What I ate on Wednesday, March 19, 2025
I’ve been officially diagnosed with GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease), and it has been bumming me out. How can Gina love food when food doesn’t want to love her back? I’ve taken a break from all of this for a minute to regroup, and try to figure out my path down my food journey. I obviously can’t be doing what I have, but I don’t want to give up Nonnie’s sauce or Sunday morning coffee.
So it Begins
Two weeks ago, Omeprazole was prescribed at 80mg per day, and I was told to stay away from trigger foods like coffee, tomatoes, and garlic – GARLIC!!!!! How can I live with out garlic????? As sad as it was, I did what I was told. I did try garlic powder in some of my dishes, which seemed to be okay – so far.
Yesterday, I went back for a follow up. Although the burning had subsided and the morning coughing fits were becoming more infrequent, I was still feeling something in my chest and a burning when I come up a flight of stairs at a healthy pace. Doc is going to have me checked out for an asthma and put me on Flonaise to make sure it’s not allergies. She also said to keep notice how I’m feeling after I eat dairy as I may have developed an allergy to that (sucks getting old). I’m sure it all has to do with my hiatal hernia, but I’ll go through the motions.
One thing I have been reading about is lifestyle changes I need to make. The hardest is not eating anything 2 hours before bed. Sometimes I ready to fall asleep 20 minutes after eating. I have started to eat at the dining room table instead of in front of the TV to keep me from melting into the couch as soon as I’m done eating.
Morning Routine
I’ve traded my cup of coffee for lemon, ginger, honey water. A teaspoon of each in 1 cup of hot water. Although the lemon juice is acidic, according to Johns Hopkins, it can aid with acid reflux. I’m not seeing any adverse results from it, so I’m going to keep that going
I’m also starting to eat a small amount of protein ( 25-50 calories) an hour after I wake up. I’m hoping this will help with the morning nausea and help me hit my daily protein goal. A slice of deli chicken or a small chunk of cheese. I think I’m going to make some egg white bites as well to have on hand for a quick grab a go.
Breakfast
5:30 am: 1/2 ounce thin and trim Honey Mesquite deli chicken was a little hard to swallow. I’m hoping it will get easier as I get more in the routine.
7:30 am: Premier vanilla protein shake has been a staple for me now for almost a year now. I am staying away from the chocolate as that may aggravate things.
9:00 am: Martha made scrambled eggs, a little tuna salad with a side salad. She always takes good care of me.
11:30 am: a handful of almonds to keep things level.
Lunch
1:45 pm: A little later than I like, but sometimes work comes before food. Made myself a little salad with 1 cup of romaine, 1/4 cup of shredded carrots, and about 2 ounces of roasted chicken breast. I drizzled 1 tablespoon of Ken’s Creamy Italian Dressing for some flavor.
I should have eaten something around 3:30 pm, but I wasn’t starving and I was super busy trying to put out one of work’s fires.
Dinner
5:45 pm: I got home to the amazing smell of my crock pot ribs. They literally fell off the bone when I went to pick them up, so I just shredded it and made a mashed potato bowl with corn and green onions (thank God they didn’t bother the GERD).
7:30 pm: That was it. My goal is to finish eating by 7:30 pm since I like to be in bed before 10 pm. (my usual wake up time is 4:30 am). I drank 48 ounces of water, and in total ate about 1,111 according to MyFitnessPal.
