LID... AGAIN

I mentioned yesterday that I needed another whole body scan, which means I have get to go back on the low-iodine diet.  I wrote a post about the Low-Iodine Diet a while back, when I was preparing for my RAI treatment and whole body scan.  I'll give a little refresher for those of you who are new/don't remember/skipped that post.

Thyroid tissue needs iodine and is the only tissue in the body that takes up iodine.  Using a small dose of radioactive iodine (I-131) allows for a nuclear scan to be done, any iodine taken up in the body will light up the film.  To prepare for the dose of I-131, you need to starve your body of iodine.  This way, when you get the iodine, any thyroid cells will SUCK IT UP and absorb it, without having any other iodine in the body to compete with.  (Did I get that right, Phil?)

Starving the body means going on the low-iodine diet, or as I like to refer to it the "I only eat fruits, veggies, and beans" diet.  That's because the list of foods you aren't allowed to eat is RIDICULOUSLY long:

-  No dairy
-  No soy
-  No seafood
-  No seaweed
-  No sea salt
-  Only 4 servings of grains per day
-  No more than 6 oz. of (uncured) meat per day
-  Absolutely no iodinized salt
-  Only certain types of beans
-  No rhubarb or spinach
-  Only brown basamati rice, and even then try to severely limit it
-  No egg yolks.  Egg whites (gross) are fine
-  No potato skins
-  No Red Dye No. 5(?).  I know Red Dye 40 is ok.
-  No instant coffee/tea
-  No brown colas or anything with Caramel Coloring

Ok so it would have been easier to list what I could eat:

-  Fruit (other than rhubarb)
-  Veggies
-  Black beans
-  Chick peas
-  4 servings of grains per day which can include bread which I have to make myself (thank you Mom and Dad who don't read this for the bread machine), quinoa, millet
-  The inside of potatoes
-  Corn products (unsalted corn tortilla chips, unsalted corn tortillas which smell disgusting)
-  Unsalted nut butters
-  Fruit Juice

Basically iodine is in EVERYTHING.  Or at least all processed food.  Especially since a lot of manufacturers clean their equipment with iodine solution.  That means EVERYTHING needs to be made from scratch.  Since this work is better done BEFORE the diet starts and you become so crazy with hunger, I asked my friend Danielle if she would come over and help me prepare some staples for my 2 week hell diet.

{The To-Do List.  Phil, Danielle, and I all thought there was no way we were going to get everything done, but we did!  Pretty much because Danielle is the shiz.}

We only had like 5 hours, but we managed to bust everything out and got everything done that I wanted to.  Danielle is AWESOME.  Ok that is kind of an understatement.  I didn't get any pictures of us cooking because I was too busy either sending Phil back to the grocery store or cooking.

{All the goods.  Have you ever made refridgerator pickles?  Apparently this recipe is supposed to change your life.  Plus it isn't everyday you have to get to make your own ketchup from scratch.  Thank goodness I bought all those mason jars for Joanna's baby shower.}

Last time, I was on the diet for a month without thyroid meds.  This time I only have to go on the diet for 2 weeks and I get to stay on my meds.  Hopefully this means rather than gaining 3 lbs while eating practically nothing like I did last time, I will lose like 5 lbs.  Pretty sure the walking to the bathroom a million times a day from eating nothing but fruit and beans will help with that.  That was probably an overshare.  Well at least you don't have to live it.

Honestly, it isn't going to be that bad this time.  Two weeks seems like nothing compared with a month.  Plus I feel like this time I know what I liked from the diet last time and I feel WAY MORE prepared.  And because it is late summer in Oregon, we have an ABUNDANCE of excellent produce for fairly cheap.  And we happen to live about 5 minutes away from a market that sells said produce every day of the week.

This is not a diet anyone should choose to go on for losing weight.  The body NEEDS iodine.  In fact, there is some research that suggests the type of thyroid cancer I had can be caused from not getting enough iodine.  Who knows if it is true, but don't cut out the iodine, ok?