Elimination Diet: Day 1

I’ve officially started the elimination diet to try to cure my acid reflux with clean eating!  I’m giving up dairy, gluten, eggs, citrus fruits, nightshade vegetables (like tomato and eggplant), and chocolate.  It’s going to be a challenge, but I hope it will reduce my symptoms.  

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I won’t be blogging this daily.  Let’s be real.  But I will update you from time to time with my progress and a few recipes.

The diet kicked off yesterday with an arduous meal plan, a trip to the grocery store, and finding a food journal to record my daily ups and downs.  I am using this food journal to track everything.  I say the meal plan was arduous because I kept wanting to make my normal routine work with this new routine, or at least make a seamless transition.  Trust me, there is no seamless way to go from eating Dominos to eating only vegetables and brown rice…eventually you just have to eat the damn vegetables.  That was a giant mental hurdle.

After several hours of whining, I finally came up with 6 days of meals to get me started on the right track.

Day 1:

• Breakfast–Fruit and veggie smoothie
• Lunch–Potato soup
• Dinner–Chicken and veggie stir fry (substitute soy sauce for things like chili paste and rice wine vinegar)

Day 2:

• Breakfast–Hot rice cereal with apple, coconut, and peanut butter
• Lunch–Leftover stir fry
• Dinner–Quinoa with potato, onion, toasted walnuts, and asparagus (recipe here)

Day 3:

• Breakfast–Fruit and veggie smoothie
• Lunch–Leftover quinoa
• Dinner–Pesto (without the parmesan) spaghetti squash with sautéed shrimp

Day 4:

• Breakfast–Fruit and veggie smoothie
• Lunch–Spinach salad with berries, walnuts, red onion, and balsamic glaze
• Dinner–Braised pork, sweet potato fries, and steamed veggies

Day 5:

• Breakfast–Hot rice cereal with pear, maple syrup, and cinnamon
• Lunch–Corn taco with black beans, sweet potato, onion, and cilantro (modified recipe here)
• Dinner–Thai lettuce wrap with chicken, carrot, red onion, peanut, and cilantro

Day 6:

• Breakfast–Potato hash with bacon and veggies
• Lunch–Leftover Thai lettuce wrap
• Dinner–Roasted chicken, sautéed green beans, and acorn squash

Dessert/Snack options:

• Banana/Apple with peanut butter and coconut flakes
• Kalamata olive hummus and veggies
• Popcorn
• Nuts
• Corn chex
• Applesauce

Can you tell I really struggled with the snack and dessert options?  Anybody have ideas?

I will try to stick to this as strictly as possible, but I have a feeling I will resort to easy stir fry on long workdays.  I’m not a cyborg, after all.

So there it is!  It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.  I’m not a nutrition expert, so if you see anything glaringly obvious that will be detrimental to my success, please let me know in the comments section.  Again, I’m doing this for the first time, so there is a large learning curve.

I can’t wait to hear from anyone else who has tried this or who wants to try it!

-Mads

 

Elimination Diet Experiment

Hey folks,This post comes with some hesitation from me because I don’t feel super comfortable sharing my health issues with the world, but I am posting it anyway in case others have useful info or if it helps someone else.  So here goes…I’ve been struggling for about a year with acid reflux issues.  It started with a stressful semester in grad school and I would often feel nauseous, wake up with a sore throat, and burning in my chest.

I immediately took action by significantly reducing my alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, and tomato intake, which was NOT easy.  I also stopped eating huge meals when possible, but the pain continued.

I’ve been to the doctor and a GI specialist numerous times.  I’ve done tests and taken meds, but the pain continues and has only escalated.  The doctors don’t seem to know why I have this because I’m not overweight and the dietary changes and stress reduction didn’t help much.

Recently, I had the bright idea to try home remedies (e.g., apple cider vinegar at mealtimes), but they only led to worsening symptoms.  My doctor recommended stronger meds, which also led to increased pain.

So here I am–medication-free, but not symptom-free, and I’m looking for a cure.  All of this led me to try an elimination diet (a drastic measure, to be sure) to help identify foods that might be the cause of my pain AND to give myself a month of clean eating so my stomach can get it’s act together.  After a few weeks of this diet, I will slowly start adding foods back into my routine.

I’ve been reading up on different elimination diets and talking to friends who have tried them, and here is what I plan on doing for the next month:

-Eliminate gluten, dairy, eggs, citrus fruits, and nightshade veggies (e.g., tomatoes, eggplant)

-Continue eliminating alcohol, caffeine, and chocolate.

Good for you foods:

-almost all fruits (except citrus like oranges)

-almost all vegetables, leafy greens

-rice, quinoa, other gluten-free grains

-chicken, turkey, beef, and other meats

-spices

-coconut oil, olive oil, and other healthy fats

Sounds terrifying, right?  I have no doubt it will be a challenge, but I’m really hoping for positive results.  I have a food journal to track what I eat and how I’m feeling, and I will also blog my weekly menu and a few recipes.

Have you ever dealt with health issues that forced you to change your diet?  What words of wisdom can you pass onto me?

Thanks for reading this exceptionally long post!

-Mads