Playing catch up!

I have totally been neglecting this blog and I feel horrible about it, but, on the good side, I have NOT been neglecting myself and this diet! Things are going amazing! I am feeling great!

A benefit I have noticed recently is my skin. Before I has very dry skin and spots of psoriasis on my arms - well about 5 days in I noticed that those spots were gone...literally gone! This could totally be a coincidence, but I personally believe it had to do with the food I was putting in my body...put bad things in, something bad has to come out some way or another, right?

So, last Friday was the food day at my work. They brought in Walking Tacos - um hello....could there be a more perfect food?! I am a huge walking taco fan and I will admit it was seriously hard to not cheat. Besides the walking taco bar they had oven baked s'mores, cinnamon bread with apple compote, and Panera bagels with cream cheese. At one point I had the bagel bag in my hands smelling the bagels! I am not kidding! The food table is right behind me so I could smell it all day, but a face full of bagel smell...that was amazing. BUT - and here is the big thing, I didn't cheat! I did not have one thing that was off my diet plan and I am unbelievably proud of that! It did take me 47 minutes to eat a half of a grapefruit with a plastic spoon that day and I think that distraction helped curb my hunger :)

Weekends - well, they are a lot harder. You are not as distracted with "work" like you are during the week so there is must more time to think about how hungry or even how not hungry you are, but just want to snack....it was pretty tough. I made it through and definitely will need a game plan for the next few weekends, too...I just need to get out of my house so I don't eat the kitchen.

So far I am down 13.7 lbs - pretty sure any water weight is gone for sure and I don't bloat anymore. I will say that I got a stomach ache again after drinking green tea with mint - or possibly using mustard...I wrote these both down and will re-try them at some time. Just never know and this is my journey to find out!

I have been pre-cooking and pre-packing my meals and snacks during the beginning of the week and it has really been awesome to just grab something and throw it in my lunch bag the night before. Over the weekend I decided to substitute my meats for eggs both mornings. I used 1 whole egg + 3 egg whites to make an omelette and stuffed in grilled peppers and a side of strawberries. Seriously, amazing.

I find myself getting slightly sick of certain foods, but for the most part, I run out of those foods almost just in time (like right before I don't want it anymore...) and grab a different protein so it seems to be working!

This week/weekend I am trying cabbage (love it, but never really cooked it} Just ate in salads before. And, tonight I made this amazing non-bean chili! It's hi % ground beef, tomatoes, water, garlic, and then like 5 more spices and it's amazing. I am serious - very pleased with this!

I will try shrimp tomorrow night with broccoli - baked in the oven with some corriander seeds, I have had it before and it's really, really good...glad it's possible on this diet, too!

Finally, today I tried the chocolate protein shake meal replacement (replaces your meat and veggie) and drank it on ice and ate some strawberries with it. This was perfect timing as I was getting SICK of meat. Very good taste, very filling actually, and the strawberries were a perfect combo with it.

Sleep has been a bit odd lately, not as good as the first week, but still good. Still feel energized and not sluggish when the alarm goes off, which is nice.

Next week I have two different dates where I will be at work lunches....this is going to be tough as I have not eaten out since I started this diet, but I think it will be good for me to figure that part out, too.

I will try and post more so I don't have to shove 6 days into 1 post. :)

Cucumbers and stomach pain.

Today's food amounts felt like a little too much...at lunch I felt stuffed...almost uncomfortably stuffed and after I felt myself starting to bloat and even got gassy. I have not been gassy since I started this 5 days ago so I knew this was a chance to write this down and start to figure out my trigger foods now if possible, too. Why wait? If something bothers me now, it's worth writing down and testing again.

So, I think it was the cucumbers. They have acid in them and I soaked them in apple cider vinegar, parsley, and garlic. The only thing I have not eaten since beginning this journey is cucumbers and parsley. So...I am writing those two ingredients down as possible trigger foods and will test them again, together and alone, to see what I can find out.

This us pretty much what I am going to have to do with all foods I reintroduce back in to my diet after these 40 days. It's going to be annoying and a process, but it's going to be worth the hassle if I can find out what to avoid to feel good.

