods from my diet. Good riddance!!!!!!!! Ultimately, I would like to be able to eat fermented foods again, and to no longer have allergic reactions to cows milk (my biggest symptoms are eczema, bloating, and IBS-D). Sugar makes me very sad, and I would like to reach a point sometime where that isn't the case anymore. I would really love to be able to eat whatever I like, but I'm going to take it really slow and easy for the next year(s) and see what's within the realm of possibility, and how my body heals and reacts over time. I'm also taking it all with a grain of salt because I have Found All The Great Answers many times before in my health journey, and I know how seductive and disappointing dogma can be. I currently believe it is possible for me to heal to the point that I do not have allergic and other reactions to yeast, sugar, and cow milk, but I don't need that to happen tomorrow. 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butterbean Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 I'll just be posting sporadically from now on, when and if something interesting happens. It's Day 32. I had a small splash of sheeps milk in my coffee this morning and honestly it was really boring and I couldn't figure out why I was even bothering. And later I had cramps and IBS-D, so screw that. If I HAVE to have milk in a recipe or something, fine. But I don't need that misery in my coffee anymore, especially if there is no sugar in the coffee to offset the sheep's milk. So I'll just stick to my routine of coconut oil and collagen powder, which I've come back to again and again over the years. It works for me and I look forward to it. Note on the lady things, I have my period and it again came rather early for me. But cramps were totally manageable, so at least there was nothing horrible happening. My overall cycle has been getting a litttttttle more consistent but also unfortunately rather shorter over the years. I used to have anywhere from 21-31 days, then kind of averaging around 26, now averaging around 25. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterbean Posted August 5, 2018 Author Share Posted August 5, 2018 Back on Whole30! I had a pretty exciting half year since my last Whole30, with lots of travel (hotel food, ugh) which just ended with a vacation in which I ate all the things. It was worth it, everything was delicious. But I am not feeling my best and I have been delaying getting back to W30 though I knew it had to happen. So here we are! I'm back at the same exact weight I was before my last W30, with plenty of bloating, upset stomach, and unhappy, dry skin. My eating habits do not help my emotional state all that much: it's really clear to me that yeast makes me totally nuts, usually it hits the next day with rollercoaster emotions, and then it takes a few days after that to gradually get out of my system physically and emotionally. My BF has been asking me to go back to W30 for a while. Yes, it's that obvious. He says I am way more centred and relaxed on W30, and I totally believe him because I have felt neither of those things in some months. Ha! I'll be focussing again on not overdoing it on nuts and salami. My go-to for on-the-go is sourdough bread (no yeast!) and a bit of salami or goat/sheeps cheese, so one again, planning for meals will be somewhat of a challenge. Avoiding rice will also be challenging, and I'll miss my beloved glass of wine. But it's worth it. So, it's Day 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TayJ Posted August 16, 2018 Share Posted August 16, 2018 Hi there! I have a yeast allergy too! Terrible, stomach everything for years on end that no doctors were able to find the reason for until just recently. So proud and happy for you that you've figured out what's wrong and are so far in this program. I'm just starting today! You got this!! Tay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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