Earlier this year, I wrote about how I have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).  GERD is an acid reflux issue, only the acid refluxes into your throat and occasionally into your trachea and lungs.

For the past week or so, I have been waking up with slight stomach pain and a slightly sore throat.  Nothing too bad, but a clear sign that my acid reflux issues were returning.  Today however, things got a little worse and I started to notice, the reflux issue was impacting my breathing, during my run.  I had a great run, but breathing was more challenging than normal.

As mentioned in that previous blog post, fixing the issue typically requires some drastic changes in my diet.  Those changes are hard, because it means eliminating many of my favorite things to eat and drink.  That becomes especially challenging at this time of year.

So now I am faced with a choice.  Do I take on the restricted diet or do I live with the acid reflux for a few weeks, until the Holidays are over?  It’s a tough choice, but because it’s the time of year where training is not super critical, I am leaning towards letting things go for a few weeks.  I am thinking that enjoying the Holiday treats with my family, is more important than being able to run at maximum effort without breathing a little harder.

Moving forward next year, I need to find a way to better balance my diet, so I am not constantly drifting in and out of bouts of this issue.  For now however, I think I’ll just live with it.  What would you do?