Day Ten: About Half Way

I feel like at this point I'm over the whole "missing food" deal. I know what I can and cannot have and I make sure to have what I can have available to me. Commercials are still the devil, but as long as I try to avoid being around the actual food it's been fine.

The plus side to this elimination diet is that I was also able to shed the unwanted holiday pounds. I don't own a scale so I don't know the exact amount, but I can see it and tell in my clothes. Extra bonus!

I've also been having a better time breathing when it comes to running. Now I have been on a new inhaler so I can't tell for sure what has been the cause, but either way I'm happy!

I also have a few meal ideas to share. Today I made crock pot chili which is a favorite. While I didn't have corn bread, sour cream or cheese to go with it, it is still a satisfying meal. I use ground turkey, sautéed onion, garlic and green pepper, add two cans of beans (I did black and kidney), tomatoes (all I could find were strained tomatoes in a jar, but they worked fine!) and spices of your choice. I used chili powder, cayenne, paprika salt and pepper. Set for about 5 hours and you're done!

Lastly, a simple lunch idea. Boars Head turkey is gluten free and have a list of Feingold Food List approved meats. Feingold Association approves foods for people on sensitive diets. So all in all, turkey is a-okay.

Simple, yet good. Turkey, mustard and lettuce. And a few approved chips made with sunflower oil. 

And now onto the home stretch! 

 

Day 7: Week one complete

I've definitely noticed that my cravings for goods on the "no list" have been decreasing. Would I still jump someone for their baked good in hand? Probably. Would I punch someone for their SVL? Definitely. As much as the caffeine withdrawals have subsided, I still miss my morning and afternoon boosts of energy. Plus all of this herbal tea sans caffeine isn't the best substitute either. 

I'm glad that week one is done with and that I'm well on my way to being done with this diet. Still haven't noticed any changes in my breathing or anything so who knows if this test will help produce any answers. At least I can say that it has helped ween me off sweets and help me get back into shape after the holidays. All is not lost! 

Day 6: Getting Easier

Ok so I will have to admit that things are getting a little easier. I've pretty much gotten used to what I can and cannot have. This also gets to be a chance to test out new recipes and ideas. (Trying to pull something positive out of all this!)

I wanted to make a kale soup for dinner and had some ideas but as always I turned to the web for some inspiration. Usually I go to the Cooking Light website which I LOVE, but with this specialized diet I've been using more general google searches. I stumbled upon a recipe from Rachel Ray for Portuguese Chourico and Kale Soup. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/portuguese-chourico-and-kale-soup-recipe.html

I made some adjustments by adding mushrooms, cooking the onions solo for a little longer and substituting the sausage for mini turkey meatballs. I went a little Italian wedding style and made little meatballs so I could season them myself and make sure they didn't have anything I couldn't eat. I used garlic powder, chili powder, red pepper flakes, parsley, paprika and a little cayenne pepper and rolled the meat into tiny balls.

I then lightly seared them so they wouldn't fall apart in the soup. The final result was really good! I'm sure the sausage adds some great flavor, but for the time being the turkey was delicious.

I also stumbled upon another dessert recipe I had to try. This recipe can be found at 

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/strawberry-ice-cream.html

Three simple ingredients: strawberries, coconut milk and honey. Blend. Freeze. Blend and serve.

This is definitely my favorite so far. It was so easy and good that I may actually still make it once this diet is over! 

Day 5: Grocery Store Regular

Finally Friday. The day of the week everyone waits for. The weekend is here and it's time to let loose. Some head to their local watering hole for cocktails, some head out to dinner with friends and loved ones. Unless I have plans, Friday usually means pizza and relaxing. Kicking back on the sofa and enjoying a couple slices of cheesy heaven as a treat for a healthy and productive week. Ahh sounds wonderful. But of course it will have to wait another few weeks. Instead I'm back at the grocery store. I'm starting to feel like I live here. Between Pinterest and random blogs I keep trying to search for recipes of things I can have and sending myself back to the store for ingredients.

Through trial and error I have found some good ideas and recipes and some not so good. I was super excited to try paleo carrot cake balls. According to the recipe, dates, carrots, ground almonds, unsweetened coconut flakes.

cinnamon and coconut oil were going to morph together into a delicious dessert. Not so much. While they weren't terrible, if someone served me a piece of carrot cake that tasted like that, I'd be looking for the trash. And that's exactly where these cake balls went.

