Sacroiliac, Costochondritis and Diet Coke: Making Sense of it All

Food has always comforted me.  I love the many textures, tastes and varieties and have always been able to eat more than my female friends, and some of my male friends.  My father nicknamed me “hollow leg” as a child due to the sheer amount of food I could ingest.  I was also nicknamed “Olive Oil” back in those days.
Fast forward a few -- ahem -- many years later and my ravenous eating habits are not behaviors I like to boast about.  Nor have they done my figure any favors.

That’s all about to change.  Sure, I’ve done the yo-yo dieting thing for years and I have even lost enough weight to get back into my “skinny jeans” a few times as an adult.  This time is different.

In August, I injured my hip while working out.  What I thought was a minor injury, resulted in weeks of near daily chiropractic appointments, excruciating pain, having to walk with a cane and ingesting large doses of Advil around-the-clock.  Turns out, I have inflammation in my Sacroiliac joint (SI for short).  This is the major joint between your hip and pelvis.

Chest pains are also becoming common for me.  Sharp, shooting pains would often plague me while trying to sleep on my left side.  Breathing deeply would also trigger this pain.  Talk about freaked out?!  After seeing a doctor (for the record, I doubted my chiro could help me with this), having an EKG and diving deeper into my symptoms, my general practitioner determined that I am suffering from costochondritis, inflammation of the cartilage that connects the rib to the sternum.  My "rib" pain happened to be exactly where my heart is located which mimics the effects of a heart attack.

Are you seeing a trend here?

Inflammation is wreaking so much havoc on my body and causing me to feel 40 years older than my years on this planet.

The cause?  Well, there is so much misinformation out there to sift through, but if I’m being honest, I eat garbage and the only liquids I like are coffee (with sugar free creamer, please!) and Diet Coke.  My body has been anything but a temple (1 Cor 6:19-20).

The Plan…

Step One:  Cut out all aspartame.  Regardless of where you are on the aspartame-will-give-me-cancer-and-kill-me spectrum, I’m pretty sure this stuff is bad for you.  Much like people used to smoke in classrooms and office buildings, I strongly suspect that aspartame will continue to be heavily debated as to its negative health impacts on humans over the next 50 years.  Am I suffering from aspartame poising?  Maybe. (for the record, my doctor didn't discredit my self-diagnosis.)  I can tell you that I’m not consuming it knowingly from this point further.

Step Two:  Eat better.  As I stated earlier, this is not a strength of mine.  Luckily, I have great friends and colleagues that can help cheer me on.  I started with an Advocare herbal cleanse to reset my body.  (I don’t sell these products and am not pushing them on you.)  I did my homework and I liked that Advocare doesn’t use aspartame in their Spark drinks and other products, so I went with this option.  I have been making much healthier choices in the last week, and I have a renewed vigor about staying with this new way of eating AND DRINKING.  I have been apprehensively exploring the healthy sections at the grocery store with increasing curiosity.  Curiosity has turned to excitement.  I have discovered coconut oil.  Why didn’t anyone tell me how fabulous this stuff is?!  I also bought artichokes and pinned as many artichoke recipes as I could find.  I love artichokes.  Always have.  Now I am going to eat them more often.

Step Three:  Don’t break the bank.  In an effort to not have my grocery budget sky rocket, we are going to plant a modest garden in the backyard and start with a few winter staples:  spinach, kale, broccoli and carrots.  I realize that we will need to spend more on food, but I am going to continue to look for cost-saving ways to do this.  Your tips and tricks are welcome!

Step Four:  Fit it all in.  It’s no secret that we live a face-paced life.  I have a demanding, full-time job which requires me to travel frequently.  I am a church plant pastor’s wife (think start-up church) and our church has gone from around 20 people to 500 in an astronomically short amount of time.   We homeschool our 7th grade son.  We have a strong-willed and energetic 1st grade daughter.  We are constantly on the go, and when we aren’t, we like to fall on the couch in front of the TV and take a deep breath….or two. Thankfully, my mother graciously purchased a Nutribullet for our family so that I can make “green smoothies” and get our veggies even when life gets in the way.  (Again, not pushing products on you.  I did my homework and this was the most affordable option that received good reviews.)

I want more energy.  I want to feel healthy again.  (I haven’t even mentioned my issues with brain fog, fatigue and sleep deprivation!)  There are no weight loss goals, no inches to count.  This is not about fitting into a cute outfit by Christmas or seeing the number go down on my scale.  This is about my body’s health and its inner-workings that I have short circuited.

I hope that you will follow or even join me on this journey and consider making small steps of your own toward a healthier lifestyle.  I can tell you from experience that your body will give you clues (subtle and not-so-subtle) that you are not giving it what it needs to perform optimally.  I'm grateful that God gave me pain.  I hear You, loud-and-clear!