To Eat or Not to Eat

The diet has been, by far, the hardest adjustment in this whole vicious predicament.  I love food. I love to cook. Both Terry and I love to eat.  Relationships are formed over food. Families come together and bond over food.

Yummy Pepperoni Pizza

My three favorite restaurants were: Miyabi’s, Pizza Joint, and Veracruz.  We ate so often at these restuarants, they recognized us and knew what were going to order before we sat down.

Once my diagnosis came in, we had to make some serious changes. We immediately quit eating out. We had to.  I will tell you…you have NO CLUE how much salt restaurants put into their dishes.  Watch Diners Driveins and Dives on the Food Network sometime and get clued in…it will shock you.

The first thing we had to do was remove all the food in our house that was in a box, bag or can that had sodium in it. If it wasn’t reduced salt or no salt added, it was donated to our family so it wouldn’t go to waste.

FSGS requires that I be on a low sodium, low potassium, low protein, low cholesterol diet.  In essence, there isn’t a whole lot left for me to eat.  My sister actually made the joke – rice cakes?  I called her a bitch and flipped her off.  But….. all joking aside, she was right.

Think about how frustrating it is when you go on a diet and can’t have sweets? You get grouchy, don’t you? Imagine my frustration when I had to give up everything that actually had flavor. Imagine Terry’s nightmare. He’s not even sick and he has to suffer along with me.  I say suffer, but truthfully, we eat better now than we did before at a fraction of the cost.  We spend in a month on groceries what we spent a week eating out.

The first time we went grocery shopping, it was a real eye opener.  We got a reality check that neither of us cared for.  It took four hours to go through the store. We went to all of our favorite foods, picked up the container, flipped it over and read the label. 

I encourage EVERYONE to do this.  You need to see what you are putting into your body.  And if you want to lose weight, maybe those 10 vanity pounds, eliminate the sodium from your diet….salt makes you retain water. Eliminate salt, lose that water weight you didn’t even know you were holding.

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese alone has more sodium in it than one adults total daily intake allowance. Crazy huh?

Terry and I went through every single barbeque sauce jar and walked away with none. No pickles. No spagetti sauce. No pepperoni or sausage. No gravy packets or taco seasoning. No canned vegetables unless it listed, no salt added. No potato chips, no dip. No boiled peanuts or popcorn. No chocolate. No soup, boxed or canned.

Terry and I have had a rude awakening. I thought I could cook before…LAUGH…. nope. I was fooling myself. It was all a lie. I have had to re-learn how to cook all over again. I’ve had to learn how to read labels, measure sodium and preservatives as well as portion size to make sure I don’t over do it. The consequences of cheating or miscalculation is painful.

We eat fresh vegetables. A lot of salad. I have learned how to make balsalmic vinagrette using balsalmic vinegar, olive oil, salt free Mrs. Dash, parsley, oregano, thyme, basil and rosemary. Let all that marinate for a day….

I’ve learned to make low sodium pizza. I make my own crust. Use no salt added tomato sauce, add all my spices and herbs to the sauce including fresh garlic clove and use hamburger, chicken, onion and bell pepper for toppings, measure the cheese.

We did eventually find a low sodium spagetti sauce….Rinaldi, no salt added….it’s very hard to find. Stores are usually sold out.  But when we do find it, we buy in bulk. And I add all my spices and herbs, and you can’t tell the difference.

I have to limit my mayo, mustard, gravy, and dairy products.  Too much chocolate makes me nauseous.  And I absolutely CANNOT have grapefruit or grapefruit juice in any way, shape or form. It can kill me.  It doesn’t mix well with the Cyclo.

So the next time you go out to eat and have a nice slice of supreme pizza or go eat Mexican, please think of me, but also think of all the by products you are putting into your body.

Also think about this…. this happened to me with little or no warning. I never saw it coming. I wasn’t prepared for it. It could just as easily happen to you.