Elimination Diet Update - Week 3

Prepared meals for lunch and dinner: rice cakes with sunbutter, sliced apples and cinnamon; quinoa porridge; rice, beans and veggies; grilled chicken with roasted garlic marinade; roasted sweet potatoes loaded with veggies; roasted veggies over brown rice with coconut milk. 

Entering into week three of the elimination diet.  This is the week when I can start adding back in the restricted foods.  I decided I need another week of super clean eating. Mostly because I didn't realize this was the week to do it and also because I ate some forbidden stuff - a few french fries; a handful of potato chips; the turkey lunch meat out of a hoagie; sushi.  I am doing most okay.  Better than okay.  It's when I get into my head and start reading about other meal plans, diet cleanses, detox diets, that I start to doubt myself and my progress.  Tuesday was a terrible day for me as I felt that I was doing this all wrong.  There are a few elimination diet recommendations floating about the internet that conflict with the plan my doctor gave me. Should I eat beans? Can I eat potatoes? Are strawberries truly verboten?  Are desserts from the gluten-free, dairy-free,nut-free, processed sugar-free a treat or a cheat?  Never before have I read every ingredient so carefully, nor have I wanted a bigger cup of coffee than I did on Tuesday!

The wee bit of crap food I ate made me feel emotionally bad about myself.  The sushi I ate actually made me feel physically sick. Unless I make it myself, I don't think I can eat any sushi out, brown rice or not.  I absolutely cannot have white rice.  Between the white rice and the sugar in the seasoning of the rice, I felt lousy.

Now that I"m rounding the corner of a full three weeks of the cleanest eating I've ever done, I do feel better.  I'm starting to feel that clarity that I recall from my Weight Watchers days.  I don't feel quite as tired and logy.  My co-worker tells me my skin looks fantastic - that I have a wonderful glow and a healthy ruddiness to my complexion.  I think any puffiness in my face is down from all the water I've been drinking.  I am down almost 6 pounds too!

Meal planning has been intense and wonderful.  I did the most efficient 3 hour cooking this past Sunday that I've ever done at home.  Quinoa and Red Rice; baked sweet and Russet potatoes; roasted cauliflower "steaks"; roasted Brussel sprouts; roast chicken with a roasted garlic sauce puree; salmon; turkey vegetable meatballs (the next day I made a flour and butter-free "gravy" for them!); steamed brocoli and stringbeans; sauteed mushrooms and onions; Cuban style vegan black beans.  It makes my mix and match meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner a breeze.

 I pre-pack my lunches for work, making all four or five meals at once.  It helps to have your containers at the ready.  Breakfasts are either a variation of quinoa poridge with fruit, almond milk and or coconut milk.  Sometimes I add in sunbutter and/or pure applebutter.  I toss in almonds or sunflower or pumpkin seeds.  It's hearty and filling.  I also make power smoothies with frozen fruit, spinach, almond or coconut milk, flax seeds. Sometimes I toss in sunbutter or avocado.

Next week as I start to do the add in, I'll see how I do with eggs, some dairy, a bit of wheat, again.  I can truly see that I may have bigger issues with dairy than anything else. I'll keep us all posted. I'll also post a few more recipes.  Chickpea smash and the most mind-blowing roasted garlic marinade sauce that I've ever eaten!