New_to_Peat
Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2015
- Messages
- 5
Hi folks! So for my entire life, I've been stick thin, and spent many of my early years very sick. Fortunately I seemed to get reasonably healthy in my late teens and 20's, other than some arthritis that spontaneously traveled from joint to joint (which I was unaware is a symptom of chronic Lyme, and I had enough tick bites as a child). My temperature has always been low (96's and 97's), but it didn't stop me from feeling like a furnace. I also had a bout of thyroiditis in my mid-teens, but thyroid function fully returned. Also had Shingles when I was 12. From 16 or so on, other than a few sinus infections, I've been healthy.
So starting last year I started feeling chilled during times I had never been cold before, and my weight was dropping without a change in diet. I've been around 150 lbs. for the last decade at 5'10", but my weight dropped under 140. I actually tried a bit of Peating, using more milk, oj, and coconut oil just to get more calories. I developed a wonderful case of SIBO that took me some 6 months to work my way out of. I visited the doctor, blood tests were normal (cholesterol was 202 or something, slightly high), he said I was fine.
Around three months ago I started daily gentle walks, sometimes I'd hike for an hour on some nice trails I'd found, or go for a bike ride. Nothing too strenuous. The gassy SIBO feelings had gone, but I was 135 lbs. and still concerned. Then last Monday I started feeling like I had the flu. By Thursday I had a very visible Erythema Migrans rash (looks like a bullseye) that is the calling card of Lyme. I've been on Doxyclycline since then, a two week course. My weight's down to about 131 now and my energy is non-existent. I really need calories to fight this, but I don't know where to get them.
My blood sugar has been giving me problems. My A1C and fasting glucose have always been fine in the past, but I've been getting dizzy occasionally after eating and decided to check what's going on. Today, fasting glucose ws 98 (yesterday it was 88), breakfast was two eggs, plenty of butter, sauteed mixed greens, a handful of black raspberries, and a banana. One hour after eating it was 116, two hours, down to 102. Seems okay. Yesterday, a ham sandwich and banana brought it from 91 pre-meal, to 165 2-hours later, 139 1-hour later, and 82 by 3-hours later. A couple cups of watermelon, plus some Kefir and an added tablespoon of cream spiked it about 20 points at one hour and it was almost baseline by two hours. So uh, apparently bread (maybe starch) is a bad option (I know it's bad for other reasons, but I've yet to fully eliminate grains), however, none of these meals helped my sluggishness.
One thing I've found out through cronometer is I haven't been eating nearly enough for a while now. I get 1600-1800 calories on average, mostly from milk, fruits, vegetables (some leafy greens, but not a lot, more so asparagus, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and veggy fruits like tomatoes and zucchini), some meat (chicken, beef, low fat fish), butter. Raw milk is illegal to sell where I'm at, and I've found out from the crap I have to choose from (highly pasteurized and homogenized) that I'm better off with just a glass or two a day. Milk combined with OJ is probably a no-go. Oranges (and just about any whole fruit) with anything else is fine. For some reason I bloat badly after eating coconut oil, even though it caused no problems the first year I ate it. Cream and butter cause no problems.
So what are my options? Go crazy with cream? Go crazy with orange juice? For whatever reason I tolerate whole fruits better than juice, but it also makes it harder to get easy calories. I need at least another 500 calories. I don't know how I'd respond to ice cream. Can fat (and not just polyunsaturated fat) really reduce glucose absorption, raising blood sugar? The biggest problem seems to be when I eat a huge meal, I'm satiated for many hours, and cramming more food on top causes it to sit like a freaking rock in my gut. Maybe I need to supplement some bitter greens or HCl.
So yeah, I'm sorry for the really long post, but I could really use some dietary advice. Once this course of antibiotics is up, I need to make the decision of seeing a Lyme specialist and undergoing many months of high dose antibiotic treatment, or relying on my own immune system (and the migrating arthritis makes it a distinct possibility I've had chronic Lyme for a while now). Either why, I think putting on some weight would help me.
So starting last year I started feeling chilled during times I had never been cold before, and my weight was dropping without a change in diet. I've been around 150 lbs. for the last decade at 5'10", but my weight dropped under 140. I actually tried a bit of Peating, using more milk, oj, and coconut oil just to get more calories. I developed a wonderful case of SIBO that took me some 6 months to work my way out of. I visited the doctor, blood tests were normal (cholesterol was 202 or something, slightly high), he said I was fine.
Around three months ago I started daily gentle walks, sometimes I'd hike for an hour on some nice trails I'd found, or go for a bike ride. Nothing too strenuous. The gassy SIBO feelings had gone, but I was 135 lbs. and still concerned. Then last Monday I started feeling like I had the flu. By Thursday I had a very visible Erythema Migrans rash (looks like a bullseye) that is the calling card of Lyme. I've been on Doxyclycline since then, a two week course. My weight's down to about 131 now and my energy is non-existent. I really need calories to fight this, but I don't know where to get them.
My blood sugar has been giving me problems. My A1C and fasting glucose have always been fine in the past, but I've been getting dizzy occasionally after eating and decided to check what's going on. Today, fasting glucose ws 98 (yesterday it was 88), breakfast was two eggs, plenty of butter, sauteed mixed greens, a handful of black raspberries, and a banana. One hour after eating it was 116, two hours, down to 102. Seems okay. Yesterday, a ham sandwich and banana brought it from 91 pre-meal, to 165 2-hours later, 139 1-hour later, and 82 by 3-hours later. A couple cups of watermelon, plus some Kefir and an added tablespoon of cream spiked it about 20 points at one hour and it was almost baseline by two hours. So uh, apparently bread (maybe starch) is a bad option (I know it's bad for other reasons, but I've yet to fully eliminate grains), however, none of these meals helped my sluggishness.
One thing I've found out through cronometer is I haven't been eating nearly enough for a while now. I get 1600-1800 calories on average, mostly from milk, fruits, vegetables (some leafy greens, but not a lot, more so asparagus, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and veggy fruits like tomatoes and zucchini), some meat (chicken, beef, low fat fish), butter. Raw milk is illegal to sell where I'm at, and I've found out from the crap I have to choose from (highly pasteurized and homogenized) that I'm better off with just a glass or two a day. Milk combined with OJ is probably a no-go. Oranges (and just about any whole fruit) with anything else is fine. For some reason I bloat badly after eating coconut oil, even though it caused no problems the first year I ate it. Cream and butter cause no problems.
So what are my options? Go crazy with cream? Go crazy with orange juice? For whatever reason I tolerate whole fruits better than juice, but it also makes it harder to get easy calories. I need at least another 500 calories. I don't know how I'd respond to ice cream. Can fat (and not just polyunsaturated fat) really reduce glucose absorption, raising blood sugar? The biggest problem seems to be when I eat a huge meal, I'm satiated for many hours, and cramming more food on top causes it to sit like a freaking rock in my gut. Maybe I need to supplement some bitter greens or HCl.
So yeah, I'm sorry for the really long post, but I could really use some dietary advice. Once this course of antibiotics is up, I need to make the decision of seeing a Lyme specialist and undergoing many months of high dose antibiotic treatment, or relying on my own immune system (and the migrating arthritis makes it a distinct possibility I've had chronic Lyme for a while now). Either why, I think putting on some weight would help me.