Final Countdown

The big elimination start date is just around the corner now.  My family spent Memorial Day weekend moving to a new house, and I took the temporary lack of kitchen as an invitation to eat all the restaurant food Chicago has to offer.  It is really crazy to think how limited I will be with restaurant food once the diet starts.  Not that we eat out a TON, but with a one year old and two working parents, the occasional pizza delivery night feels like a necessity for our sanity.  I've been doing some research and it seems like Chipotle will be a viable option when we're in a bind, which is good since we have one very close to home.  Ahhh, I'm so daunted by this whole thing!

T-8 days till go time!

Crying over Lost Gnocchi

It's not the first time food has brought me to tears.  I famously cried at the register when I found out Portillo's had discontinued my favorite salad, on my birthday no less.  And I made a bit of a scene when forced to leave the building, abandoning a hot bowl of chili, during a fire alarm at a Park City slope-side restaurant (there really was a fire, but to be fair, I really was very hungry).  So last night when John texted to say he was bringing me leftover gnocchi in pesto sauce from a work dinner, it's no surprise that I was overly excited.  His first words when he walked in the door were "you have to try this restaurant."  Oh really, John?  I have to try a renowned Italian restaurant, famous for its house-made pasta?  Pasta made with wheat?  Which I can't have starting in 28 days until pretty much the end of this year????  Thanks so much for the recommendation, jerk!  I managed to keep [most] of these thoughts inside my head, focused on the fact that he had generously brought me leftovers.  But when I opened the box, a pile of meat was staring back at me.  Chicken, meatballs, but no gnocchi.  My eyes started to well up.  Apparently the restaurant mixed up the boxes and John's coworker's wife was currently at home with a pile of gnocchi while I was stuck with meat, one of the few things I can eat freely once this stupid diet starts.  Yeah, there were tears.  Because I'm mature like that.  Something tells me it won't be the last time...

T-27 days till go time!

Eliminating EVERYTHING - The First 6 Weeks

With less than a month until I start the 6 food elimination diet, I'm definitely in preparation mode.  Step one - reschedule a pie baking class that I'm gifting my mom for Mother's Day!  I realized after buying it that I booked it for mid-elimination.  2.5 hours of pie baking without a single taste???  Pretty sure that classifies as cruel and unusual punishment.  Thankfully I was able to reschedule to 2 weeks before my start date, so now I can have my pie and eat it too!

Other than that, I started by getting to know the elimination list.  The University of Wisconsin guide that I found was helpful with a handy dandy chart:

Ok, gripe number one: this is totally not SIX categories, but rather EIGHT!  In nutrition school we learned these as the top eight allergens.  Shellfish and fish were considered two groups, as were nuts and tree nuts.  I know it's just semantics, but it feels like more foods than I was led to believe!

After a few days of thought, I've decided eggs are going to be the hardest by far.  We LOVE eggs at my house, eating them nearly every day for breakfast.  Dairy will probably be the second hardest.  We have followed a paleo diet on and off for a while now, so I'm actually used to life without dairy, but cheese is one of my favorite foods, and Greek yogurt and cottage cheese are usually my high-protein egg alternatives.  Now I'm just stuck with meat and beans for protein, which kind of bums me out.  I won't miss nuts, fish or soy that much, other than perhaps as an alternative protein source when I'm officially sick of meat and beans.  As for wheat, I'm not too nervous.  The world is pretty used to catering to gluten free folks these days, so wheat probably won't be as tricky as it would have been five or ten years ago.

T-28 days till go time!  

OMG...Beer

I just had a horrible revelation.  I love beer.  Beer contains wheat.  Wheat is a top allergen.  😢

Obviously I knew these three facts prior to this moment.  But putting them all in a row is a serious reality check.  No beer for 18 weeks!?!?  I don't think I've accomplished that in well over a decade.  Don't get me wrong, I like cider, and wine, and the occasional mixed beverage, but beer is a pretty quintessential part of my summer.  Not cool.

T-33 days till go time.

The Elimination Process

Since receiving the official recommendation for the 6 food elimination diet last week I have spent a lot of time researching the "rules."  I found a handout from the University of Wisconsin that has been super helpful.  It includes a really simple diagram outlining the overall process.

I found it really helpful to see the whole process laid out in one place.  I also found it horrifying to think that I will have to avoid wheat for a total of at least 18 weeks!  And milk for 14!  Ugh.  I decided it would be better to focus on the first 6 weeks for now, and deal with the rest later.  I'm also not thrilled about 5 additional endoscopies (EGDs).  But again, let's tackle part one first, and deal with the rest later.  

On that note, my first post-elimination EGD is officially scheduled for July 20th.  That means the elimination starts June 8th.  Less than a month of food freedom left - good thing that month includes my birthday!

T-35 days till go time!