Greetings. Welcome aboard!

If Splenda didn't interefere with your earlier success, it probably means that you can tolerate it without problems and that is probably still the case.

My guess is that dill pickles are OK. Check the list of ingredients for any of the 'oses (sucrose, fructose, dextrose...) and starches but I don't think there are any. Vinegar is obviously OK given the predominance of oil and vinegar dressings in the WOE.

As for the midday crash, I would see how much just going LC does for you. After I got through the first week I have found that I can get out of bed in the morning surprisingly easy and the midday crash that used to be real bad is now either mild or, on a fair number of days, missing altogether.