Now, if it's cheese...well, that's going to be hard to stay away from! But, I'm not eating it now so maybe I will be fine ;)

Lost a little more weight this am...it really is great seeing the scale steadily go down. Makes this crazy diet worth it!

Grilled onions tonight and then baked garlic chicken on top of them...it was so good! Chicken was a bit bland compared Ti the other spices I have been using, but it was hearty tasting and felt like comfort food!

Both times today after eating lunch and dinner I have felt almost too full. This got me thinking I'm eating too much protein...not really sure. I think I need to invest in a better digital scale to really be able to stay on track with my meat sizes so I think next paycheck that will be a purchase for sure.

Tomorrow is food day at work. I've already talked myself out of cheating on the diet and even have a chocolate protein shake mix I can do instead of any snacks on the food table (which us RIGHT behind me may I add!) I'm just going to plan my meals normal and stay busy...no visiting the table...actually I will probably stare at it and take in the smells every hour on the hour...but will not eat anything. I will not eat anything. I will not eat anything. Wonder how many times I'll have to say it tomorrow ;)

Temptations. You know, like a whole box of Oatmeal Creme Pies.

I have been this close (insert two fingers almost touching) to straying from my diet tonight...not necessarily because I feel hungry, but because I am craving sugar. I know I don't need it and I am not even hungry, but I WANT IT. I want white chocolate kisses, I want pretzel m&ms, and most of all, I want a box of oatmeal creme pies. Yes, I said a box.

BUT - and this is a big but...I didn't eat any of those things. I listened to my stomach (I was not actually hungry) and I distracted myself with downing a glass of water and playing Headbandz with my kid and husband. It really did help. Plus, I saved my fruit for after dinner today so I got to dive in to a delicious juicy apple and I know this was the right choice.

How quickly I forgot about the pain processed foods had been causing me?! After reminding myself 5-6 times of the cramps, the pain, and the frequent bathroom visits that I get when I eat unhealthy, my cravings quickly subsided. Any other day I would have downed one, or five, of those OCP's in a second, but with the power of mind control (haha, totally kidding...I was weak and happened to win this one) I succeeded! I am proud of myself :)

So - food reviews. Today I had 1/2 grapefruit for breakfast, rosemary garlic chicken left overs on spinach salad with home made dressing and crushed melba toast for lunch, Boca burger (1.5) and grilled onions for dinner and an apple (not an OCP!) for "dessert" and I feel absolutely wonderful!

My energy levels are higher - I can tell that I don't feel as sluggish and I don't want to just sit around doing nothing. I don't know if this is real, or if I am just feeling really good today, but my knees and other joints don't hurt as much when I squat and am constantly up and down on the floor with my 15 month old. This is huge to me! Since the swelling and bloating has gone down, I feel like I can move better - that's the only way I can explain it. I am not stuck in some Michelin man suit, which is seriously how I felt at times when the bloating got really bad...like I had a huge suit that my real body was stuck inside - hard to move, hard to want to do anything...uncomfortable.

Very happy with my choices and really looking forward to stepping on the scale tomorrow morning!

Fish...the super food...I'm kinda allergic to

We had fish tonight and I made it with the lemon pepper seasoning from the hcg diet book. It was delicious, but a little lemon-y...next time I'll use less fresh squeezed lemon juice. The mix calls for lemon juice, minced garlic, cumin, pepper, and onion salt. My daughter "hated it," but we forced her to eat it...for someone who "hated it" she sure ended up almost clearing her plate! I posted a pic of what I ate...the rest of the family had broccoli and rice with their fish.

So...am I allergic to fish? Maybe. My throat didn't close and I am not in the hospital, haha, but it did start itching and my ears started itching...I feel like I'm tempting fate with fish, but it's a protein I would pick over beef or steak so I'm going to continue to test this until...well, until I have a worse outcome I suppose.

Today I was really busy at work so I didn't  think about food as much as yesterday. I felt a little more alert and didn't have a headache. My lunch almost felt like too much food, which is very odd, and I had a "normal" bathroom visit today which is fairly abnormal so I liked that!

I'm excited to see if any weight comes back on tomorrow morning when I weigh myself again since today's was so much.

