Insights from Food House Fantasy

I can hardly believe everything I learned from doing my 'food house fantasy'. I'll describe those insights as I review each paragraph from my food house fantasy post:

That cute little HOUSE vision reminds me how I dislike all the messes and clutter in my current house. I don't like knicknacks or stuff sitting on all the tables, window sills or counters. Yet I have CHAOS in my studio and office. I would feel much more comfortable in my environment if I cleared out the clutter and kept it clear!

The FOODS in my vision told me that I love starchy, thick, filling foods. I prefer casseroles with vegies, meat and grains mixed together over entrees with separate meat, vegies and starch. Not only can I judge from a serving of casserole how much I need to feel satisfied, but I also like that smorgasboard of tastes and textures from each bite of casserole (or stir fried dish) in my mouth. When I'm hungry, I most often feel the hunger deep in the pit of my stomach. So I want filling, warm and often starchy foods when I'm really hungry. I also love and have ALWAYS loved ice cream or cookies for dessert ... just a couple of spoonfuls of ice cream after heavy meals or a cooky after lighter (like salad) meals. My preferences seem obvious from my description of foods in my food house fantasy. LOL

What's amazing is how much I've changed what I eat since I did that fantasy. I made uncheese (nonallergic ingredients) to top pizza 2 days ago. With the leftover cheese sauce I plan to make a nice starchy macaroni, brocolli, chicken and cheese casserole. On the day we had pizza for dinner, I had a meat, vegie and rice casserole for lunch. I've had hot cooked cereal every day since that fantasy. Yesterday I ate a peanut butter wrap with a lot more peanut butter for lunch. Then for dinner I only ate half of my plate of fish and vegies so I could save the rest for a lunch casserole today. I added more vegies to that casserole for my lunch today. Then I had ice cream for dessert. For dinner tonight I just had a sandwich with an orange and a few more spoonfuls of a new ice cream flavor (coconut). I realize I really like a heavy lunch, because that's when I feel hungriest. However at night I like a lighter, mostly carbs, dinner to help me relax and go to sleep earlier. I don't mind feeling hungry when I go to bed, because I like to wake up hungry and have a filling breakfast. I don't need a heavy dinner at night unless I'm going out after dinner.

My most interesting insight was how much I HATE having to take digestive enzymes, HCl and probiotics just to digest foods. Ironically I had to abstain from all those digestive supplements for 3 days before doing another stool test for 'bad bugs' in my intestines. I won't learn the results of that test for another month. However I learned I do pretty well WITHOUT all those digestive enzymes. I certainly can't overeat without discomfort or reflux, but I digest better than I thought I would. Since taking that test I have tried adding back much smaller amounts of those digestive supplements. I'll definitely stay OFF probiotics until I hear whether I actually need those to fight bad bugs in my gut. Probiotics cause too much uncomfortably gas, no matter how long I've taken them. I never 'adjust'.

However I've also taken just a tiny dose of HCl before meals and/or a pancreatin enzyme after meals. I just don't need as much. I began taking those to improve regularity. Like everything else I tried, digestive supplements helped improve regularity FOR AWHILE. Then I eventually returned to my 'normal' irregularity, which is why I had to take another stool test. Nevetheless, I also suspect I used digestive enzymes as a 'crutch' when I overate, to help me comfortably digest extra food. An easier approach would be to just eat less more often. Without needing to take HCl everytime I ate, I could more easily snack between meals and wouldn't be so apt to overeat at meals to 'make it until' the next meal. DUUUHHHHH!! Of course it took a food house fantasy to convince me of the obvious. LOL

Even if my test results come back totally negative (which will be surprising given my history with bad gut bugs), the requirement that I abstain from digestive supplements for 3 days before the test was well worth the expense of the test. Maybe my digestion improved as I ate normally and abstained from bingeing and purging. Maybe those HCl supplements primed my stomach to make more of its own HCl. Whatever happened, I'll experiment with taking less digestive enzymes less often.