This is Day 28 of my Elimination and Detoxification Diet. According to the cookbook I used, this is the last day of Phase 3. I feel better and I’m back to my normal weight (lost about 7 lbs). But I am nowhere close to done (I’ll explain in a bit).
However, since this marks the end of the official three phases, I thought I’d share with you some observations and lessons learned:
- It’s not smart to run four miles the morning of Day 1. The website says athletes should be able to participate in the “green smoothie days” by adding avocado and flaxseed, but I felt miserable.
- After the two days of drinking only green smoothies, you feel like you have to keep going, because you never want to go through that again!
- I almost experienced real hunger. (I say almost, because I’m sure what I experienced does not come anywhere close to what our 1 billion starving brothers and sisters experience on a day to day basis.)
- I have a new-found appreciation for simple foods like rice, avocado, and sweet potatoes.
- Tamari sauce tastes decent on a salad (when no vinegar is allowed).
- After years of traveling and eating out all the time, I never thought I would crave restaurant food again. It took 24 days. (I had a sushi roll with salmon, avocado & cucumber.)
- Sushi without soy sauce is not that exciting. (I called ahead to see if they had tamari. They said they did, but when push came to shove, it was really just low-sodium soy sauce… I’ll bring my own bottle next time.)
- My friends at the co-op are very good at finding alternative foods for me to eat. Puffed quinoa comes to mind.
- Nuts are the best!
- Tofu scramble with mushrooms isn’t bad either.
- Raw Revolution bars rock!! (Why they’re not on Facebook, I don’t know…)
- Green smoothies have healing powers. (After neglecting to drink the once-a-day smoothie, I got sick on Day 18. Two green smoothies later, and I was fit as a fiddle.
- I think I may be allergic to nectaries and peaches.
- I also think I may be allergic to tomatoes (I need to try one more time…)
- Thanks to you, my readers, I stuck with it! Announcing endeavors like this to your community really helps keep you on track.
So, you’re thinking, what’s left?
Well, let me tell you. Aside from the challenge list I mentioned on Day 16, I also haven’t added in any of the following foods:
- Meat (OK – I cheated and had a couple of slices of bacon this weekend)
- Dairy
- Eggs
- Gluten grains (and their flours)
- Oats
- Corn
- Millet (yeah – not even sure what this is…)
- Yeast
Each new food should be introduced for at minimum of three days, but ideally fourteen days. So, being the math nerd that I am, I have established that if I want to add in the rest of these foods (every three days), I will be doing this until Thanksgiving. But that’s OK. I’m feeling great. And now I truly understand what it’s like to try to function in this wheat/corn/dairy world when you don’t or can’t eat these foods. It’s a nice perspective. Plus today, I start eating chocolate, so everything is going to be OK.
If you have chronic pain or fatigue or IBS or any other illness that might be affected by your diet, I urge you to pursue an elimination diet. My symptoms were not that bad, but I have still benefited from it. My mind is clearer, my stomach is happier, I have more energy, and I’m sleeping more soundly.
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