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Elimination Diet

Day 1 - Round 2

Lunch and dinner!

•Chicken, quinoa, and roasted vegetables.

•Flounder, brown rice, quinoa, and green beans.

Had a bit of a headache today. Otherwise, it was a pretty good day. First day back at work after Christmas break. 🎄

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Elimination Diet

Prep for Round 2

Well, we’re doing it again! Tomorrow, my husband and I are starting back into our elimination diet.

No sugar.

No wheat.

No dairy.

No red meat.

No caffeine.

No alcohol.

No gluten.

No citrus.

No Nightshades. (This includes white potatoes)

No eggs.

No corn.

No soy.

No white rice.

We aren’t giving up almonds, as we don’t really do other nuts in our household. We are giving up peanuts, as they are a legume.

This week for lunch and dinner we have grilled chicken, some veg, and a starch.

Breakfast is an apple with some almond butter, and a snack/dessert at the end of the day is a banana and sunflower seeds.

Vegetable selection: sweet potato, green beans, cauliflower, calbaza squash, broccoli, yellow squash, radishes, carrots, zucchini, red onion, and yellow onion.

Starches: red quinoa, white quinoa, brown rice, wild rice, and black rice.

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I’ll keep y’all posted on how this week goes. It’s our first week back at work after winter break, and my college classes resume as well. Hopefully this portion of meal prepping will help with our busy week!!

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I’m not going to lie and say that this Christmas was easy or normal. Going to Christmas Eve mass was rough. I walked through the doors, and got to my pew and I knelt and prayed everything that was bottled up inside me. I started to tear up, but pushed it back down. “Tonight is not about me,” I told myself. I willed my focus to shift back to the readings of the night, and listening to the story of Jesus’ birth. Yet, every time I heard the words baby, birth, pregnant, mother, or infant I clenched my jaw a little bit tighter. I hadn’t realized until that night that I was angry, and I thought I was angry at God for allowing all of this to happen. I couldn’t bear to look over at my in-laws because all I felt was “You should be grandparents, aunts, and uncles already.” I know it’s not my job to provide them with a baby. I know my worth extends beyond my being a mother. Still, it stung; I felt a sort of loneliness I had been pushing down. I decided not to receive the Eucharist. I knew I needed to have a little conversation with God, and myself. In my prayers that night, I ended up simply crying myself to sleep.

Christmas morning came, and there were lots of smiles and gifts given. The food was great, and the company couldn’t have been better. Still, I was hit with comparisons of how this Christmas should have, or would have been different. I made it through the day and into the night and sat quietly on my bed and just let my tears flow. Tears of anger, and sorrow, and every emotion in between. I knew God loved me, so why did I have to feel this pain? No one could offer any words that would make me feel better, no one around me knew what I was going through. But after talking things over with my dear husband, I began to feel some of the weight lift. I had a little pillow talk with my Heavenly Father, and I was reminded that I have never been alone. I have had the best resource with me the entire journey, someone who knows what it feels like to lose a child.

•John 3:16•

As the year draws to a close, I will draw closer to the Father that lost His child. He knows the pain I feel, and He will carry me through it.

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•2019•

What has the rest of 2019 brought to my life? Well, My husband and I had the opportunity to chaperone a trip to Disney with some of his high school students. 

Guys, it was awesome!! My husband and I tried our best to stay on our diet, but we didn’t have a lot of options. Yes, I’m sure there are foods that would comply, but, when you’re on a schedule with a few dozen teenagers, you don’t have time for reservations and fancy eateries. We did the best we could, but by the time we got to Universal Studios, there was a Mardi Gras parade that stranded us on the other side of the park from the healthy food choices. They were literally shutting the place down and we were stuck on the opposite side from our students. Our meal tickets only worked at Universal Studios, and we were only there for the one day. so, we used our tickets and grabbed some grub on our scramble to reach our kiddos. I don’t even remember exactly what we ate... sandwiches? some fries? i don’t remember, but the park was closing, we were hungry, and we did what we had to do. We got to the hotel that night and got ready for sleep, and prepared for our next day, our last day at Disney. We were supposed to go to Magic Kingdom, but our digestive systems had other ideas.

Picture it: a hotel room, one bathroom, and internal problems that were quickly becoming external problems..... at 2am! Let’s just say the experience brought us closer as a married couple! When the evil had left our bodies we spent a little while recovering. We had already missed half a day in Magic Kingdom. We got there in time to walk around the kingdom once, and round up with the group in time for the fireworks display. It was absolutely fantastic! We were still all squeamish from all the intestinal action we had dealt with in the last day, but we rehydrated and enjoyed the time we had there. 