So far I am pleased with the way I feel on this journey and happy I am doing it. It's even better that I have a good friend doing this with me, too...we can hold each other accountable and share what works and what doesn't.

Until tomorrow....my bowl of strawberries awaits ;)

Five pounds - what? Yeah right?!

I have to apologize because my intention was to blog every night of the 40 day long journey, but I had such a headache last night, I put my kids to bed at 8:30 and passed out on the couch at 8:31. I didn't wake up until 1 am when my husband came in to get me to tell me to come to bed! At least my headache was gone - it was something nasty. Maybe it's part of the detox from horrible food or maybe the lack of fats - I really don't know, but I seriously have not had a non-migraine headache like that ever before.

That being said - I weighed myself this morning - and after 1 day - I have lost five pounds (yeah right, what?!) I will say that it is probably water weight and/or the fact that none of the foods I ate yesterday made me bloat so for now I will take it, but not officially think it's real until it's gone for at least a week :)

So, on to the food critique. Like I said, yesterday I didn't bloat - AT ALL - and this is huge because every time I ate before, I bloated and had pain and it was just a mess. Nope, yesterday was amazing. I had an orange/strawberry smoothie for breakfast, melba toast for snack, blackened chicken spinach salad with homemade dressing for lunch, apple for a 2nd snack, Boca Burger (1.5) for dinner with onions, tomatoes, and lettuce on them and another melba toast. Boca burgers, when cooked right (and not over cooked) are actually really good. I cooked four because I burned the first two - annoying, but I learned although it says 8-10 minutes from frozen, it does not actually mean that...more like 4-5 on my George Foreman grill!

Monday, I did feel hungry at around 10:30 am, but I had a cup of hot tea and it seemed to subside. This isn't easy...we have a box of Oatmeal Cream Pies in the upper cabinet and for like three hours yesterday that's all I could think about - seriously though...if I can't even make it one full day....where is my will power?! But, I did make it one full day and judging on how my body felt, it was the right move.

I have also found out that my 5-year-old loves melba toast! A great alternative to gardettos or chex mix with all the sugars and "extra fluff" they put in there - so YAY!

Today's menu is an apple for breakfast with iced black coffee (actually REALLY GOOD) the left over Boca Burgers (yes I am eating the burned ones...I CAN'T waste food) with a salad and homemade dressing, and tonight I am super excited and nervous about having fish again...last time I ate it, my throat started to itch and my ears felt funny and I kept coughing (allergic reaction possibly...slight one - not sure) so if I am blogging from the hospital tonight we will know I may need to stay away from fish :).

I will say - I am not supposed to be drinking caffeine and I know this, but I dropped pop all together (over two months now!) and I feel like one iced coffee a day is probably not going to hurt, but - this is a testing situation, too, I may drop coffee all together, too, depending on how things feel this week so yet, another blog post topic to add to the list!

Let's Get This Party Started!

So I have never been so motivated to "diet" - isn't that weird?! Well, I don't see it as a diet anymore, I see it as "how I will need to eat for the rest of my life in order to not bloat, be in pain, and not have to live in the bathroom" - so, yeah...let's get this party started!

I went to the store and bought 1-2 weeks worth of food and some new spices. I am not the biggest fan of meat, so the plan I am basing this whole journey off of mentioned Boca Burgers as a vegetarian option for meat so I decided I would give them a try. Chicken was $1.88 a lb at HyVee so we bought two more larger ones (plus what's already in my fridge) so this will equal out to more than 1 weeks food for sure.

My 5-year-old daughter was telling everyone and their mothers at the store about how her mom "has a bad tummy so this food will help her" - which technically is correct. REALLY glad she didn't go into any other detail, Whew.

I made 2 servings of blackened chicken to add to spinach salads for Monday and Tuesday's lunches. I took the remainder of the chicken from 1 large batch and am marinating it overnight with garlic, rosemary, and red pepper. I will cook that tomorrow night for dinner (and share with the family) which hopefully gives me some left overs for Wed. lunch. I then made my own salad dressing with about 6 different spices, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, and water. It seems just OK so we will see if that varies after my lunch tomorrow.

