Today my mind is not clear enough to produce a clear and entertaining post. But my mind is active, and it occurred to me that when that does occur, and thoughts are kicking around – the one thing I SHOULD be doing IS posting. So here it goes. The last few weeks have included:
* Me, finally posting personal information on the interwebs via one of my favorite blogs, per a “contest” of sorts, in hopes of making the cut for a gluten free challenge that is being conducted by Iris at TheDailyDietribe.Com. The concept itself is brilliant. And I am grateful to be in the running. Even if I don’t get enough votes to be part of the challenge, I will still be following it.
* A trip to New Orleans, which caused me to almost miss the deadline of the contest mentioned previously. I am so glad that I still saw the post for the challenge at the very last minute. But I am disappointed that I was unable to write something truly compelling and clear (seeing that I was exhausted and on Benadryl at the time).
Said trip was challenging because I was “glutened” (thinking cross contamination) a few days before we left, and was unable to eat any solid food for 5 days. Luckily we packed a huge cooler, & I made extra smoothies for the road. I did well the very last day of our trip. But then I am quite sure I either mis-ordered my sweet potatoes, or dairy was included mistakenly. Because I have been having ear & respiratory issues ever since that meal. We missed a few of the events that we were specifically signed up to attend once we got to New Orleans due to being under the weather.
* And just when I thought I might be getting back on track, & feeling back to normal, some of my old skin issues have returned. My immediate reaction is to track back everything I have eaten in the past 48 hours. Which actually due to my recent food indiscretions has been very limited. So the process was not difficult. But my old frustrations have returned because well, my skin (specifically on my neck and face) started hurting A LOT while I was working today. I know the feeling. It stings some, then starts to just ache, almost like a bruise. But it’s different, & really impossible to describe. It just HURTS. So I’m sitting there working on stuff I absolutely despise while the rest of the world seems to be off because it is Sunday. And I can barely concentrate on my work because my chin feels like there is something crawling beneath the top layer of skin. It starts itching and then hurting more. I finally look in the mirror. And yep, the hideous inflammation has returned. I have huge, nickel sized red raised areas that were popping up as I looked at myself. That was why it was hurting. I may take & post photos some day. I actually have taken photos before, from back when I wanted to show the dermatologist WHY I was complaining so much. Because, of course, when I would go in for my appointment, my face would always look much better miraculously.
So what do I think the culprit is this time? I do believe we found a sneaky little nightshade in my breakfast. My sweet darling partner offered to make me some breakfast sausage today. I remember reading the label at the store, an being excited that it was from a grass fed, hormone free source, with very few ingredients. I didn’t even ask him to read the label because I had picked it out myself. I guess I should have requested a second pair of eyes. Because I just checked it, and one of the ingredients is red pepper. RED PEPPER. I can’t imagine that there was a significant amount of this red pepper in the sausage. I certainly did not taste it. But it was enough to trigger a response in my system.
I don’t know what I am more upset about. The fact that I only ate a few bites, and had wrapped up the rest with the anticipation of eating some tomorrow when 5:00am came around all too soon to clock into work. OR the fact that my face looks like I am a teenager in the heat of puberty, and just wiped a slice of pepperoni pizza ON my face. I just know that the minute I saw my face, and read the ingredient list, profanity followed. I am SO tired of this. I did this to myself. How did I not notice red pepper? Maybe because it was nestled in between black pepper & celery salt? Or more likely I was just SO excited about finding sausage that was safe MEAT for me to eat ; being grass fed – that I was not noticing the obvious nightshade lurking in the ingredients.
Doesn’t matter now. It’s too late. My face hurts like hell. I look horrible. And I am not at all excited about now going on our next trip to Portland, where I was hoping to take lots of pictures, with my big, fat, swollen and aching CHIN. I might as well go eat some Mexican or Italian food at this point. I LOVE nightshade based foods. I miss tomatoes and peppers more than dairy and gluten. I used to have salsa every day of my life at one point. And I crave the very things that are causing this awful reaction.
So those are my ramblings for this afternoon. I am going to attempt to have an awesome rest of my day despite the nightshade chin. I am super excited to go to Portland. We may even hit some of the unofficial VidaVegan Conference events during our stay. To be continued……..
FEUD with FOOD 
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