Food Intolerance Consequences

I had a serious fear of going to bed last night, mostly because I felt as if I were suffocating and the thought of lying prone only heightened the dread. This feeling of unease had been steadily growing all afternoon and it took me several hours to pinpoint the exact nature of its cause. Once I'd figured out the odd and unlikely cause, the remedy was severe but immediately effective.

I'd noticed since late afternoon that I couldn't inhale deeply. As day morphed into night, my breathing became even more shallow. Standing was better than sitting, but I've always had some issues with sitting too long as it compresses my organs and forces them upward into my diaphragm, leaving less room to expand my lungs. Remember, I've got some sort of weird compression issue with my blood vessels and nerves and can't wear tight or restrictive clothing. No belts or turtlenecks for me! 

Because the flu is making a resurgence with the more serious H3N2 virus and I've heard about several bouts of flu-associated bronchitis, my first thought was dire: I've developed some awful respiratory infection. Of course, that's just alarmist thought since I had no respiratory symptoms other than my inability to draw a deep satisfying breath. And then I remembered when I first noticed this discomfort: right after lunch with my girlfriend. We were celebrating her birthday at the British tea shop and it's also Hudson Valley Restaurant Week so there are special menus at all the participating eateries. 

The menu included a choice of appetizer, main and a dessert. I ordered the avocado toast because the addition of feta cheese, fresh mint, and chili oil sounded intriguing. I took one bite and suddenly thought to ask what sort of bread the toast was made from. The server didn't know and had to check, eventually bringing out a loaf of commercial Arnold 11-grain bread. Uh oh. Does it have sunflower seeds in it? Of course it does, as do most "healthy" multi-grain breads. I had avoided the Vegetable Pate on the menu because it was made of ground sunflower seeds. But I'd forgotten to ask about the bread and it wasn't until I'd eaten a very small piece of the extremely chewy and nicely-textured toast that I'd thought about it at all. 

None of us thought I'd eaten enough to cause a reaction and we proceeded with lunch. The tea shop brought me another avocado toast but made with Martin's potato bread. I've eaten that before without consequences. Then I had Shepherd's pie followed by a figgy steamed pudding, which tasted like a syrupy spongecake topped with marmalade. 

There are only a few things I can't eat, not due to allergies which are a histamine reaction and can be life-threatening, but to intolerances, which are best described as lacking certain enzymes to make certain foods digestible. Hence, lactose-intolerance. I have that. But I also can't eat sunflower seeds, hazelnuts (includes coffee flavorings!) or Brazil nuts. It's not the tree nut category as I can eat almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, macadamias, and peanuts. I'm not sure what the first three have in common other than the fact they give me a horrible stomach ache. 

Yesterday, I didn't have a horrible stomach ache, just the feeling that I'd eaten too much. In most people, this feeling dissipates as time and digestion progress. Not for me. Instead, the feeling got worse, as if all peristaltic movement had stalled. In hindsight, it probably did. I felt so full that I wasn't thirsty or hungry, but I also didn't have that nasty "burp up your food" reaction that occurs when you've grossly over-indulged or eaten too fast and the lower esophageal sphincter isn't able to close properly. 

I was down to tiny shallow breaths when I decided that the only reasonable course of action was to remove the food. I drank a few sips of water (to adequately dilute whatever's been brewing) and then lunch came up extremely quickly. After close to 9 hours there shouldn't be that much in the stomach, but for me time had stopped, stalled in the digestive tract. The food was being digested, but it wasn't passing through to the duodenum. And no, I don't have any blockages that would explain this. I'm very regular in my middle age. 

My best guess is that the one or two sunflower seeds I inadvertently ate caused a nasty inflammatory reaction that temporarily closed off the passage. Maybe a spasm in the pyloric sphincter? Honestly, I'm not going to see a gastroenterologist to find out either. What I am going to do is be much more aware of what I'm eating when I'm not the person preparing the food. 

However, before all this melodrama, I did have a decent Pull Day workout. I was even able to find the thinner single handle to use for Seated One-Arm Cable Rows, although I am still disappointed that I seem to have lost strength in the Lat Pull Downs. I might have to rethink my approach to that exercise. 

Busy Tuesday Pull

30 min elliptical + 5 cd
Program 2
Calories 327
Miles 2.91
HR 161-198 (87)

Push Ups 50
Crunches 30/30
Bicycles 50
Horizontal Scissors 50

Lat Pull Downs close-grip
85lbs x 12
100 x 10
115 x 7+1, 5+1/2+1/2, 6
100 x 12

Smith RDLs
Bar (30) x 15
80 x 12
100 x 12
120 x 12, 12, 12

Smith RG BB Row
80lbs x 25 reps x 3 sets

Seated 1-Arm Cable Rows
(Thinner handle grip)
30lbs x 12
40 x 12
50 x 10, 8, 8

RG BB Curls
35lbs x 25 reps x 3 sets

Quick Mat Stretch