The thing with being away from the blog so long is that whole bits of my life have gone unrecorded. This really isn’t a big deal. My life prior to ’04 is largely unrecorded and I feel no ill effects from that. But for my gentle readers there are things in my world that you don’t know. *gasps*. I know, right? My life isn’t a completely open book!

Unfortunately one of the biggest deals this year has been health related. I know, yah boo sux to ill health. And before you get worried. It’s not life threatening. It’s just an inconvenience they call Gastro Oesophogeal Reflux Disease. GORD for short (or GERD if you prefer the ‘merican spelling). It manifests itself as heartburn type symptoms, coupled  with sour/acid taste in my mouth, and occasional nausea.

Fun, right?

The issue is mechanical, the sphincter between my stomach and my oesophagus is malfunctioning and not keeping the acid in my stomach.  Blech.  I’ve had a scope down to see if there is any other untoward business going on and all is well, I just have to put up with it, and undertake some lifestyle changes to reduce the severity of outbreaks. The foods to avoid are basically below:

• fatty or fried foods
• peppermint and spearmint
• whole milk
• oils
• chocolate
• creamed foods or soups
• most fast foods
• Edited to addalcohol, thanks Linda
• The following foods irritate an inflamed lower esophagus and may need to be limited or avoided:
  • citrus fruits and juices (grapefruit, orange, pineapple, tomato)
  • coffee (regular and decaffeinated)
  • caffeinated soft drinks
  • tea
  • other caffeinated beverages
• Spicy or acidic foods may not be tolerated by some individuals.

Losing weight is apparently big factor, and so I’ve been increasing my exercise output – I figured changing one element of my lifestyle at a time is more achievable than changing everything at once… so for the last few months I’ve been hitting the gym 2-3 times a week, and trying to get out walking more often, which is of course easier now the weather is [kind of] on the improve… As a consequence I’ve lost about 5 kilos. Not bad considering I hadn’t made too many changes to my diet other than avoiding some of the more aggravating offenders (fried food – french fries? not lately…). I gave a dairy free diet a bit of a go for October, largely because a nutritionist took a hair sample and identified casein (milk protien) as a trigger for me. Being without it didn’t affect the GORD at all, unfortunately, but eating less cheese than I used to can’t be all bad…

So the next stop strategy to get the weight down further and a bit faster are some dietary changes and more of an effort to watch my caloric intake… I suspect that the trickiest part of that business will be how to do so without having everything taste like cardboard…

Wish me luck.