Graduation

As many of you know, I've been blogging on MySpace for over two years. Well, no more! I say, NO MORE! I have graduated to a real blogosphere. I guess that means I have to start writing more 'grown-up' blogs now.

I've been battling gout for about 4 months now. Let me check that. I've been keeping away from having gout again for about 4 months now. I developed gout 1.5 weeks before I was supposed to run the Beat the Bridge race which is a race that Nordstrom hosts to generate money for Juvenile Diabetes research. Needless to say, I wasn't able to run the race and was very disappointed. If you don't know what gout is, the short answer is that it is a form of severe arthritis. When full blown your affected joint can swell tremendously and any slight movement or touch to said joint is beyond painful. From what I understand it's like having kidney stones in your joints. Fore more on this check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gout

Anyway, what I've discovered is that I was eating too much protein and not enough of everything else, coupled with the fact that I was consuming too much beer/alcohol and more importantly too much soda. This is all strange too me because I ate way more red meat and drank way more beer/alcohol and sodas when I was in college then I do now. Alas, I guess the older you get the more susceptible your body is to that sort of thing. I will admit that I've never been a big veggie eater. To me potatoes and more specifically french fries are my veggie. Not so much any more!

When I first came down with gout I thought it would just go away if I started eating a little differently. No so! I continued to drink beer and sodas and lived through pain for two weeks. Yes, I guess I am not so smart sometimes. So... I decided to stop drinking beer/alcohol for a month. I made it to day 28 with no beer/alcohol, but unfortunately I took part in a bachelor party and couldn't resist the urge. I didn't drink any beer for 30 days, but I did drink some alcohol. What I discovered, though is that I still had some inflammation in my toes (which is where I had originally been affected). So I read and read and read and discovered that sodas are actually worse for gout than beer is. Most commercial sodas are made with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which causes your kidneys to produce purines which induces the gout.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I stopped drinking all regular sodas and have tried to stop eating anything that is made with HFCS (though there is an amazing amount of stuff that is made with HFCS). This seems to have really done the trick for me, so much so that I am able to have a few beers a week and a few alcoholic drinks with no worries at all. As a funny side story, I discovered that ketchup is made with HFCS, however Organic ketchup is not, so I made the switch. Guess what? Organic ketchup tastes 10 times better than regular ketchup, so I'm hooked for life!

As well, I'm really trying to eat and drink as much 'organic' stuff as possible. I made the switch to organic milk about 2 years ago and have never looked back (and no lactose intolerance since then either!). So I guess the lesson learned for this blog is you have to be more mindful of what you eat the older you get!