Elimination Diet - Day 4

Just a quick update. I haven't gotten a lot of sleep this week, thanks to the little guy teething and general crankiness, so there hasn't been much spare time for blogging.

Anyhow, can I just pat myself on the back for a sec? I am kicking this elimination diet's ass! My only tiny little cheat was a spoonful of sugar in my coffee one day... and DH went out the next evening and brought home a box of Stevia for me so I could avoid it in the future. He's the best!

So, seriously, I'm now 3 days wheat, dairy, egg, and almost sugar free. And I feel pretty good. Cravings are practically nil. I'm not going to say I wasn't tempted by the leftover Valentine's truffles that showed up at work, but I persevered. One of the most annoying things (and I'm not even going to say it's hard) is that tomatoes are on the no-no list. I would never have thought I'd be bummed about no tomatoes over anything else. We are eating some really delicious things though. Here's yesterday's rundown:
7am: mashed banana with ground flaxseed
10am: homemade granola bar
1pm: 1/2 cup basmati rice with peas, carrots, and green beans. A few rice crackers with hummus.
4pm: apple
6:30pm: Quinoa and Lentil Salad. This was some seriously good eats. I'm glad I doubled the recipe!

What's even more amazing? The scale is inching down, and my calories have been up in the 1600 range! I guess it just goes to show that quality of food really does matter.

I can't resist...

(A) Age: 34

(B) Bed Size: Queen. We've only had it for two years. Before this we squeezed ourselves into a full-size. Misery!

(C) Chore You Hate: pretty much everything.

(D) Dogs? none. I have three cats.

(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: A good stretch before I roll out of bed. And about 5 minutes of Facebook. I know, it's dumb.

(F) Favorite Color: Green

(G) Gold or Silver? Silver

(H) Height: 5'4". I lost a half inch since I've lost weight! WTF?

(I) Instruments You Play: I used to play piano.

(J) Job Title: cardiovascular and electroneurodiagnostic technologist. I hate when I have to put that on forms.

(K) Kids: Two. Tater Tot is 2 1/2. Little guy is 14 months.

(L) Live: for warms sunny days.

(M) Mom's Name: Angie

(N) Nicknames: Mimi, Mia, ReeRee, Mo

(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? only if completely necessary. You can't get any rest in those places.

(P) Pet Peeve: people who act superior and treat others poorly

(Q) Quote from a Movie: "It can't be done. No one's ever taken anyone out of here. Not in the whole history of... the whole history!" (can anyone tell me what movie that is from? Steph, that one is for you!)

(R) Right or Left Handed? Right

(S) Siblings: Sister, 31

(T) Time You Wake Up? 5:15 am

(U) Underwear: hipsters mostly

(V) Vegetable You Dislike: okra. I mostly like my veggies.

(W) What Makes You Run Late: farting around with my makeup and hair

(X) X-Rays You've Had Done: lots of my kidneys

(Y) Yummy Food You Make: Better Than Sex Cake. Yum!

(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Giraffes

Elimination Diet - Day 1

Today went pretty well, I'm happy to say. Here's what I ended up eating:

7am - homemade granola bar
10am - homemeade granola bar
12pm - 1 cup kale slaw, 1 rice cake with cashew butter
4pm - 8 sesame rice crackers with hummus
6pm - 3oz lamburger, 4 asparagus spears, 1/2 cup basmati rice
8pm - nondairy mochi ice cream treat

Water: 60oz

What I learned today:

• This doesn't have to be all crazy new and different foods. I can still have an apple or a banana and be on plan.
• New foods are fun though. The lamburgers rocked. We even replaced the breadcrumbs with crumbled rice cake.
• My band doesn't like rice cakes with cashew butter. I felt on the verge of being stuck for a good hour after lunch.
• Trader Joe's non-dairy mochi ice cream is delicious! The "ice cream" is coconut-milk based and was perfectly yummy. 
• Trader Joe's Roasted Seaweed Snack... not so yummy. Barf-inducing, in fact. Even my coworker, who eats stuff like this all the time, said they were disgusting.
• I love kale, but I prefer it cooked. Probably will not be repeating the kale slaw. If we do, there will be more dressing involved.

I know it's only Day 1, but I didn't get any gas or bloating today. Good times!

Here goes nothin'!

Well, folks, tomorrow is day 1 of the elimination diet. DH and I have planned meals for the week, including snacks. DH did a big shop at Whole Foods, and I made a smaller trip to Trader Joe's. Honestly, it does not look like it's going to feel too hard. I mean, it's lots of new and different foods, but lots of the same of fruits and veggies too. Here's my plan for tomorrow:

Breakfast: special granola bar DH made for me with arrowroot, apricots, apples, walnuts, and flax. I haven't tried them yet, but he said they came out pretty good.
Lunch: Jalapeno-Lime Kale Slaw. I tasted it today... yum! Also, rice cakes with cashew butter.
Snacks: pear, roasted seaweed snacks from TJ's.
Dinner: lamburgers. Yes, you read it right: Lamburgers. Also basmati rice and asparagus.

Sounds pretty good, right? If my sweet tooth starts gnawing at me, I also found non-dairy mochi ice cream (coconut milk based) at TJ's. I doubt I'll actually be able to eat all that, anyway, but I figure I'd plan on being a little hungry.

Some other things... I got some bloodwork done last week. Forgive me if I've mentioned this already, but I'm too lazy to go reread my last few posts. Anywhoo, my cholesterol is improved from last year: from 212 down to 184. Yay! My B12 is fine, thyroid still pending, and my Vitamin D? Completely in the shitter! Turns out this may be the reason my hips and my wrists have been aching like mo-fo's for the past month or so. A normal Vit D value should be above 50; mine is 8. So, I'm on 50,000 IU once a week for now and rechecking in three months.

For the past few days, I've also been consuming 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed. This is supposed to help with the constipation. So far, so good, if ya know what I mean.

I can't go out on a poo comment, so here's a little something else. This morning, I had to drive my mom and grandma to the airport... they are off to sunnier shores for six weeks. Lucky. Anywhooziwhatsit, I got stuck on a dried apple ring right before I left. Of course. So, I grabbed a big plastic cup for the cabinet, just in case I had to slime or barf on the road. I went to extreme lengths not to let DH see it, because A) he would've been grossed out beyond belief and B) he would never allow that cup back in the house, even if I didn't use it. And just in case you thought you were in for a car-barfing story a'la Joey, you can forget it... cuz I got unstuck. Thank you Jesus.

And good night.

Planning

This elimination diet stuff? Not for the faint of heart. I have to admit I'm stressing out about it a little, which is silly because I know if I can stick to it, I'm going to feel a lot better overall. I am hardcore planning so I can do a good shopping trip this Sunday. DH and I are planning on cooking a few things ahead of time and freezing, or at least doing some prep work. I'm also going to stock up on snack items, just in case. My hunger has been quite controlled lately, so I don't think this will be too big of a deal, but you never know when the munchies are going to hit!

I came up with a few breakfast ideas and lunch ideas, as these will be my biggest change (I am a granola bar -aholic). Breakfast first:

• Rice cereal with sliced pears and chopped cashews or almonds
• Smoothie made with almond milk and banana
• Puffed rice or millet cereal with rice milk
•  bars made from millet flour, ground nuts, diced dried fruit, and egg replacer

 And lunch:

•  Lentil soup, celery sticks, rice crackers
• Beans and quinoa with avocado
• Cabbage Salad, rice cakes with cashew butter
• Sesame crackers with hummus, fruit
•  Mochi with nut butter

What do you think?