Needless to say, we had blown our diet. Our systems had been compromised and we would have to start all over again. Well, that wasn’t feasible at that time. I was working at a renaissance festival the next two months, in an Italian restaurant. I was given a meal or two during my work days, and I gotta tell you, nothing was on the menu that didn’t have gluten, dairy, or sugar.  As if that weren't enough, we were also in the process of looking for a house.  Well, we bought a house, a new house, that had just been built. We moved into the house, in another town, and I got a new job. LOTS of changes in our lives. 

We have also been trying to start our family. We’ve been reading all the books, taking supplements, trying to make our home and ourselves ready for a child. We had some brief hopes, and thought we might be pregnant, but those were chemical pregnancies. In October, my doctor confirmed we were expecting. It was very early, but it was very exciting! 

Our excitement was short-lived, and we lost the baby. It was heartbreaking. We are both grieving in our own ways. I have diverted my attention to working on myself, as a person, rather than as a mother.  I started school, online, for my Bachelors degree in the Science of Educational Studies. I plan to continue working for the school district, get my degree, and become alternatively certified to teach.

So, needless to say, this holiday season has been rough. My older sister and her husband are expecting their first child, a little girl, in March. I would have been one trimester behind my sister. It’s rough watching my sister go through what I have prayed would happen to me… what should have happened to me. 

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Sometimes the hardest part about having a chronic illness is having to be honest with the people you love about just how shitty you feel on a consistent basis.

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Damned if you do....

Chronic Illness Paradoxes

Stay sick, and you’re not trying hard enough.

Make any improvement, and you were faking all along.

Share your reality, and you’re negative and seeking attention.

Keep the struggle to yourself, and you obviously aren’t that sick.

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Elimination Diet

Round 1 - Day 46

Officially 20lbs down! (and my husband is down 25lbs!)

I’ve decided that the tomatoes do make me bloat slightly if eaten for dinner. Otherwise, I really haven’t noticed any other reactions to red meat, citrus, or tomatoes. I think we’re introducing white potatoes next.

We’re taking a few days to reacclimate to our diet. My husband was out of town for work and had to eat the best that he could. We’re going to use this work week to scooch back on track before introducing the next food.

Made up some lunches for the week. Got some ground chicken breast with bell peppers & red onion, roasted tomatoes, black beans, brown rice, and red rice.

Oh, and I’ve gotta say, I am a rockstar when it comes to temptations. For a party at work I made candy bar stuffed brownies to take to my coworkers. They were a major hit! I unwrapped over 125 little chocolate bars (to save time for when the batter was ready) and I didn’t eat a single one of them!! Below is the evidence. The brownies didn’t last the day, so I couldn’t get a pic of them.

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Elimination Diet

Round 1 - Day 44

This week I have been eating more small meals, or snacks from about noon-3pm. Fruit, dried seaweed, nuts, organic fruit pouches, or crudités. Then I usually eat a full meal at dinner time. I try to have my meal eaten before 8pm. Sometimes I will have a healthy snack before bed, the latest that ever is would be 9pm. I’ve kept up with drinking at least 90oz of water a day. This has been made easier once I ditched my morning herbal tea with almond/rice milk, which I usually made in my 32oz yeti cup and sipped on through out the late morning.

This week I tried 2 new drinks. I had the afterthought of perhaps combining them in the future. I’m definitely going to have to try it!!

I tried Dandelion root tea, with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and some coconut sugar. It tasted quite a bit like coffee, thought it smelled like coffee with a little dirt in it. 😂 It definitely hit the spot, as I had a craving for some coffee! Then, on a cold night, I made “hot chocolate” form carob powder, oatmilk, and date syrup. The date syrup gave it a soft sort of caramel flavor, and I really liked it. The oatmilk made it very thick, so I may try with almond milk next time.

Once again, I tried Bilinski’s Chicken sausage. Tonight’s flavor was Wild Mushroom and Italian Herb. Served with brown rice & quinoa, alongside yellow squash, zucchini, and red onion. Each sausage link was only 80 calories, compared to most husbands chicken sausage, which was 130cal per link. Both are casing free. Do you know how hard it is to find either chicken or turkey sausage that ISN’T in a pork casing??

Found this gem in the frozen section. They had other flavors, but they either didn’t sound good, or had ingredients I couldn’t have yet. This one is pretty good. VERY cinnamony, though, a little powdery onceit starts to melt in your mouth. Overall I enjoyed taking small bites that I shaved off the top, only eating maybe 1/5 or 1/6 of the container. It might be good with some chilled bananas and some pumpkin seeds!