Well, my husband is done playing Final Fantasy and wants to go to bed, so off I go.

Food Hates Me

I love food. Kinda. I used to love food, but now - food hates me. Every time I eat, I hurt. Every time I eat, I bloat. Every time I eat, my bathroom trips are plentiful. I literally almost gave up eating and I am not kidding!
It sounds crazy, I know, but after the nine months I have just experienced, you might have wanted to "quit food" all together, too.

Last March (2013) I did some body cleanse from a brand that will remain nameless. I lost 11 lbs and 9 over-all inches and was working out five times a week. Great progress for someone who hadn't done much since baby #2 arrived in October of 2012. But then - food started to hate me. Now, I am not saying this cleanse made me sick, but however I got what I got - it sucked and I don't wish it on my worst enemy.

I got what is called clostridium difficile (c. diff for those medical people) - Google it for the real explanation, but for my quick explanation it's a bacterial infection of the intestines and it FLAT OUT SUCKS. I assumed I was dying of cancer (because of my dad...that's a whole other blog post...) so I didn't go see a doc from when symptoms started in April until I almost gave up on food, which was in July. Yep...four months of absolute stomach hell! I was convinced I was gluten intolerant, but all those tests came back negative (I still think it's food related, but that's what this journey is about so I will touch more on that later, too!)

So, anyways, I find out I have c. diff - and you don't want to know the wonderful things you have to do to find THAT out - and was put on oral metronidazole, which didn't cure me, but helped a little. September was the best month since March, then October hit me - worst month since before I went to the Doc the first time - I called him and guess what I got to have four days before ringing in my 32nd birthday....yep, a colonoscopy - fun right? Yea, fun. Besides being hilarious on the drugs, I don't remember a thing and it didn't hurt...oh wait, I do remember yelling, "can I fart yet?" in the recovery room - yep, and my hubby taped me talking about building a go-kart...anyways, I was once again FOR SURE that I was dying of cancer. Nope. No cancer, no chrons disease, no ulcers, no nothing actually - 100% great :) EXCEPT I was still having symptoms of c. diff despite not actually have c. diff anymore. Sucky.

What did they tell me to do...? Quit caffeine. I get it, I really do - caffeine accelerates things and when drinking it, it was accelerating the movement of my intestines which would "wake up" the c. diff reaction and cause the symptoms to happen over and over again - this is not medically correct in any way, but the only way I can explain what was happening so don't judge the medical terms :). So, after a five-day headache, I had quit caffeine. It took a while to really change how my digestion was working and honestly after that colonoscopy was the best I had ever felt b/c I was only on a broth diet therefore no food reacted with my intestines and I felt amazing! No bloating, no "bathroom issues," and no pain...but come on - I can't be on broth forever (or can I...?)

It took until about mid-December for things to finally go back to "normal" and it really was only about 80% normal and 20% c. diff (I like to call it that like it's just a thing now, ha!) and then, this is when I discovered that food hates me. I go for nine months of the most horrible "bathroom issues" and then when things start to get better and are "solidifying" a bit more - I know, TMI already, but to spare you more of the gross details - some thing happened in the bathroom that shouldn't happen and it was ER or Doc visit instantly ( I picked Doc b/c of cost) and I found out that I have a fissure [in "there"] - I hate the real word so I am not saying it, but my so called "getting better bathroom issues" now caused me a tear AND guess what the only fix is for this...? Guess what it is? It's making sure I have soft "bathroom stuff" for another two months so it can heal - SERIOUSLY food hates me.

But, I know it's doesn't hate me - I need to learn how to eat it again with the body and reactions I have at this point in my life. So, this blog is about my 40 day journey of what I am calling my elimination diet! I am going to reset myself by eating only meats, veggies, and fruits (no sugars, dairy, or grains) and then reintroduce a food a week to see what is causing me all of the discomfort and issues. It may take a while to do that part, but it will be a better life for me and this journey is worth it.

I am blogging about my 40 days and 40 bites because I think it will keep me honest and motivated and seriously - when I was looking for anything like what I was dealing with online - I couldn't find much so hopefully I can enlighten or help in any way, someone else who may have been through or is going through a similar situation.

Wish me luck!