On a happier note, I did successfully find a PB&J option! Plain rice cakes with the awesome peanut butter with maple I had already found, now topped with a raspberry "jam". It's not as thick as jam and is only sweetened with apple juice so it's perfect for the diet. 

Later on, I did have a mini breakdown because I started getting so frustrated. It's just food, but then again I *live* for food. It's hard to do much of anything without seeing reminders of what you're missing. After about ten minutes I calmed down and got it together. I've successfully completed five days. I can do this. Err... So I hope! 

Day four: getting creative

Although I may still fight someone for a baked good or cup of coffee, I feel that I'm getting a little better at controlling any outbursts. 

Since I have a full fridge I know I have some leftovers in my future, I knew I needed to get a little creative with snacks. 

Thanks to Pinterest I made these:

Super easy to make! All I did was slice up some bananas and gently fry them using some Pam. Once done I drizzled a tablespoon of honey whisked with a tablespoon of water.

So good!! Definitely needed something sweet after a few days not having much. I also tried making another dessert courtesy of thatssomichelle.com.  I don't always want ice cream, but when I saw this recipe I was super curious. Only two ingredients: 2 frozen sliced bananas and 2 spoons of peanut butter.

Bananas into a food processor...

Once they start crumbling they turn into something like this:

Next comes my favorite part, peanut butter! Now remember it has to be with no sugar added. I did find this peanut butter with maple syrup though which is AMAZING!

Slowly but surely you'll get this:

Somehow by freezing the bananas and putting them through the food processor they become this magical fluffy froyo like substance. 

Noms! Now I'm ready for a night of relaxing on the couch and eating a dessert that not only isn't terrible for me, but also diet approved!

Day three: getting the hang of things

Caffeine headache is thankfully gone. I still want a coffee more than anything because it's such a part of my daily routine, but I will have to get over it. 

Wednesday nights my husband and I do a bowling league with friends. We are both pretty terrible, but seeing friends and having a few beers is always fun. Not so much this week. I've gone months without ever having a beer or even wanting one, but of course since I can't it was all I wanted! It's like when they told you to not mix pop rocks and soda. You probably hadn't even thought about it ever, but as soon as it was off limits, it was on.

Friends asked how I've been able to do this whole diet thing. Well. I don't really have a choice, but it hasn't been the end of the world. A. It's only three weeks and B. It's just mind over matter. If you have your meals planned in advance and don't let yourself go hungry, you'll be fine. 

Food wise.....

Keeping snacks with me definitely makes a difference. To switch things up I had some dried apple slices which are pretty good! The crunch also helps satisfy that "snacky" craving too.

I decided to try making crockpot oatmeal for breakfast. So last night I threw some ingredients together including brown rice syrup, vanilla bean paste, almond slivers and apple chunks. I really like the consistency of steel cut oats, but don't always like the time it takes to cook. This made it so much easier. I added almond milk in place of water for creaminess which was a nice touch.

I had a diet friendly protein shake a ahoy for lunch and found it was pretty good. So far I'll have to say that the food hasn't been bad at all, just missing the things I can't have that has sucked.

For dinner time I got a little creative. I used a recipe for rice with coconut milk, cashews and peas and had leftover coconut milk. I used the rest of it with the chicken I was preparing. First, I sliced the chicken very thin and sautéed it with olive oil, garlic and fresh ginger. Once the chicken was just about done I added some coconut milk, hot sauce and a little pineapple juice. I let it simmer and cook down. The final result was a creamy type sauce on the chicken. Definitely a successful experiment! 

Day two: caffeine withdrawal sucks

I'm a pretty big coffee drinker. Okay, maybe I'm an addict. No milk. No sugar. Just black coffee and the occasional skinny vanilla latte. The withdrawal finally hit me today with a killer headache. Not to mention I now want to eat foods I don't even normally eat. Maybe walking past the bakery section of a grocery store isn't the best idea. I wanted to kill someone for a donut. 

On a happier note I did get some more elimination friendly snacks. I'm pretty big on snacking throughout the day and eat smaller portions at meal times. For some strange reason when planning for this diet I hadn't taken that into account. Although I love fruit, sometimes it just doesn't cut it. 