I’ve started reintroducing tomatoes. We’re supposed to reintroduce Nightshades as one group, but tomatoes are just so acidic, I wanted them to have their own space on the calendar. I looked for a sugar free pasta sauce, which is really darn hard to find here! There were only 3 or 4 options at my grocery store. I bought 3, and couldn’t find the 4th one I saw advertised on their website. I’ll try to find in another time. I first used the Ragu Simply sauce. It was very inexpensive, but I had read some reviews of sugar free sauces saying, “you get what you pay for”, so I also bought 2 Classico Rivera sauces. They were almost $4 per jar, and the Ragu was less than $2 per jar. I went with the supposed ��lower quality’ sauce first and made a rotini dish. Ground turkey, seasoned with fresh Italian herbs (parsely, basil, oregano, and rosemary), red onion, and Barilla chickpea pasta. The sauce is a bit on the sweet side for my tastes, but it was very good. I could tell this is not a flavor I would have necessarilyenjoyed before cutting out sugars and things, but now I actually like it. I can’t wait to try the, possibly, even better sauces! I’m on day 3 of tomatoes, I’ve eaten them for 2 days already. So far, no reactions!! Maybe now I can start to make more things with tomatoes!! I still don’t think I’ll try eating them for dinner because I remember them making me bloat in the past. It’s only ever been noticeable at night time though, so I’ve only eaten them at lunch or at an early dinner time.

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🖤

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Elimination Diet

Round 1 - Day 38

I’m down 19lbs. My body feels better, I’m not as depressed, as often as I was, and the short-temperedness has become less frequent.

I made Chicken with coconut amino teriyaki sauce, with broccoli and cauliflower, yellow onion, and brown rice and quinoa. It was fairly tasty, though much better after it was in the fridge for a day. Topped the leftovers with some fresh sauce and it was much better.

A usual variation on our meals. Baked and roasted veggies, chicken breast, and brown rice, and red rice, with chia seeds and kale.

I’m becoming a little overwhelmed at the different possibilities for what illness I may have. It could be anything, and all I can do is read up on stuff and educate myself as best I can.

I’ve started two new supplements this past week, Boron & Spirulina. We will have to wait and see if they help with anything. The spirulina is mainly for dietary support, and the boron is for a laundry list of other things. My next addition will be CBD oil. I’m looking into where to purchase, and who uses the purest ingredients, etc., before I buy any. I also want to run it by my doctor first.

Anyway, the last few days it’s just been hard to drink water. I’m going to keep trying though, because I really feel like crap when I’m not well hydrated.

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Elimination Diet

Round 1 - Day 35

Guys, I’ve had the flu. I haven’t been eating a lot, and I haven’t been photographing any of it.

We have successfully added Beef and citrus back in! Well, at least I have. My husband doesn’t seem to tolerate a lot of citrus. He appears to be able to eat it along with other foods, as an ingredient - but not just sitting and chowing down on an orange.

So we aren’t going to be trying to force anymore citrus into our diet right now, or red meat for that matter. We’re trying to watch cholesterol for both of us, so we will probably only be eating beef again when my next period hits. We are actually both okay with that. This diet has been full of delicious and healthy foods. Super Bowl Sunday was sizing up to be a pretty big temptation. Party at my brothers-in-law’s place, grilling meats, drinking beers, chips & dip..... what could be tempting there? To combat this buffet of no-no foods, we brought our own provisions. Some 100% juice, grapes, apple slices with almond butter, homemade hummus and veggie tray, some chickpea crackers, mandarin orange sections, and for grilling: casing-free chicken sausage, and a handmade beef patty (that I made, and put in tupperware, in a cooler, for transport on a 2 hour drive to the party!), and a few chunks of our homemade date rolls for dessert. I KNOW we had too much sugar that night, but none of it was unhealthy. It gave us just enough edible ammunition to make it through the party without feeling tempted or deprived.

We’ve been eating leftovers over here. Mixing our meats, carbs, and veggies around where we can. The next week and a half are going to be BUSY! I’ll update when we introduce more foods. It’s looking like Sunday we will start introducing more Nightshades. We’ve eaten bell pepper without issue. We will try tomatoes on their own because they might have caused us stomach aches in the past. We want to have a clear answer if all nightshades are a problem, or if it’s just tomatoes.

I have my next appointment with my PCP in 2 weeks. Y’all, lab work is expensive! It cost like $500+ this last time! I actually think that was only the Lyme test though. I’m going to be asking about diabetes this next time. As of now, other than the flu, I think I’m physically feeling better. Mentally and emotionally I’m still a bit fragile, though I still think that is from the birth control. I’ll be talking to my doctor about it, for sure. I don’t want to stay this way if I don’t have to! Hopefully my emotions will start to stabilize soon, then I can get back to being me again!

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Elimination Diet

Round 1 - Day 30

Well, today concludes our 3rd day of reintroducing Beef. So, we were supposed introduce citrus first. I decided to skip it, and do it after beef. Maybe this is TMI, but I had one of the worst periods I ever have ever had. EVER. I’ve never not had some sort of bready carbs, red meat, or caffeine, when on my period. So, smack dab in the middle of my period happen to coincide with our first reintroduction day. Well that means it was Beef Day. Omigosh, y’all, that steak was delicious! 🥩

Baked green beans, medium rare sirloin, chickpea pasta tossed in avocado oil, and baked sweet potato fries.

