Still Talking About Food

Brandon and I are well into our third week on the elimination diet.  It's been quite an adventure in eating.  We've had to let go of our old standby meals, and are learning a new way to cook and new foods to enjoy.  Instead of oatmeal and eggs for breakfast, we've started to look forward to quinoa and fruit, with some coconut oil and honey.  

Lunches are no longer sandwiches and soups, but things like salads, salmon, and sweet potato.  Luckily, we like lots of different foods, and we enjoys salads and vegetables, so eating the delicious foods we are allowed to have is not a challenge.  The challenge is planning for preparation of the foods.  It takes five minutes to throw together a sandwich, but it takes an hour to bake a sweet potato, make salad dressing, etc., so we can't wait until we are hungry or it's time to leave for work before we start to fix lunch.  We have to plan ahead.  Planning ahead is not my favorite thing, but I'm determined to do this.  

By the end of the second week of the diet, we were both feeling pretty good.  Our digestion was calm, the caffeine withdrawal symptoms had abated, and we both lost some weight, which feels good.  

We've been growing our own broccoli sprouts, and our good neighbor gave us bags of frozen fish that he caught while he was on vacation.

Our sweet tooth cravings have gone.  Actually, we don't crave anything really.  Sometimes I wish for cheese, of all things, but not in desperate way.  Brandon wants coffee in the afternoon, and I think it's the ritual of it that he misses more than the caffeine.

I made a variation on one of the desserts from the book.  The crust of these funny looking little green tarts is unsweetened coconut flakes, hemp seeds, dates, and salt mixed in the food processor, and the filling is avacado, coconut oil, honey, and lime juice blended.   The crust is smooshed into a cupcake paper, and then the filling is poured on, and it sets up in the freezer.  We really liked the crust, but the filling was just okay.  Still, it was nice to have a healthy dessert type snack waiting in the freezer for whenever we wanted one.  

We went to a cookout over the weekend, and it was our first foray into society with food restrictions.  We brought our own lamb burgers and salad, but couldn't enjoy the lovely barbecued pork ribs, home made cake, or even the special mixed drinks.  That was a bummer.  Also, we felt even more like weirdo's than we normally do, because you can't say no to all the food and drinks without some explanation.  Everyone seems like they are used to folks with food restrictions these days, but it does seem rude not to partake of the hosts food.  But, we don't want to miss out on the whole party, so we go, and we take our food, and we are those people.  At least for a few more weeks, anyway.