quarantine

Elimination diet take 2

/ Brienna / Leave a comment

Last year, my doctor recommended an elimination and challenge diet. The idea is to elimination a bunch of stuff for 3-4 weeks, and see if you feel better. If you do, then you “challenge” one item at a time to see if your symptoms come back. This is mostly for digestive issues.

The first time around, I figured, let’s do the whole list, that way I don’t have to do it again if I do only the top 5.

This is the list:

  • gluten
  • corn or corn products
  • eggs
  • soy
  • dairy
  • alcohol
  • caffeine
  • refined fats and oils
  • sugar, HFCS, artificial sweeteners
  • nightshades
    • tomatoes
    • potatoes
    • peppers
    • eggplant
    • cayenne
    • paprika

Let me tell you, that was a hard 3 weeks. But I felt a lot better! Then, as I added things back, well, once you add certain things, that opens up a lot of options for eating out. And I went from eating a very healthy diet of veggies and lentils, rice, beans, to eating nachos, pizza, etc.

The conclusion? I felt yucky again, but didn’t know for sure what it was, except maybe the overall quality of what I was eating post elimination. I felt sure it was gluten or dairy, and thought about a repeat for just those two.

However, my doctor feels strongly that there’s often more than one cause, and that at a minimum, the top 5 should be eliminated and challenged.

So, I was going to do it earlier this year, but got sidetracked, then it was vacation time. Not wanting to be on a restrictive diet during my vacation, I thought I’d do it when I got back. Then came the quarantine, and I thought “no, no no, I don’t want to do that NOW.”

I’ve been putting it off for too long. So starting this week (yesterday actually), no gluten, corn, eggs (which I already don’t eat), soy, or dairy. I’m stocked up on lots of fresh veggies, lentils, beans, quinoa, corn AND gluten free taco shells….

The problem? It’s 100 degrees. No way am I going to be roasting veggies or cooking stir fry. I’ve been living on carrots and smoothies. The smoothies are great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m sooooo craving some chips or cheese and crackers. Thankfully, I ate most of the off limits foods before starting so there wouldn’t be temptations in the house.

2 days down, 19 to go. Wish me luck!

Tonight’s dinner – mango banana protein smoothie bowl topped with coconut

Friday 5 – “Grace”

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

The questions this week require more thinking than previous weeks! Usually, I just write in the first thing that comes to mind for these, however, nothing is popping into my head…

  1. When most recently did someone show you unexpected courtesy? My next-door neighbor fixed our fence when a section fell over. He came by and left a note too, he didn’t want me to come home and find him unexpectedly in my yard with the fence down. The next neighbor over frequently returns my trash and recycling bins from the curb to up next to my fence.
  2. What were you most recently forgiven for? I don’t know and this is going to drive me nuts. Maybe Indy forgives me for his terrible, terrible haircut?
  3. What did someone most recently buy for you? Robin got me a life-size Dwayne Johnson for my birthday, so I wouldn’t be home alone. I also got a very cute box of succulents from Flora.
  4. What did someone most recently make for you? Hmm, my mom and her husband made me dinner back in March. Flora’s friend made the succulent box.
  5. Who could you probably be a bit nicer to? Myself.

Brought to you by Friday 5.

Acid reflux – it sux

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

Last year, I went to the ER at 4am. I’d been having chest pain for about 10 hours, cold sweats, nausea, couldn’t sleep.

After 4 hours at the ER, they said I wasn’t dying. No signs of a heart attack or any lung issue like pneumonia. Go see your primary care doctor, byeeeeee!

After seeing a primary care doctor, I ended up with a prescription for pantoprazole. I took it for about a week. I stopped because a) the chest pain went away and b) I thought I was having liver pain and I’ve had a bad reaction to Rx drugs like that before. I was traveling out of the country at the time, so not much else I could do.

This was all in October. I’ve been very very happy the chest pain didn’t return. I thought maybe it was anxiety related and it was gone for good.

Until this week.

And tonight, acid reflux soooo bad. I can’t stop coughing, I want to puke. Ugh.

I’m out of tums, I already took Pepcid AC today, pepto, and the Prilosec I got today says to take every 24 hours in the morning before eating.

It’s ruining Ed Norton movie week!

In all seriousness, I’m not dying. I know there are people all over the world who are worse off. Licorice tea with honey seems to be helping.

I’ll have a better post this weekend about Know Your Name.

I’ll leave you with this –

Roxy’s very first 100% home haircut by Mommy