Lettuce go!

Okay, so for a first entry this will probably be brief as I have SAG awards to watch and loafing around to do.
The basis of this blog is that I am a 26 year old female that has a strong aversion, fear even of most things green and leafy or red and juicy. In fact, in my 26 years I have never had a piece of watermelon, cantaloupe, apple, banana, peach, avocado, pineapple, plantain, asparagus, beet, celery, etc. You name it, I probably haven't eaten it. In fact, how did I make it this far in life without my lips touching any of those things, you ask?
Well, I guess I'm not being entirely truthful. When I was a baby and had much less control over what I was able to put in my mouth and my opposable thumbs were only good for grabbing my own feet and fistfuls of hair, I really didn't have a choice. But even according to my mum, applesauce made me gag, I did horribly with squash, and don't try to feed me most anything green. As I got older, certain things, basically fruits and veggies started effecting me in a strange way. If anything smelled or even felt weird I avoided it. I can actually vividly recall sitting at our small kitchen table one night not being allowed to leave because I hadn't finished my waxed beans. I had eaten waxed beans every other time up until that night, but for some reason, that was the time I decided I just couldn't do it anymore. The texture of the beans made me gag, in fact, from there on out most anything that wasn't pureed finely or solidly crunchy made me gag.
To this day I request my meals without lettuce and tomato. The idea of actually biting into a tomato, or an apple, grape, carrot, etc. hardcore skeeves me out. I go into automatic gag mode.
I've legit tried some things. I actually know for a fact I dislike lettuce and applesauce. I really WANT to like cottage cheese but I can't get over the lumpy-factor. I've tried, on many occasions to eat fruit on the bottom yogurt, surely much better for me then the custard style, but once I get to the chunks of fruit it is dry-heave city.


Soooooo...why am i writing this and what's the point of sharing all of my eating woes? Well, as of this past week I had laparoscopic surgery which diagnosed me with Stage IV Endometriosis. In fact, it was so bad my Dr. said she had seen less than 1% of patients with scarring of my reproductive organs as poor as mine. My fallopian tubes were all kinked, cutting down my chances of ever being able to conceive close to nil, my uterus and ovaries were attached to my bowel and the top of my bladder, and my right ovary was filled with blood along with having a cyst causing it to swell 5xs the normal size.

I am really leery about going on birth control to help with pain, which is my main symptom of this disease. I know that it it what my OBGYN is going to suggest at my post-op meeting in two weeks but I am going to suggest something different, something I am not sure will work or I will be able to stay strict with...I'm going to see how changing my diet radically can make a (hopefully positive) change to my situation.

I intend to slowly, yet surely introduce fruits and veggies back into my life. There is no legit reason for me to continue eating like this. I have to get over this un-substantiated fear of mine and LIVE like a typical 26 year old.

Endo is known to respond positively to dietary changes that include cutting out soy, dairy, wheat, meat and caffeine. It's essentially a vegan diet.

I am already red-meat free, I have been for over four years. I eat a minimal to moderate amount of chicken or turkey, sometimes pork depending. I do not eat seafood of any kind, so i feel that the meat-free part may be the easiest thing for me. The hard part of this is going to be cutting out soy consumption. Because I already don't eat most meat, it means my replacements are generally soy-based. I'm not a huge tofu person, but I LOVE tempeh and soy chicken patty things. I am going to need to find reasonable substitutes for this stuff.
I also don't really eat dairy as I'm lactose intolerant, and my milk consumption mainly comes from Rice Dream. I do like cheese but my digestive system doesn't, so again, it will be a matter of finding a comparable soy-free cheese substitute. I also don't drink soda. Because I was having hardcore stomach issues last year, i gave up all soda of any kind in April of 2008. I was soda free until Thanksgiving of 2008, and got back on the wagon on New Year's Day of this year. I haven't had a touch of soda since and I find it's relatively easy to stay away from. I also don't drink coffee, so aside from the occasional caffeine-ated tea, I should be good.

Sooooo...this is where I hope to document it all. I'm intending for it to not be as boring as this. I have a lot of tricks up the ole sleeve I intend to use (though i wonder if it works when you try to trick yourself), and I'm hoping this can turn into something great.

I'm offer to rest and eat oatmeal (it's kashi, that's good, right?) and loaf on the coach...I'm only 4 days post-op and have four incisions...I'm exercising my right not to exercise!

Until next time!!!