When we were kids, my sister once tripped me as I was running across the den.  I hit the sofa leg with my face, busting my lip (a scar I wear to this day and the ONLY thing that keeps me from looking exactly like Ann-Margaret).  Well, I don’t think so, missy!  While I was in genuine pain, I remember actually thinking that I ought to cry harder to make sure she got in big trouble.  I did.  She did. Mission accomplished.

So, my sister and I are no longer children; but, I’m still getting her into all kinds of stuff.  This time, though, it was a good thing.

A couple of months ago I challenged her to do some kind of two-week mostly vegetarian diet with me.  I figured that it would jump-start us both and, even if we didn’t lose any weight, we wouldn’t do any harm.  I issued the challenge, lost the link and promptly forgot the whole thing.  You know … like I do.  In fact, I still can’t find the program I challenged her to!  Anyway, she actually started it at the beginning of July.

I knew something was up when she texted me a “confession.”  I’m thinking, “Confess what?”  But, since our mama didn’t raise no fools, I kept my face shut and let the woman keep talking.  She was confessing that she had given into temptation, eaten a fast food hamburger and that the effects had been surprising – really surprising.

Now, let me back up a little bit.

I told you about a friend I have whose knees are in such bad shape that walking for exercise is out of the question.  Well, that was actually my sister.  It makes me wince just to think about them.  Anyway, she eats OTC pain relievers like candy and cannot sleep through the night without them waking her.

Then she changed her food.

She noticed that her knees let her sleep through the night, but didn’t make the correlation. I mean, who would, right?  You don’t automatically tie joint pain in with what you’re eating. She didn’t make that correlation UNTIL she ate that hamburger and her knees woke her with pain that night.  Wow!

When she told me that, I was blown away.  Then, I figured it was psychosomatic. But, that wouldn’t be – she hadn’t been running any kind of experiment.  She hadn’t been looking for any result; so, how could she imagine one? Crazy, huh?

She’s pretty convinced that it was the bread that caused the reaction.  I know that bread makes me feel bloated and retain fluid.  It makes my aunt Judy cough.  I don’t see why it couldn’t cause inflammation that would result in joint pain.  More research will undoubtedly be done on this by These Doty Girls.  I’ll let you know if we figure anything out.

In the meantime, she has reverted to her new, primarily plant-based, diet and is sleeping through the night.  She said yesterday that the trick making it easier for her to skip the junk food is to think of it as poison or as an allergen.  Doughnuts are less attractive when you think of them as poison ivy.

She is working to give her body clean fuel and, guess what? Her body is rewarding her for it! Gold star!

So, maybe it was okay that I got her into this one….