Day 4 - LEARNING ABOUT GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX DISEASE (GERD)

I am now in Day 4 and really doing good.  I am proud to say I lost another pound.  It is not much but as I mentioned before it is to my goal of eating healthier and staying on it this time.  I will be making changes but geared more to my recipes and not straying off of it. Yesterday I posted what I had for breakfast and along with the juice I had a small bowl of fruits and water. I need to stress that with any diet...drink LOTS and LOTS of water. This was one of my problems I did not drink enough water. Some people don't even drink water and some only need a little bit of water.  In my case, I need to drink 32 oz if not more a day which is pretty hard to do.  If I drank as much water as I drink coffee I may not have some of these issues concerning acid reflux.  Being that I was still home for lunch I decided to make myself a salad along with my drink and water.  Below is what I had for lunch.  All of this can be made ahead and packed up to take to where ever to work, etc.

This is a deep dish salad.  I had alot of greens to go with my carrot juice with a twist.  I will be having this again.  You can add more to the salad like green peppers, various salad greens.  It is the most healthiest salad to eat.  This filled me up for lunch and for snack I took along a little more juice and an apple and water..very important!

And for dinner, I had 1/2 of a stuffed acorn squash which I had made before and it is so delicious.  If you have a little bit of leftover you can have maybe another spoonful or 2.  I suggest to limit it to 2 because it is so easy to overeat.

Holiday Recipe: Stuffed Acorn Squash

This recipe was inspired by a video for Thanksgiving recipe that would either be a side dish or for some vegetarians be the main dish along with vegetables.  I tweaked the recipe as far as using a little olive oil and omitted the nus.  I used black beans and/or kidney beans, green pepper.  I liked the recipe so much I have this a lot  Here is the recipe. For this Thanksgiving I will be adding nuts and cranberries even though it is not quite on my diet.

The recipe I made for the first time is on my site from "Day 47" when I had added other recipes..click on the link DAY 47 - I MADE SOME CHANGES

Since I have enough juice from yesterday I will not be making another juice recipe but will spend some time on Gastroesophagea Reflux Disease.  When I was a little girl I had a lot of problems with my stomach.  I always ate what my mother served and at that age I would not have to worry about what I should eat or shouldn't eat....everything was DELICIOUS!!   But as I got older, I would have stomach pains and I would just wait until it went away.  It really affected me physically that I had to lay down at times.  I never went to the doctor for it so I did not know that this could be serious.  The symptoms would come and go and I just dealt with it.  Until I was pregnant with my first child.  One day I had this pain of hunger and I had breakfast so I should have been full.  The pain got stronger and my mouth was getting dry.  I NEVER had this happen before.  I took a piece of bread and ate it so fast hoping that it would stop...no..it just got worse to the point that I was bending over in pain.  It lasted about 10 minutes (although it seemed longer) and the pain gradually decreased.  After that I felt very tired and had to lie down.  This happened a few more times during the pregnancy.  My doctor told me that he cannot do any tests on me until after the baby was born.

So, my first born came into the world on June 12, 1974 and that month, my doctor gave me a GI series, now it would be called Ultrasound.  I had to drink this caucky pink stuff, ugh!!..it was awful tasting but that pink stuff would determine what the problem was.  Ofcourse as usual, the test came out that, well, should I say when they really don't know what the issue is they called it Hiatus Hernia . The doctor said that it was a problem between the esophagus and the stomach and suggested a diet for me.  That was really my first onset of this disease as they called it then.  I realized that the pregnancy aggravated that area of my stomach since it was being pushed up with the baby.

Now as I am getting older, I noticed more problems occurring and I tried different diets.  When I tried this diet for life, I thought that I would have no problems staying on it since I love vegetables.  I did really good for 6 months or so until I started getting my taste back for the foods that are really a problem for me..especially coffee.   I also stopped drinking so much water.  Now I am back with the same issues but I realize that being on this diet has helped me tremendously...it works!!.  This time I am staying on this plan and making it a day by day program for me.  Here is an article on GERD

Understanding Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) -- Diagnosis and Treatment

GERD is a chronic disease, and the goal of treatment is to manage it; that means reducing the amount of acid in the stomach and the amount of reflux that occurs. For mild GERD, this can sometimes be accomplished by using over-the-counter antacids and making certain lifestyle changes. If more treatment is needed, other types of drugs, either over-the-counter or prescription, are available. Treatments are also available that can be done using the endoscope. Very rarely, surgery will be needed.  Read More

Keep Symptoms in Check When Dining Out With GERD

Every once and a while, it feels good to take a break from cooking at home and dine out with friends and family at one of your favorite restaurants. However, if you suffer from severe symptoms of acid reflux or symptoms associated with GERD, dining out may be more trouble than it’s worth. Don’t confine yourself to your kitchen just yet!  Read More

I am not used to talking about myself and any health issues.  I have been dealing with this for a long time but never been diagnosed until now.  Although there are many different types of Acid Reflux, these changes are to help eleviate the symptoms that come with this disease and keep it under control.  This information is for anyone with this disease.  Information and educating ourselves will help us in the long run.  It can be kept under control.  

Thanks for reading my blog.  If you are having GERD or similar acid reflux, please share your comments with us..:)