I Really Should Eat More

So I woke up with a nasty migraine today. Took 2 doses of DHE to get rid of it. So, I just wasn't very hungry today. In total, I ate 2 of the Metagenics shakes and that was it. I really should eat more in a day. On the other hand, I've been trying to only eat when I'm hungry, so, oh well.

Not Even Grapes

Today was going well, except for the lack of interesting food. I'd figured out that I could have a somewhat bland stuffed grape leaves and my husband had offered to make them for me. The Metagenics UltraMeal rice mixed with coffee is really good! I found some Texas long grain brown rice at Big Lots too.

However, when I sat down for a late lunch, I had a classic pollen cross-reaction to the grape juice with blisters on the inside of my mouth. Some research shows that while grape's aren't on my allergist's list but are on a number of Canadian and British allergist's lists. But this means I'm down to rice, oats, olive oil, salt, sugar and seaweed. Oh, and coffee. At least I get coffee!

Dinner Day 1

So for dinner and evening snack tonight, I had a Metagenics Ultrameal rice shake, another serving of oatmeal and raisins with more oats and water instead of some of the grape juice so it wasn't as sweet, about 15 black seedless grapes and a rice cake. I clearly haven't eaten enough today, but I'm not hungry either.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good the Metagenics shake was. It's the best protein etc powder I've ever had.

Rejuvinating Blog for New Allergy Elimination Diet

I recently discovered that there seems to be a link between my migraines and pollen cross-sensitivity foods, so I am going on an elimination diet again cutting out these foods and bringing this blog back from the dead.

You can find more information about pollen cross-sensitivity here - Fall Oral Allergy Syndrome. The article is specific to ragweed related foods but is a good introduction to the topic. I am concerned with ragweed, tree pollen and grass related foods as I tested positive for allergies to them as a child and all of my uncommon migraine trigger foods are known to have pollen cross-reactions to one of those.

Eating:
I wasn't very hungry this morning (probably because I was feeling migrainey) and so just ate a rice cake (70cals).

I'm currently having a late lunch of 2/3 cup oatmeal, ~1/2 cup grape juice, 1/4 cup raisins (370 cals).

And I've been drinking black coffee.(Thank goodness I can have coffee, since I can't have chicory or most teas.) Need to drink some water!

Week 4 1/2 Summary

Having followed the allergy elimination diet faithfully for 4 weeks with absolutely no change in how I felt (except for no longer being oversensitive to the smell of dill), I called my doctor to ask what to do. She said that we can probably rule out allergies as the cause of my symptoms (which is what I pretty much expected from the beginning) and that I can skip the formal testing stage, but that I should only add one food back to my diet a day to make sure that I don't have any adverse reactions and that we have a chance to find any food allergies I might have.

So far, I've added back garlic, onion, butter, sugar, and wheat (I'm focusing on the foods that are often in seasonings and sauces because that's what I've missed the most.) I did notice that when I went to the produce market after adding back the first four that I was again oversensitive to the smell of dill. I can live with that, particularly since that's been a stable symptom ever since I was in third or fourth grade. Other than that, I've had no reactions. A few more foods and I should be able to start cautiously eating out again.

I'm still debating whether or not to add coffee back into my diet. I love the flavor of coffee and the ritual of having a cup, but I hate when I get addicted to it and can't function without it (or get a headache if I don't have it.) And personally, I don't think it's worth drinking decaf. Even the quality decaf coffees don't taste as good to me, I'd rather go without.

Week 3 Summary

So, it's been 3 weeks and I don't feel any different. Some of that may be that I seem to have a cold or something coming on, but none the less, I can't start testing foods yet. I have reset that counter to add another week, as the instruction sheet I have from my doctor says if you don't feel better to wait until 4 weeks and then call them.

I gained two pounds this week. I was a little worried that would happen because last week's loss seemed too good to be true! I did however drop 1% in body fat - it hadn't changed previously. (This is per my Tanita Scale.)

I'm still struggling with not having coffee - it's my biggest craving. I actually poured myself a cup the other day just so I could hold it and sniff it. It's really not as much the effect of the coffee, as the enjoyment of the taste and smell. Then again, I might not miss it if I could have a greater selection of tasty foods. It is really hard for me to have to avoid onion, garlic, citrus, sugar, soy and sesame - it seems like most flavorful foods have at least one of those ingredients! Even my sweetie, the chef, has trouble coming up with interesting ideas. (Of course, it doesn't help that I'm a vegetarian - after all, you can always flavor things with bacon grease...)

Pancake Variations

After my success with pancakes, I've been experimenting with variations, with quite a bit of success. First I made pancakes using brown rice flour and stirring in pre-cooked shredded cabbage and carrots. They were so good that my sweetie ate a bunch of them too. It was a little difficult to cook them so they weren't overdone but also weren't mushy around the veggies. Then today I made rice pancakes by stirring a cup of rice into the pancake batter. I also experimented with apple pancakes. Usually when I make apple pancakes, I just mix grated apple into the batter. I tried that with a small quantity of batter and found that it was a little too mushy. So I tried cutting thin slices of apple and putting them on the griddle then pouring the batter over it. This worked great - they looked fabulous (as you can see) and tasted even better!

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