Time for some changes. Not huge changes, but significant ones. Tomorrow, I drop another 10 mg of Cymbalta and 25mg of Lamictal. I also am ending my on-again-off-again love affair with the Paleo Diet. Instead, I am creating a modified diet that works just for me. I’m calling it the Rachael Diet, because it is mine.

Yesterday, when I had to be weighed for my neurology appointment, the scales tipped at 200. I haven’t been 200 lbs since 2004. I worked my ass off to lose 70 pounds once, when the scales had hit 225, and I swore I would never see 200 again. Well, it’s happened, due to inactivity and fatty foods. (I wonder if part of the difference has been eating grain-fed meat instead of grass-fed meat, but because the cost of grass-fed meat is so high, I will likely never know.)

According to FitDay.com, if I want to be 135 (my goal weight) by my husband’s birthday next year, I need to restrict my calories to 1200/day. This means either that I can eat 1200 calories, or that I can eat more than that and exercise the rest of them off. 1200 is not a lot of calories, just for the record. Most people can consume that in a meal at McDonalds — but I remember being on a 1400 calorie diet for a long time, so I know that I can do this.

The diet is simple caloric restriction + the best of the paleo diet – removal of foods that cause inflammation. What I plan to do is combine being on a 1200-1400 calorie diet while also staying away from corn, peanuts, and other foods that give me problems or cause inflammation.

I’ve taken an allergy test, and I’m not allergic to anything. I’ve just noticed inflammation is worse with certain foods than with others, (for instance, I can have a few pieces of cheese – but feel like hell the day after too much pizza) so I am going to try to continue to eat as “cleanly” as possible. I’m still staying away from straight up sugar as much as possible.

I’ll keep you updated on my progress here. I’ll be exercising too.