Reason 1 + Reason 2 + Reason 3 = Elimination Diet. I have committed and decided that I needed to try something different. I knew I couldn’t just go on being in continuous daily pain with no medication. I had to take matters into my own hands and find a way to be stronger than the disease. Like I said, my mom kept telling me about how Michael Symon on “The Chew” was doing this diet and he was seeing progress. Maybe there is truth behind all those articles my mom and dad kept sending me that I stubbornly just read and said to myself, “No way, I am not going to change the way I eat. That is ridiculous.”
PLANNING
If I was going to do the elimination diet, I wanted to know more and I wanted to make sure I did it to its fullest potential and benefits. I began to browse the internet and read more. I came across several different ways to implement the elimination diet. They were very similar for the most part, but I still had questions and still was not positive how to completely see the diet through. I then found the book, “The Elimination Diet: Discover the Foods That Are Making You Sick and Tired–and Feel Better Fast by Tom Malterre and Alissa Segersten. The book clearly defines and provides background information about the diet and why each food that is taken out can be problematic. The book also outlines how to properly execute the diet from start to finish including printable resources for each phase, meal plans, shopping lists, and over 125 recipes. The book also has a forum group on Facebook to answer any questions along with online resources. After finishing the book, I had a clear cut understanding and sat down to plan out the first week.
Scrap paper. Day 1 to Day 7 outlined and grocery list planned. The number one step the
book states to have in place to support you on your new elimination diet is to “create a food tribe.” My husband, Chris, said from the beginning if I decided to do a diet, he was all in with me. So together, one team, we went to Whole Foods to stock our kitchen with the ingredients we needed to be successful and kick off the diet.
PREPPING and PHASE 1
Our kitchen was now fully stocked with the needed items to prep for week 1. The first phase is called “Detox” and consists of the first two days of the diet. During this phase 
we are only able to eat fresh vegetable juices, smoothies and pureed soup made from homemade stock. “Detox” is explained as your digestive system taking a trip to the spa where you are ultimately clearing your gut and your intestinal system to a clean slate.
We picked out recipes so we can have fruit smoothies for breakfast and snacks and “Creamy Green Detox Soup” and “Creamy Broccoli Mushroom Soup” for lunch and dinner. The biggest part about the “Detox” phase is making homemade stock. We spent the day Sunday prepping the stock and pureeing the soups. We put everything in separate containers to help us with planning during the work week. When all was planned, prepped and ready to go we decided to order out with Chinese food as our last meal going into the diet. I have to admit I was excited to get started, excited to start blogging, excited to hopefully learn more. BUT,
I was also nervous that this diet might not work and I might still be in pain. We ate our Chinese food and when I opened my fortune cookie it said, “Patience is the key to joy.” The fortune could not have been more right. I need to make sure that I have patience through this process and remind myself of that through this journey and hopefully I do find some key to joy.
MONDAY, February 26, 2018: Day 1 of Elimination Diet, Detox. First smoothie made, heading off to work. CHEERS to the kick off. Let the adventure begin. #SlayRA #Cheers
Leave a Reply