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...)

Week 2 Summary

The best thing about week 2 is that I lost 4 pounds.  (Keep in mind that I didn't lose weight in the first week.)  I figure that if I'm mostly eating fruits and veggies and whole grains and not eating sugar or wheat, I should be losing weight, so it was really frustrating that I hadn't.  That said, I don't feel any better.  Although, I have to admit that I am eating better than I really do - it would be hard to eat badly on this diet.  Maybe I'm impatient, but I'm supposed to be feeling better in the two to three week range (if I have food allergies.)

I discovered that Trader Joe's is a wonderful place to shop if you are on this diet.  For instance, they sell non-organic unsulfered raisins, for less than half the price of organic (which is normally the only way to be sure you are getting unsulfered raisins - one of the requirements of this diet.)  They also sell whole grain rice pasta for half the price of everywhere else in town and they actually sell muffins that are on this diet!  Unfortunately, the muffins, Zen Bakery Blueberry Raspberry Oat Bran Muffins, are really not that good - they are very dry.  I was actually surprised because I've had other Zen Bakery products and really liked them.  Then again, I might like them better if I could have them with a cup of coffee! I haven't tried it yet, but Trader Joe's also has inexpensive rice milk.

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One Week Round Up

So, it's been a week. Other than being able to stand being in the same room with dill weed, I have seen no benefits from this diet. I haven't even lost any weight - I figure that if I'm not eating cookies, pastries, cakes, bread, or anything with flour or sugar, I should at least be losing weight. It's also been a week since I've had any coffee. I haven't had any withdrawal symptoms, but I have noticed that coffee smells better and better every day.

I've started to get into an eating routine of sorts. Most days for breakfast I make myself a bowl of homemade muslei - rolled oats and barley, ground flax, various nuts, sometimes raisins and chopped fresh fruit with apple juice. For lunch, I usually have some mix of fruit or vegetables and possibly some nuts or dinner leftovers. For dinner, I make some combination of rice (or rice noodles) and beans with veggies. I'm often hungry in the evening and sometimes will make another bowl of muslei. For quick snacks I usually have peanut butter and celery or rice cakes, sometimes I'll have fruit or a handful of nuts.

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Cravings

Every time I see the current Visa (or is it Mastercard) commercial with people buying coffee and donuts, my sugar and coffee cravings hit with a vengeance. I'm exceptionally worn out after the events of last week and that (probably non-existent, definitely illusionary) caffeine and sugar rush is so tempting!

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Survived Day One

I survived the first day on the elimination diet.  The hardest part was that I came back from my mom's house at the beach (end of the wedding festivities) and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of easily portable food on my diet.  For instance, I can't have bananas or oranges - which are almost ideal road food - cherries and watermelon are just a bit difficult to eat while driving or on a quick break!  I understand that there may be some bread that is on my diet, but I haven't found any of them so far, so no sandwiches. Food takes on a whole new meaning when you are hungry and surrounded by food that you can't eat. I'm definately going to have to find more foods that I can carry around with me in case I get hungry or am out longer than I expected.

So yesterday I had oatmeal with rice mik for breakfast (BTW the rice milk - at least the Rice Dream that Ralph, my mom's husband, drinks is really sweet - too sweet), a wedge of cantaloupe and a mug of chickory. For lunch I had pumpkin seeds (on the road.) Then Pico and I ate a ton of watermelon. This is actually normal for me, when Hermiston watermelons come into season, I usually buy one and eat a bunch of watermelon for a few days, since I'm usually the only watermelon eater - except for Pico, who would probably eat a whole watermelon if she could but I don't think that dogs should be doing that. Then I had some apricots and pistachios before bedtime. 

In addition to struggling with a lack of readily portable food, the other difficult thing was the lack of coffee and sugar.  I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep, since I was sleeping on the couch at my mom's house (i.e. one of the last to bed and the first up.)  I just automatically crave sugar and caffeine when I'm tired, but I couldn't have it.  Happily, my attempts to keep to one cup of coffee a day (sometimes two) for the past few weeks seem to have kept me from having trouble with actual caffeine withdrawal.

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Coffee and Water

I'm a proud coffee addict. I've actually recently gone way down on coffee (and sugar) intake - my doctor discovered that my cortisol levels are very low and started supplementing it and giving me general adrenal support supplements. (Note: this is why I have to go on the elimination diet - some of the symptoms of low adrenal function are similar to low level allergy reactions and testing adrenal function is slow and expensive, so it's easier to monitor my condition if we make sure that there aren't any allergy symptoms muddying the waters.) I'm now down to one to two cups a day (from something like 12.) However, I really like the taste of coffee, so it would be very easy to drink more. At any rate, my forthcoming prescribed diet calls for no coffee or tea and only herb tea without citrus (which rules out my favorite herb teas too.) Giving up that last cup or two is going to be hard though. I am allowed to have some of the coffee substitutes (Cafix, Inka and Roma), but while I don't mind hot grain beverages, they just aren't satisfying in the same way. I'm planning to drink chickory, which my local grocery sells in a slurry that you just add to hot water, because even though it's not the same as coffee, the bitterness and strong flavor satisfy some of the same desires.

The diet also calls for using only spring or distilled water for all drinking and cooking. I mostly drink filtered water anyway and probably should only drink filtered water since I'm allergic or sensitive to several metals (gold, nickel, rhodium, and mercury) and know that I can have problems from water exposed to metals I'm allergic to. For instance, if I regularly drink coffee made using a gold filter, I become super sensitive and any skin contact with any of those metals results in contact dermatitis immediately (usually it takes a day or so of continual contact.) I'm a little suspicious about the effectiveness of my drinking distilled water to avoid allergy issues because I've been to the local water distillation plant and pretty much everything is stainless steel (nickel mixed with steel.) More importantly, it tastes horrible! However, I just found out that delivery of my favorite water, Earth2O, is relatively inexpensive (i.e. less than I normally spend on water and coffee out of the house in a normal month.) The only downside is that I have to sign up for a full year. So I'm going to try that and I'll have to get used to filling and carrying my own water. I'm not sure that is enough for cooking too, but maybe I'll try distilled for that. This kind of feels like overkill to me, but I guess if it works, it's worth it.

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