{"id":996,"date":"2009-10-25T22:11:05","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T05:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/?p=996"},"modified":"2009-10-26T08:45:09","modified_gmt":"2009-10-26T15:45:09","slug":"the-gout-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/?p=996","title":{"rendered":"The gout update"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little health update, since I don’t want to be one of those “oh woe is me, I am sick\/ill\/crazy” and leave it at that. It’s taken several weeks, but the foot<\/a> is feeling a lot better. Gout is not the kind of thing that goes away immediately, or even altogether; it’s the kind of thing I’ll have to manage. But I can do a lot to minimize the problems from it, and I’ve made some changes to my diet that, along with some druuuuuuuuuuugs, have helped me over the last few weeks.
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\nNo red meat.<\/strong> Over the last four weeks, I had red meat only three times — stunning considering my eating habits, and that one of my high points during my short Vegas vacation was to go to a gourmet burger restaurant. Of those three instances, one of those was super-lean buffalo, so that’s not too bad. The second was a little bit of ground beef in chili, but it was mixed with ground turkey too. The third time was this weekend, with a barbacoa burrito at Chipotle, when I finally felt pain-free enough to eat beef “on purpose” and see what happened. The rest of the time — including the burger place in Vegas — I went with chicken or turkey. I also had to watch fish, since the real gout-related problem with beef and gout is purines<\/a>, and purines are in “some kinds of fish.” Until I know what kinds, I’m not going to go for it as a main option. Then again, it seems chicken and turkey are on the purine list, too, so maybe I have to reroute again. But I like oddball beef substitutes, like Boca burgers (which are great as long as you do not try to tell yourself you are eating anything but a Boca burger) and exotic stuff like ostrich and buffalo, both of which can be tracked down at Whole Foods and other alterna-markets. Combine that with the fact that I like black beans and garbanzo beans and I won’t have to worry about protein. <\/p>\n

No alcohol.<\/strong> I am in no way a heavy drinker; I don’t like beer (and that’s good, since yeast aggravates gout) and even when I do drink, it’s usually one-and-done with some top-shelf tequila. But…did I mention I went to Vegas? That was the only time I felt tempted, but I stayed dry — again, not really all that hard for me — until this weekend, when I had a little Cabo Wabo after a hard Friday at work. <\/p>\n

More water.<\/strong> I’ve always been a soda abuser. But Crystal Light packets in a water bottle works really well; I have at least one a day. Still not the recommended dosage but certainly better than a Coke. And since it’s about a build-up of acid in the bloodstream, good ol’ water does help gout. <\/p>\n

Veggies.<\/strong> I don’t like them, but I need them. I’m finding forms that are palatable. Paul Curthoys introduced me to edamame, which I found surprisingly tasty. (Yes, salty, but tasty.) I have secretly enjoyed caesar salad for some years now (even after that one time at E3 when I got food poisoning from the dressing) and I’ve had that a few times for lunch. I’m also finding a glass of V8 doesn’t kill me now and then, though it’s not exactly tasty. But it does get a serving of vegetables into me with a texture I do not object to. Along those lines, Kat has come up with some “green smoothie” recipes — raw fruits and veggies, blended and liquified. Again, not delicious, but nowhere near as bad as I thought it might be, and a really good way to get a lot of good stuff into my system. It’s better than zucchini. But what isn’t?<\/p>\n

Trickery.<\/strong> That is, tricking myself with “I can’t believe it’s good for me” foods. V8’s Fusion juices are pretty good, certainly better than normal V8. I found these awesome chocolate chip cookies at Trader Joe’s called Righteous Rounds<\/a> that secretly contain vegetable and fruit concentrate but taste fantastic. <\/p>\n

Basically, I feel like all the adjustments I’ve made are just that — adjustments. Not overhauls, not enforced changes, not dramatic upheavals. Just decisions to be made, and even when I go with the opposite of “the best” choice, it doesn’t feel like the end of the world; I just know I need to make those decisions with a balance. Lunch is salad? Cool; maybe tomorrow’s lunch won’t be. Unless, you know, salad sounds good. <\/p>\n

So life goes on, with less limping. Pass the edamame!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little health update, since I don’t want to be one of those “oh woe is me, I am sick\/ill\/crazy” and leave it at that. It’s taken several weeks, but the foot is feeling a lot better. Gout is not … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=996"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":999,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions\/999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/dan\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}