Modified Elimination Diet: Week 1

Back to the Garden
Sunday marked the completion of my 7th day on the Modified Elimination Diet. The contents of my fridge and cupboard were a veritable Garden of Eden, well-stocked with mostly organic and entirely whole (unprocessed, unrefined) foods: rice cereal, fruits, vegetables, salad greens, nuts, raisins, brown rice, potatoes, soy milk (which I've been a fan of for awhile now), and the like.

I have had to read food labels voraciously for ingredients: it is surprising to find how many foods contain sugar, eggs, peanuts, gluten, or dairy products. This means pretty much everything I'm eating (with the exception of brown rice bread) is made from scratch.

Typical Meals
My options are most limited for breakfast food, but even here I've been surprised at how much I've liked it. I was a diehard oatmeal or Kashi Go Lean Crunch girl for breakfast and wasn't looking forward to forfeiting my breakfast favorites. The hot rice cereal prepared with soymilk, walnuts, and raisins (added for flavor, texture, and a nutritional boost) is surprisingly tasty and gets me to the mid-morning snack a few hours later. Speaking of which, I didn't expect to like the brown rice bread. Toasted and topped with almond butter, I'm satisfied well until lunch.

Lunches and dinners look much alike. I've prepared salads with chickpeas, black beans, tofu or tuna, or simply had dinner leftovers. Some of my favorite dinners have been my experimental stir-fries. The stir-fry below was prepared with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, pepper, and Herbes de Provence. In this mixture, I cooked some cubed extra-firm tofu, zucchini squash, and carrots. It was delicious!
My other favorite dish was one that Jordan has already asked that I prepare a second time. In a skillet, I cooked up diced boneless, skinless (organic & free-range) chicken breast with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. To this I added chopped fresh pineapple and red pepper. It was served over oven-fried golden Yukon potatoes that were also cooked with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and some chopped pineapple to add sweetness. We also tried it with extra-firm tofu in place of the chicken and served it over rice noodles; this was also very tasty.


Detoxification
In spite of all the wonderful food I was enjoying, the first four days (Mon - Thurs) on the diet were particularly tough. I felt sluggish and spent from the moment I got up until the blessed minute I fell asleep at about 7 pm. It wasn't until my chiropractor mentioned to me (on Day 5) that I was detoxyifying, and that was why I was so tired. I hadn't thought of it that way, but his explanation made sense. By Friday, I wasn't exhausted anymore, and by Saturday, I had energy enough to work out in the morning and do a thorough spring-cleaning of my apartment later that afternoon.

What's more, the diet and the Intestinal Repair Complex are working wonders. While not back to 100%, my stomach feels better than it has in the past year. Praise God! I am confident at last that I am pursuing the best possible course of treatment to ensure my returned health.

Stay tuned for Week 2 ...