My Journey to a Vegan Diet (Part 3)

The first year of my diet and lifestyle change, as recommended by Dr S was a bit up and down at first.  I started off being extremely strict as to what he had said, determined to do my best to improve my health. The list was daunting as I said in my last blog, due to my love of all foods.  The foods he had asked me to cut out were:

• All dairy including milk, cheese, yoghurts, cream etc.  I could have goats milk products if I wanted to.
• Caffeine
• Chocolate or anything with cocoa in it, biscuits, cakes and drinks also.
• Anything containing MSG (Monosodium Glutamate), such as Chinese food.
• Citrus fruits and drinks
• Alcohol
• Fresh Bread and products with a high level of yeast in like Marmite
• Bananas
• Eggs

I really did not know where to start and found myself just eating a lot of fruit and vegetables.  I would have pasta, rice and some fish and chicken, although at that time I was really starting to go off meat altogether.  I lost nearly 2 stone in the first couple of months.

Dr S had also recommended regular sleep which I had implemented, sleeping from around 10pm each day and waking up in the morning around 7am.  He also said eat at regular times during the day. This was something I did not always do before being a bit of a grazer, but made a real effort to try from now.  I started exercising more at times when I felt good, but without overdoing it.  The specialist had also said it would be great to avoid stress. Most people I am aware of have stress of some sort in their daily lives, due to the way we live as a society, always on the go and rushing about. Having set up a new business a few years before with my wife, our life is busy but no more than lots of others on a daily basis. It can be stressful at times, but I did my best to minimise this as much as I could.

I was aware that the road to recovery would not be a quick one, so was completely understanding that I was still getting a few bouts of dizziness to start with.  I upped my dose of Nortriptolyne from the original amount Dr S had prescribed me.  He had said I could do this at any time if I did not feel any better up to a maximum of 70mg. I remember him saying to me that even if I was having a good few weeks, to not overdo things thinking it had all gone away.  The likelihood for the first year or so was that this could regularly happen. I made sure I kept my food diary religiously each day.  When I had a flare up, I would look through what I had had that last week and if anything showed up that I had eaten a lot of, alarm bells would ring that this may too be an issue on top of the already extensive list of items I had stopped eating.  One such food seemed to be tomatoes, so I made the decision to cut them out, as well as meat altogether.

After about 6 months I started to feel a lot better in myself and the dizziness attacks had eased considerably.  I went to see Dr S at Medway Maritime Hospital in Kent where he was based for a routine follow up appointment and to talk through how he thought I was doing.  He reiterated again that it will take time to be fully recovered and to not think as I had been feeling much better lately that this was the beginning of the end of my attacks, but also was incredibly pleased how things had gone thus far.  Dr S asked me to book another appointment with him in 6 months’ time but to make it just a telephone consultation to save me driving the 3 hours to Kent.

The next 6 months I tried to stick to the diet changes but must admit I did lapse a couple of times and have items I should not have had. It would not always trigger an attack but on occasion it did and would leave me regretting indulging in that moment.

At the end of the first year a huge moment occurred and made me finally decide enough was enough.  I was collecting my goddaughter from pre-school as I did regularly once a week.  She had convinced me to stay in the park for a while before dropping her back home.  After I got her indoors safely I was driving back to mine when I stopped at a T junction.  I turned my head to the left then right to see if it was clear.  After the third turn of my head I was hit with an almighty attack of dizziness.  It really scared me as had never happened before when I was driving.  I immediately pulled over to the side of the road and sat there with my eyes closed, hoping it would ease off and I could continue my drive back.  It never did and progressively got worse.  I started sweating terribly and felt that I was going to vomit at any moment.  I think I started to have a bit of a panic attack also, as had never been on my own when such a huge bout of dizziness had occurred.  I just kept thinking how thank goodness it had not happened 15 minutes earlier when my 4 year old goddaughter was in the car as am sure it would have frightened her a lot.  I sat in the car, eyes closed as tight as I could praying it would go away.  It was a bright day and the sunlight was making my head much more sensitive as well.  After what seemed like an age I decided I needed to call someone to get me home as soon as possible.  My wife was at work and had a full day of clients so knew she would not have been able to get to me as quickly as I needed, so I rang one of my best friends Kate.  I prayed she would answer the phone which she did and explained to her what was happening.  She kindly agreed to come and collect me straight away.  I was a bit worried about getting in the car as she had never seen me this bad before. Kate arrived really quickly and I was very happy to see she had brought a large bucket with her for the journey.  She helped me get into the car and we set off.  It was only a 2 minute drive to my house but it felt like it took half an hour and that I was on the worst rollercoaster in the world!!  I was continually being sick on the journey, apologising to her all the time.  When we got back to my house Kate helped me inside and I slumped into bed.  I felt absolutely terrible, closed my eyes and hid under the covers trying to make it as dark as possible.  I continued to be sick for a good 6 hours on and off and slept right through to the morning. 

The next day I woke and slowly opened my eyes, hoping that it had all worn off.  To my delight it had but I was left with a raging headache and completely and utterly drained. I managed to have a shower and get dressed and spent the whole day on the sofa falling in and out of sleep.  That day in June 2019, I decided 100% to throw myself into the changes that I had been advised to do by Dr S.

I decided to start a plant-based diet from that moment and will continue the story as to how it has been going in my next blog post…..