If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen that during April and May I underwent an elimination diet to figure out which foods were bothering me. A lot of you were interested in the process and results so I figured I would share a little bit about my history that led me to do this type of diet, what it was like, and what I discovered about my digestive health.
*Disclaimer: Always check with your doctor before starting an elimination diet or any type of diet. I am not a nutritionist and this post is meant only to share my experience with you guys!
Background:
First let's talk about my history. A little over 10 years ago, while visiting my family in Brazil, I ended up with a twisted intestine. They were able to fix it there but when I came back to the U.S. I ended up having more pains. They did every test under the sun but weren't able to diagnose anything else. Since my twisted intestine, I have had a love hate relationship with my digestive system. Many foods continued to make me sick and surprise, surprise, more tests came and no answers were discovered. I finally decided to play with my diet and take out the foods that made me sick.
For the past 10 years, I've been vegetarian 80% of the time because meat has just never settled well for me. I would go through phases of eating no meat and then slowly phasing it back in, but my symptoms always came back. I wake up with symptoms at 3 am more than I'd like to admit and spend 60% of the time probably feeling bloated and looking 3 months pregnant. There's plenty more symptoms but in case you're reading this on your lunch break, I'll spare you the details. I have medicine that I was given to help my intestines not spasm so much, but the thought of living my life taking pills in order to eat certain foods just didn't feel like the life I wanted to live. After talking to my doctor a earlier this year we decided I needed to try more probiotics (I started making my own kombucha which I LOVE) and changing my diet up.
My Elimination Diet:
In the beginning of April, a friend texted me and asked if I wanted to do an elimination diet with her and be accountability partners. I had always told myself that I should try one, like the Whole 30, etc, but had never just bit the bullet and done it. The one we did was based off the book 'The Elimination Diet: Discover the Foods that are Making You Sick and Tired --and Feel Better Fast' by Tom Malterre & Alissa Segersten, which is a little bit different than the Whole 30. If you're interested I highly recommend buying the book and going off of that and checking with your doctor first.
Elimination Phase:
For the first 3 weeks I eliminated the following; beef, pork, citrus, nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, etc.), soy, corn, gluten, added sugar, nuts, alcohol, chocolate, & dairy. Basically when people would ask what I couldn't have it was easier to tell them what I could eat because that list was shorter! haha I also eliminated caffeine because I knew it has an effect on my digestive system and I didn't want it to skew the results. I used to drink one cup of coffee every morning and a few afternoons a week, so this was a difficult change for me.
The first three weeks were tough. I craved foods I didn't even really like that much and had never craved before. I had terrible headaches for the first 4 days because of the caffeine withdrawals. The good news though, is that I never felt hungry. I was eating so many fruits and vegetables and foods that were nutritionally dense, but not calorie dense, so I felt great! It was crazy to see how quickly I felt like my stomach shrank in half and I was full quicker. The three weeks honestly went quicker than I expected once I got used to the foods I could and couldn't have. I was basically eating extremely clean and unprocessed and it felt great! I had energy after my meals instead of feeling comatose and ALL of my symptoms went away. I had the best skin I've had in years, with no breakouts and I felt like I was glowing. The only drinks I was having was 2 cups of chamomile tea a day (in replacement of coffee) and SO much water. I'm usually great with water intake but this was even better!
The one thing that was hard for me at first was that I felt like I lost my love for food for a few weeks. If you've been following my blog or IG you know that I LOVE to cook. Food is my passion and I cook most of my meals almost every day. I found myself feeling like I was just eating for sustenance and not for enjoyment which was hard when you love creating meals. Eventually I got over this feeling though, when I started looking at cooking in a different way. I started challenging myself to create my favorite meals using substitutes and cooking became fun again!
The Reintroduction Phase:
After the three weeks are up, you start adding one type of food in for 3 days to see what your body's response is. If you pass and have no symptoms, you get to keep it in your diet and move onto the next food. If you don't pass it, you have to wait for your body to clear the upsetting food and remove it again but continue on. The book is great at outlining the order and way that you should introduce the foods so again I highly recommend checking it out so you can do the process properly.
The Results & Where I'm at Now:
So what did I discover? Beef and pork are in fact triggers for me. When I did three days of each back to back, I was so lethargic and exhausted that I knew it was a sign that my body didn't like them. Going into this I had a feeling it wasn't just these two however, so I wasn't surprised to see that I didn't have my normal symptoms from them. I knew there had to be something else.
Enter in testing gluten. When the time came to test, I had something with gluten for dinner and the next morning all of my symptoms were back. The same thing kept happening over the course of more gluten meals. The interesting part I found was that I broke out terribly on the third day and it just kept happening with more gluten.
So where am I at now? I eat a gluten free diet with no beef or pork. Even though I didn't end up with symptoms when testing dairy, I still try to eat a very minimal amount (I am so thankful I can still have my ice cream cones this summer), because I have noticed in the past how it can affect my skin. I still haven't gone back to caffeine on a regular basis and I honestly don't know if I'll go back anytime soon. I have only had 2 cups of coffee since I started 2 months ago and will drink an occasional green tea if I feel like I need it. I'm sleeping better and even lost 14 pounds during the process which wasn't intentional but I was happy about! My anxiety was also much lower during this process which I found really interesting.
The thing I am most proud of however is that I was able to practice self control and accomplish something so difficult! I promise you it’s worth it in the end to so! You will feel great about yourself!
My Recommendations:
I highly recommend that you do more research and talk to your doctor if this sounds any bit intriguing to you. I think everyone should try this diet at least once because it's very eye opening. I felt like I was finally living without the fog when I was eating clean and unprocessed. Sometimes you don't realize how negatively something can be impacting you until you remove it. Here are some things to remember if you want to try this out:
-Do this process with a friend. It was SO helpful to have someone I could text all the time and ask questions to, give feedback to, and just talk about how I was doing. It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between our symptoms. It also happened to work out that on days when I was feeling really low she was doing well and was able to pick me up, and vice versa. Support is EVERYTHING in these types of situations.
-Don't try this when you have many special events going on. The less temptations you have the easier it will be to stick to the diet and not stray. It's not fun to go to a wedding and not be able to eat the food, so plan accordingly.
-Meal plan and prep every week. This was huge for me and I really think it's the bulk of why I succeeded. I never questioned what I was going to eat next and always had many options available that I was excited about. The book contains many great recipes for all of the different phases so it was nice having some options and ideas.
-Give your friends and family the heads up that you are doing this. If you let everyone close in your life know that you are doing this diet, they will be less likely to invite you out and tempt you into situations where you make bad food decisions.
-Plan on not eating out for awhile. The only times I found it difficult to find something to eat were when I had to eat out (i.e. I went out of town). Bring plenty of snacks wherever you go so that if this happens, you at least have some back up foods.
I hope this over view of my Elimination Diet experience was helpful for you! Please feel free to comment below or email me with any questions you have. I love talking about it because it was such a positive experience for me.
Have a beautiful day and don't forget to take your health seriously! We only get one shot!
Andrea