I ventured back to the store and spent a good hour reading labels and finding snacks that were wheat, corn, dairy, egg, preservative, and citrus free.

Vans has some pretty good options. Some items are gluten free but do contain the milk, so you have to be diligent about reading the labels. Tea was harder than I thought. Almost every box of caffeine free herbal tea I picked up had orange peel as an ingredient, however black cherry didn't! I was also pleasantly surprised to find some bars by Martiani that were pretty straightforward and had pretty much only oats, dried fruit and honey. 

If you are a chips and dip type snacker, I have a solution for you too! 

The "cream cheese" may not be the best alone, but with the chips it's good! If you do decide to eat chips just remember to make sure the type of oil is specified and is not corn oil. Also, just because it's dairy free doesn't mean it's fat free. So stay conscious of your calorie and fat intake while making your choices.

I set out to make dinner a little more filling than having just soup last night. 

Success!

Taco salad with a few adjustments. I normally use ground turkey and taco seasoning mix but this time I seasoned the meat myself and added chopped onions. You can get creative with the toppings which is one reason salads are amazing! I topped mine with black beans, green peppers, tomatoes, guacamole and some dairy free cheese and sour cream.

Elimination Diet: Day 1

So far, so good. Although I really missed my coffee it wasn't too bad. I did have a moment of weakness though. Probably wasn't the best idea to go out to lunch with friends on the first day. Part of me really wanted to say, "screw this have a dinner roll and get pizza", but I held it together!

I already drink almond milk in place of regular milk so breakfast wasn't too different, just had a different cereal. Even though brown rice cereal sounds gross, it was actually pretty good! Lunch out was a little more challenging. I was able to modify a salad and have it with a piece of plain salmon. 

I've come to really like Larabars over the past year or so, and they are elimination diet friendly! Having one in my purse helped silence the nagging of my sweet tooth. 

Dinner was pretty simple. I'll post the recipe for the soup pictures below, Thai butternut squash and coconut milk soup.

One down, twenty to go...

So far so good for elimination!

Elimination Diet Prep

Tomorrow is day one of my elimination diet.  (If you're not familiar with what this diet is, I do have a page that goes into some more detail.) I'm not really looking forward to giving up a lot of my favorite foods or coffee, but I am curious to see what will happen once this is all over. I do try my best to eat healthy and stay in shape, but this diet isn't something I read about and decided to do on my own.

Over the past few years I've been having an increased issue with being short of breath. I can admit that I haven't been as diligent with going to the gym as I have in the past, but carrying a basket of laundry up the stairs shouldn't make me have to sit down.

I've always enjoyed running and desperately miss the "runner's high" after finishing a great workout. So what happened? A few years ago, I was doing a quick three miles after most work days. Even on the hottest days I stayed hydrated and went for a run. As it got colder I went into my typical hibernation. When spring came again I tried getting back into the running groove. I started commenting to my husband that it had been really humid and it was making it difficult to breathe when I ran. One morning I was able to drag him out of bed and convince him to at least go for a walk with me. Just as I was about to comment how humid and stuffy the air felt, he told me how nice it was and how it didn't feel bad out at all. This is when I realized I had an issue. My husband is more of the couch potato variety and he was okay, yet the active gym goer and runner couldn't catch her breath. 

I went to see my doctor and had a few basic tests done. She determined that I may have mild asthma with some seasonal allergies and gave me an inhaler. I thought everything was great until this past fall. I realized that I never really got back into running and that I really missed it. I figured that I did need to take it easy to start running again, so I downloaded an app called Couch to 5K. It's pretty straight forward. You gradually work yourself into running 5K by doing a gradual interval running workout over a four week period three times a week. 

At first, I felt like I was doing really well and was happy with the results. As the periods of running got longer and the walking breaks got shorter and farther apart I did notice I was having a harder time catching my breath. Despite my great progress I wasn't able to run for five minutes straight without having to stop. I was finally referred to a pulmonary specialist. My pulmonary doctor recommended trying the elimination diet to see if by chance I have some allergies that may be causing these issues.

Starting tomorrow I go cold turkey on dairy, wheat, corn, eggs, citrus fruits, coffee, tea, alcohol, refined sugars and food additives. Fingers crossed this all goes well!