Looking Forward....

So 2025 begins with my ears OK but rumbling.  My head feels full and stuffy and my rhinitus is in overload.  Everything is a bit glue-like.  I am ready to continue losing weight and exercising more but possibly a little stuck?  We had found the motivation before Christmas to get completely back on track.  That will remains and our diet is pretty good.  We never stopped eating well for out main meal and having left overs the next day but a few takeaways had crept in and some chocolate.

My husband had gained weight too and was about 0.5 stone over his target but these tweaks mean he is likely to be back in target when we weigh next week.  He only has another 0.5lb to go.

We are away in April again, with some of the same people.  It's a smaller group though, less arranged.  We are staying in a self catered flat so there will be no all you can eat buffet for breakfast, lunch and tea.  In fact, I will be doing my own breakfast and some of my lunches.  Evening meals will be out with the group but it won't be all you can eat.  Even if I eat three courses every evening, it will be better than last year.  I shouldn't gain anywhere near as much weight.

I do however not want to be heavier than I was on holiday last year.  In fact I would really like to be lighter and fitter, maybe a stone.  So four months and 2 stone?  It's doable but a lot.  I might get close and that would be OK.  Even half a stone lighter than last year would be a win.  When I am losing well I average about half a stone a month.  So yes, its tight.

With my ears rumbling though, it's difficult to get fully in to exercising.  My head feels stuffed with glue.  I have started taking a second antihistamine and a decongestant these last couple of days and I will start using my steroid nasal spray too I think.  I need to clear it up, that's for sure.

This winter is colder and wetter than last year, which doesn't help.  I did a short but quick walk to a neighbours house after dark last night and the cold took my breathe and made my throat hurt.  I had to use my inhaler.  We are not even at zero.

I have been thinking about why my ears have been so bad this year, when I have had a few years of managing it really well and keeping issues minimal.  I came to the conclusion that its my rhinitis that is worse.  After using antibiotic spray and fungal drops, I know I have no infection.  My ears are clear but my head feels glued up.  This it's my sinuses and Eustachian tubes and with how bad my Rhinitus is, it makes sense.  They are not infected, just more glue like than normal.

I had started thinking about what had changed and it occurred to me that one of the dietary changes I made last year was to replace some snack bars with a protein yogurt each day for breakfast.  I have never eaten huge amounts of dairy.  I find that very fatty dairy triggers my IBS.  Improvements to my diet mean that my IBS is really good right now though, so my body has been able to take a daily fat free yogurt easily.  I have been enjoying them.

Looking up online though, it's clear there is lots of anecdotal evidence suggesting dairy can cause the issues I have been experiencing.  I don't think it's science fact yet, but even so, it's enough to be a plausible reason I need to look at.  I think my rhinitus has to be due to allergies.  I like the anithistamine I use from the Doctors right now and I really don't want to find its become less effective and have to switch.  

Monday my husband put on a fitness documentary.  We often watch cycling documentaries particularly.  He loves all things cycling and they are generally inspiring with amazing scenery.  This one though, turned out to be about diet and the gains some athletes are making by switching to a plant based diet.  It was interesting timing for me, as a lot of what was they were saying resonated.

Its really hard to pick apart fact from anecdotal evidence. Also hard to know if it applies to everyone, not just super fit people.  It was clear though that people with heart conditions etc benefit hugely from eating this way.

So I am going to try a dairy free week and see what happens.  I have been looking online and Alpro do a protein soya yogurt, so I should be able to do a straight switch over to them.  A lot of our meals don't include any dairy, so it will be easy to plan a dairy free week.  It just so happens that this week is quite dairy filled.  Tonight I am doing Mac and Cheese and Friday it's Chicken Parmigiana.  This should hopefully give me a very clear change when I switch at the weekend.

If it turns out to be that dairy is causing my issues, I won't stop eating it but we will start using more plant based alternatives and my daily yogurts will become soya ones.  After watching the programme, I think we agreed a loose goal to head towards plant based diet.  My plan is to aim for 20% this year and up by 20% each year till we get to 100% Veganism.  A five year plan.  

Accept it isn't really.  We both enjoy meat, fish and cheese but we are happy to reduce.  We can make switches and see how far we get.  I doubt we will get anywhere near 100% but 20% is easy really, at least for me.  With me cooking from scratch, we can easily switch some recipes to quorn for instance.  I think healthwise I can go back to occasional dairy meals as I was eating before I started the yogurts.  It depends how it goes when I make the switch...  

The easiest solution is that it's dairy because I can change that and feel better, exercise more and be back on it nice and quickly.....