I ate leftovers of the same meal for lunch the next day at work.

Grilled hamburger steaks, smothered with mushrooms sautéed in ghee, with baked green beans, and zucchini & onions smoked on the grill.

Some little steaks we made on the George Foreman grill, steamed veggies, and brown rice, wild rice, and black rice.

We made some homemade date rolls. I made half the batch with some figs. Gotta say, they’re divine! Wrapped them up in cellophane and let them chill in the fridge overnight.

And this is Meatloaf (no eggs), with onion & red bell pepper, baked asparagus and green beans, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and black rice, brown rice, and wild rice.

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So, now that we’re at the end of Day 3 of beef, I really don’t think I’ve had any adverse reactions. My husband felt a little irritable, but thinks it could also have just been his 8th grade girls having a little attitude in the classroom.

I don’t think I’ve been any more irritable than usual. I’m still detoxing from being on birth control for the last 3 1/2 years. I know there’s gonna be some pretty bad irritability, mood swings, and horrible periods and PMS.

As the 3 days progressed I continued to feel better. Coming off my period and eating more beef, I expected to maybe feel something, but it just got better. I’ve had some stomach cramps throughout the whole diet process, but I think that’s from chicken. I’ve had discomfort with chicken occasionally throughout the years. It might be due to not being thoroughly cooking the chicken, but I’m not sure. Beef seems to be alright, so when I can eat just like, fish and beef, I’m going to quit chicken for a few weeks and then reintroduce it again. But, we’ll see. We will reintroduce citrus tomorrow, and pork on Wednesday, if we don’t have any reactions to the citrus.

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Blogging, schmogging...

Yeah, yeah, I know; I’m bad at keeping up with my blog.

Lemme just say that the last week has not been great. It’s been busy, it’s been tiring, and it’s been very emotional. In the last week, maybe a few days more, I have had a headache every day for at least a couple of hours, though sometimes longer. About every other day I cry, for practically no reason, and I get in a pretty dark head space. Now, that being said, I started spotting today, so my period should be in full swing by tomorrow. All these symptoms could be centered around my cycle. I’m continuing to write this stuff down and make sure I have notes to discuss with my doctor at my next appointment.

Anywhoo, it’s diet day number.... whatever...

Here’s some food I’ve been eating:

Here’s some chickpeas baked with cinnamon, coconut sugar & coconut oil, with some oat milk. This was such a nice cereal sort of treat. Cereal for dinner is one of my favorite things!

Baked yellow onion, orange & green bell pepper, brown rice with ghee, and black beans. This was like tortilla-less fajitas. So tasty!

This is what my fridge looked like to start the week. 5 lunches, and 5 dinners for both myself and my husband.

There’s roasted veggies, baked chicken, wild rice, black rice, cauliflower steaks, chicken sausage, grilled tuna, baked salmon, and even some chicken & rice soup.

Backed chicken, roasted Brussels sprouts, and steamed veggies.

Baked veggies, brown rice & quinoa, and chicken sausage.

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My back and feet hurt so badly after standing in the kitchen for like 5 hours chopping and cooking things. Oh well, now I don’t have to cook again this week.

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Elimination Diet

Round 1 - Day 19

Lunch was leftover cabbage, onion, mushrooms, and chicken sausage.

Dinner tonight, Ahi Tuna, baked vegetables, with rice & quinoa.

For dessert/“midnight” snack, sliced bananas, with almond butter, with a drop of agave nectar, topped with sunflower seeds, and sprinkled with cinnamon.

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Well, the last few days have been busy and stressful. I have been snapping at my husband, but I haven’t been short tempered at work. Last night, I had a minor breakdown. Depression hit, and it hit hard! I was my own worst enemy, siting on the edge of my bed, in the dark, crying my eyes out. I have been writing down any symptoms I experience and notable issues like this one. According to my cycle tracker, I’m not due to start my period for another week, but it could always be a day or two early. Maybe it’s just hormones. Maybe it was because of the stupid eclipse, I don’t know.

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Elimination Diet

Round 1 - Day 17

Today’s lunch was boiled cabbage & onion, mushrooms sautéed in ghee, and chicken sausage that’s casing free. You try to find a chicken or turkey sausage that isn’t in a pork casing! There are basically 2. I got these and a plain on that is the H-E-B organics brand.

Dinner is going to be some leftover veggies and chicken, with a rice & quinoa blend.

I bought these things today, and omigosh they’re amazing. My husband had never had dates until I got some larabars the other day. He was game to try these! (I guess I should mention that the only nuts we eliminated were really just peanuts 🥜 [i know, they’re legumes] because my husband is allergic to a few nuts and we would t be reintroducing them to our diet, so the few we already ate were just gonna stay.)