I’ve been really low energy in the afternoons lately. Maybe because of the allergy drops hyping my immune system?
Yesterday I also had a gluten reaction. As part of it, I was really upset, and convinced that I’ve been having gluten reactions for days and days. On calmer reflection, I’m pretty sure it had been low energy, and yesterday was gluten.
I try to remember when I started feeling unable to concentrate, separate from when I was tired and worn out. It’s hard to tell, but it was probably around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. It was bad by 6, and starting to get better around 9.
OK, what would I have been eating around 18 hours before 3-4pm? Probably dinner. Dinner was lentil soup. No new spices in it, but the lentils came out of the bulk bins at New Leaf. I also had chocolate “fudge” I made with baking chocolate and several different nut butters. One nut butter, almond, is from a new source, and the other is the peanut from the dispenser at New Leaf. I’ve never had problems with their peanut butter before, but I have every reason to think they’re not careful of cross-contamination. And I had nuts, but I think I’ve been safely having those nuts for a while. And the probiotic pills I take changed formulation recently, since around the time I started feeling low energy, but again we don’t think that was a gluten response, and I’m trying to track down the gluten.
We also just started eating sheep and goat cheeses again in the past week or two. And I’ve had low energy for a lot of that time. First I thought it was the hepasil, then I thought it was just exhaustion from a long time of struggling with these things, and then I had my period, and then we thought maybe it was the mineral supplement I’ve been taking. On Saturday, after all of that, I felt fairly well, although still tired in the afternoon, but then Sunday was worse again, and Monday I had a gluten reaction. Also, on Sunday I took a loratadine (Claritin) because I had an itchy reaction to the allergy drops. I don’t take oral allergy meds very often, they make me feel high. Could that be causing any or all of these symptoms?
This story is convoluted and confusing. Was I feeling well or not? Was it caused by several different things, or one thing that I haven’t excluded yet? I don’t know. It’s hard for me to be careful and scientific about everything I put in my body and everything I feel throughout the day. It takes diligent reporting, and diligent attention to what new brands we bought this week, and what we’ve already cleared as safe or not, and then careful review to see what correlates with what… And the delay could be 18 hours, like with gluten, or any other number of hours if it’s not gluten. It’s hard! And describing “how I feel” right now is hard, too. What’s normal? What’s acceptable? What frequency should I be reporting on? And I need to track my sleep, if I’m tracking energy levels. And I should track my poo, while I’m at it. And then I’m overwhelmed, it’s hard enough to just live my life without also tracking all these things in the hopes that I might catch a thing red-handed.
Meanwhile, I can’t do my job if I can’t think coherently. I’m going to stop eating any beans from the bulk bins, the fudge with suspect nut butters, and back off on the cheese. I may want to shift the allergy drops from the morning to the afternoon, so my energy doesn’t drop during the workday so precipitously.
P.S. Did I mention the new instant decaf I’ve been binging? I like coffee, but drinking more than about 6 oz. gives me heart palpitations. But I love the flavor. But it’s new, what if it’s contaminated with gluten somehow, and that’s the culprit? 😭
ETA: After eliminating the lentils, fudge, and decaf, I reintroduced both fudge and decaf without problems. I haven’t tried other beans yet, not sure if it’s just the lentils or all beans from the bulk bins. I also shifted the allergy drops from the morning to the evening. Since then, I’ve been sleeping worse, but feeling better overall.