So, I'm on day 4 of a lower-sugar diet. I'm not counting calories or worrying about fat content at the moment, just trying to reduce the intake of added sugars in my foods. I had gotten to the point where I was having multiple sodas a day plus two desserts/sugary snacks plus sugar cereal plus additionals. Suffice it to say that my "reasonable" goal is to take it down to consuming less than 100 grams of added sugar a day. In practice this seems to work out to about three moderate sugar events a day: half a can of throwback, a modest dessert, a small juice, etc. Given that I'm also not counting sugars that naturally occur in foods (i.e. fruits), this is pretty doable.

We'll see if it actually does anything in the long run. Short-term signs are encouraging; I am hungrier than before, which means my calorie intake is probably down. I've been having to keep little healthy snacks around for when I don't eat right-- I really need to make sure I'm getting some fat and protein in my meals now. My energy levels seem slightly improved as well with less need for naps and clearer thinking, but it's too early to tell if this is just a statistical blip. If it does turn out that I could have solved 80% of my medical issues by seeing a dietitian five years ago, I will again want to slap every single person in the Carle medical system.

Next up, running with my wife.

Siiiiiick. And again, it politely waited until the weekend. :-P

So, I had my bandage contact out on Monday. It's been three nights now. There have been minor painful flareups, but overall my eye has been behaving itself quite nicely.

I am deeply suspicious. If it goes two weeks I might start celebrating.

Need to confirm a thought:

Giving up soda for juice isn't necessarily a good idea because it's lower calorie-- many juices have as much or more caloric content than soda.

On the other hand, if you pick the right juice there's no high-fructose corn syrup, which means your body can process the calories better. Thus even from a weight loss perspective, juice is better than soda (if not as good as, say, water).

Correct or not correct?

I just realized that more or less every blizzard / concrete mixer flavor I enjoy has chocolate in it.

Man.

Remember how a week ago I said I was passing kidney stone #4? Well, I passed it.

Now I'm passing #5 and #6.

Words cannot even begin to express.

Why is it that recently every time I make a special effort to go to bed early I also sleep terribly?

I don't floss because every time I do my gums bleed.

My gums bleed because I don't floss.

*sigh*

So, day 10 of 14 of the no-caffeine trial. Still getting headaches basically all the time. I went back on vitamin D supplements after a week of walking through treacle and am wakeful today-- we'll see if it lasts. I did discover that it's the diet varieties of soda and not the caffeine-free versions that taste like ass-- both CF Coke and Mountain Dew are acceptable in taste, which makes this significantly easier. The lack of caffeine-bite does make them seem even more sugary though, which is a quiet reminder that soda in general isn't that great for me.

In other news, I'm trying to exercise every day now. If I keep the pace low I seem to be able to maintain it, although finding the time to do this during the week is going to be challenging. As usual, regular biking has started to firm up my stomach-- which has the ironic and annoying side effect that the more I exercise, the worse my pants fit. C'est la vie.

Yet another person has recommended Mayo to me, and a friend of mine has pointed out a way to expedite the extraction of my medical records. Apart from staying in counseling there is no logical course for me to take with our local medical establishment-- the next step really is going somewhere else. I'm just not sure I'm ready for that quite yet.

So, what I'm going to tell my rheumatologist in a few days about physical therapy is this: I can exercise, but it doesn't solve the problem.

I'm not strictly convinced that exercise doesn't aggravate my other symptoms, but I've also moved away from my previous belief that exercise causes them. I get symptoms whether I exercise or not, and they're frequent enough that determining the exact nature of the link is difficult at best.

So I'm trying exercising again. When there are symptoms I'm pushing through when I can and lightening the load when I can't-- but I'm not stopping this time unless I am rendered totally physically incapable. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, per a reminder by my counselor of something my GP said a while ago, I'm trying life without caffeine again as well. I did this once before but only for a few days, which is hardly scientifically conclusive. This time my goal is to make it two weeks and see where I stand. This is day three.

As with anything else, I'm having a hard time sorting out symptoms in connection with this. I've been having massive headaches since going off, but I get those occasionally when I'm on caffeine and it could just be a coincidence. Alternately it could be withdrawal symptoms, or I could normally be having these symptoms all the time and caffeine just blunts their effect.

The problem with my kind of condition is that it's obviously not one thing but many, and that means making adjustments is a fiddly and uncertain process. I wish I could do something and just have it work even a little bit but without this constant shading of doubt.