As I mentioned in my previous post, I need to get off fruit again so I've decided to go off fruit for the month of October (okay, actually the first three weeks) and we'll see what it does.

For one thing, I know when I eat fruit it makes me hungrier, and I end up not losing much weight, and last month I actually gained one pound. I already figured that out several months ago. Still that's not too bad, considering I made those carrot cake muffins and ate almost the entire batch alone! I was thinking I really need to figure out how to convert that recipe into much smaller portions. Like maybe if I baked only two muffins at one time, instead of the full batch of eighteen, then I wouldn't be able to eat all eighteen!

It finally occurred to me if one pill a day wasn't doing anything,  why not try more? So on Saturday morning I decided to take two glucosamine chondroitin tablets. Of the same expired bottle. And guess what? My thumbs seemed to feel a little bit better. But I didn't want to get my hopes up. I told my mom, and she said she takes the 1000mg tablets, one daily. This bottle has only 500mg in each tablet.

I decided to take two in the morning, and two at night. Eight tablets later, my thumbs are feeling much, much better! And it's not only been my thumb joints, but the carpal tunnels in my wrists,  as well as extending to the tendons near my elbows. Here is a cool website which tells you the names of all the bones in your hands.

Now here's the other thing. I was also wondering if eating fruit had been making my thumbs hurt… since they started hurting right around the time I started eating fruit regularly again. But they also started to hurt a couple of weeks after stopping my asthma medication. So it could have been the fruit. And today it my third day without fruit.

Fruit is in the house. My husband feels like he needs to have it for a quick snack. There are red and black grapes, and apples, and a pineapple. It's not been too hard to avoid eating it.

My youngest son asked to have his birthday “party” early, and all he wanted was submarine sandwiches, pizza and an ice cream cake. So my dh and I went into town and bought all those things. And we drove them home, and I didn't touch any of it. I was a little bit wishful for the submarine sandwiches, those looked and smelled delicious.

Also, did I tell you last weekend I actually made my son a loaf of home baked bread in our breadmaker? I think that means I have really come a long way since starting on GAPS. I remember how difficult it was at first, how I felt so sad and mourned not being able to eat those foods. But having been off them for such a long time it's not so difficult.

Thankfully. I was just talking to my coworkers on the day of the event and they were trying to hide the crackers from me that they'd bought, thinking it would be torturous for me. I told them I could still LOOK at crackers, and indeed, I even ended up arranging them on plates for our guests. Wow. I didn't realize until I just wrote that, that I touched those crackers and arranged them and didn't have a single thought or care about not being able to eat them. That's progress!

On Wednesday it will be 10 months since I started on GAPS.

I know I've said this before, but I'm so grateful that I decided to give GAPS a chance. I was so dead against ever dieting again. It's such a relief to not be gaining and gaining and gaining weight like I did for so many years. I was so disgusted with myself.

I'm hoping to stay off fruit until the last week of the month when I have a conference to attend. Another big event to attend where I don't know what I'll be able to eat. But luckily I did find a hotel right close to where the convention is being held where I'll have my own little kitchenette. I'm happy about that. Now I just need to think about a menu for while I'm there.

OH, I just realized, I never posted about what I ate while we were in Washington, DC! I have the post mostly put together so I will try to get that posted soon.

And I'll try to do better at making daily reports this coming week. I was just extra busy after work every day last week and tired on top of that. I'm hoping going off the fruit will help my energy to perk up again.

Best,

Starlene