Just lost my post! I'll try again:
moonwatcher, I absolutely do eat starches and am sorry to anyone who reads this who has not seen what an important part of my diet this is. I start almost every day out with a bowl of oatmeal (and recently, a bell pepper). The rest of my eating involves sweet potatoes, brown and white rice (mostly brown), and sometimes whole grain pastas or corn tortillas. I fix beans in my pressure cooker once a week or so and serve them over rice, with kale or other greens in it, and, like today, cold out of the refrigerator for a quick snack.
I guess I think of the starch as the base of the meal, and, like the plate, just assume it's there before I start dumping veggies and such on it.
never give up, I know exactly what you mean about just trying to get through the day. This way of eating has helped me be able to do more than that because of the increase in energy and the decrease in several of my other symptoms. I hope it will do the same for you. I had a great time looking for the right color of mint green balloons for my daughter's birthday party today because I haven't been able to do much with the children for the past few months. I don't even like shopping!
I have found that, out of the past 5 1/2 weeks or so, this past week has been the hardest for me. I got into a new habit before vacation, my family and I stayed with it completely while we were gone for 3 weeks, but coming home I almost went back into my bad habits without thinking about it--I actually went to Target and stood in front of the Gardein section of the frozen foods intending to pick out a couple things to help out during the week. I haven't done that for weeks! I didn't get anything, just asked myself what I was doing. But I had to reestablish good habits. Now it is easy again.
Do remember that the habits of mine have cut out several items that seem to help me feel better with the MS, no avocadoes, nuts, nut butters, almost no breads, no fake meats (which I ate a lot of before), no soy products except for soy sauce and tempeh; I am really trying to only have foods that are as close to their natural forms as possible, thus all the fruits and veggies. But it is still a starch-based diet.
Fulenn