Playing with Food!

My first adventure with elimination diets started when I was nursing a colicky baby and thought that something I was eating might be contributing to his fussiness.  I went on the Total Elimination Diet, only at the time there were no potatoes, millet or lamb included, so there was basically one food from each food group I could eat.  I managed to stick to it successfully for two solid weeks, which was pretty impressive for a sleep deprived mom who was working full time.  It did nothing for the boy's colic!  I really saw no benefit from staying on it, so I went off "cold turkey."  That's when I realized it had done something - it moderately improved my own digestion, which I didn't really notice until I was eating everything again.  So, it didn't tell me what was bothering my son, or irritating my digestion.  What it did tell me was this: if I could stick strictly to a diet with one food from each food group for two weeks whilst staying up in the night with a screaming infant, working full time at a new job with several litigation issues and going through a divorce, I could do pretty much anything for two weeks!

Skip ahead three years and you'd find me at my fatigue rock bottom.  You'd think, how could I be more fatigued than when you weren't getting any sleep?  It's amazing the reserves of energy your body can produce to get you through the day when a baby is involved.  Last year, I realized that the Celexa I had been taking for anxiety was gradually sapping me of all motivation, and had made me gain a lot of weight. I decided to quit in the middle of the school year.  This was especially brave since it was my most stressful year ever, both personally and professionally, outside of the year described above.   I was exhausted both physically and emotionally and when I got home from work all I ever wanted to do was nap.  I knew I had to do something major to gain some healing momentum.

I started with an allergy elimination diet from Whole Life Nutrition, which I adhered to strictly, slowly introducing things until I finally reintroduced gluten after about 3 months.  I charted my energy level, my mood and all kinds of things you don't need to share with others on this Track & Share App. What it told me was SQUAT!  Nothing I reintroduced seemed to make any difference, or the difference it made was minor.  I concluded that it must just be stress and it didn't matter what I eat as long as it was moderately healthy.  What it did do for me though was teach me that I CAN make all of my own meals from scratch and to appreciate quality ingredients.  It also helped me to loose a lot more weight than what I'd started to loose on Weight Watchers.

Last summer, I learned that I have Adrenal Fatigue, which further corroborated my theory that it was "just stress" and not something I was eating.  I started a new round of supplements, but it was hard to tell if they were helping or if I was feeling better after a fantastically rejuvenating summer.  The first day back for the school year, I instantly regressed back to headaches and "brain fog" just at the association of work and the stressful year prior.  I'd been reading about paleo eating, and I decided I should give it a try (urged along by the fact that my pantry had been invaded by moths who infested all of my grains).

It's worth noting here, that I have done very little for my health that made an IMMEDIATE and DRASTIC change, or even a noticeable change worth continuing a consistent health habit.  This is part of the reason I have had notoriously bad willpower in the past.  When I started eating paleo, my headaches and brain fog went away immediately and I had more energy for the first few weeks than I can remember having in my adult life!  I planned on trying one cheat day a week, and indulged in a quality gluten free red velvet cupcake from one of my favorite healthy restaurants and almost immediately regretted it.  This told me that what was likely bothering most me was grains.  Of course the Whole Life Nutrition diet didn't help, since the whole first stage involves certain grains and small legumes for protein!  When I started paleo, I lost another 10 lb when I'd thought I'd settled in to a "comfortable" weight, loosing 40 lb in all.

My energy peak did not last forever due to a variety of factors.  Work got stressful, winter hit, I wasn't getting out and walking so much and I went off the supplements because they were too expensive for something I couldn't tell was helping.  I also believe that I may have gone overboard on eggs and almonds.  After the holidays, when I got a little more loose with my food, I decided to "reset" by trying the Autoimmune Protocol, which cuts out eggs, nuts, seeds and nightshades.   Once again, I didn't notice a huge difference, except (keeping it real here) for some reason I started getting some smelly gas (which is rarely an issue for me).  My best guess is from all the coconut I was eating in place of nuts etc.  After about a month, I jumped back into some of the forbidden food.  I also have played a bit with dairy, and though it doesn't seem to have an immediate digestive affect, I think it may be the cause of a recent breakout.  I'm not too sure about nuts (at least almonds), and eggs seem to be hit or miss (but I realized the miss times may have been hormone induced).

I'm still playing with my food to see how I react to things.  I've been researching to develop my own variation of a paleo elimination diet to see if there's something else bothering me.  Basically, there will be an Allergy Elimination Phase, an Autoimmune Elimination Phase and a Paleo Elimination Phase.  Stay tuned for details as I develop my plan!

Meanwhile, I'm avoiding grains almost entirely and most processed foods and sugar. I'm looking into the effects of different food preparation methods in reducing antinutrients in legumes, nuts and seeds.  I used to be "all or nothing" when it came to my diet, but now when I choose to eat something that's not "approved," I do it with full consciousness that the experience of eating it better be worth any result of eating something I shouldn't.  I believe that everyone is different in what works for them, and if you are thriving on the diet you're eating - keep at it!  If, on the other hand, you find that something is not quite right, keep playing with your food until you figure out what works and what doesn't.