Elimination Diet - day 1. Digestive Health with REAL Food!

 

I am currently reading (and re-reading!) a fantastic new book by Aglaée Jacob called Digestive Health with REAL food.    (And I'm looking forward to the cookbook coming out in the future).  I have IBS and numerous food intolerance's which really make life quite unpleasant sometimes!  I have been struggling with this for nearly two years now, just getting worse and worse... and I've had enough!  I've tried the GAPS diet (lasted all of two weeks), and did all of 5 days of a Paleo Autoimmune Protocol a few weeks ago to try and clear up some skin issues I'm having (I was supposed to do 30 days!!).  However I really find these restrictive diets EXTREMELY difficult, and I keep giving up...

Now after reading Aglaée's book, I am inspired to see it through this time and really (once and for all!) heal my gut and discover which foods I need to keep out of my diet for good (I know some of them already...dairy, wheat, oats and coconut products are major no-no's for me) and which things I will be able to re-introduce down the track. 

Basically, the way the elimination or as Aglaée calls it, a BYO (build-your-own) diet works, is that you eat a very basic, low carb, high fat, moderate-high protein diet for a minimum of 3 weeks (or until you are symptom free for 5 days), after which time you add things back into your diet one by one to find out which things you react to.

This is what I can eat for the next 3 weeks:

Bone Broth (homemade) - lots!  I'm consuming 4-8 cups per day in soups and as a drink with meals.

Carrots (well cooked)

Zucchini (well cooked)

Spinach (well cooked)

Green beans (well cooked)

Chicken

Beef

Lamb

Chicken and lamb livers 2 - 4 times per week
Ghee (clarified butter)

Extra virgin olive oil

Coconut oil

Avocado oil

Macadamia nut oil

Gelatine (beef - I use Davis brand)

Unrefined sea salt

Chives

Lemon juice

Herbal tea

Supplements: 

Pancreatin digestive enzymes, betaine HCI, Ginkgo Biloba, zinc, chromium (to eliminate cravings) omega 3 fish oil, vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin A, evening primrose oil, vitex (the last two are for hormone balancing) and magnesium and calcium at night to help sleep and bowel motions.   

And that's it.  Yeah...it's going to be pretty repetitive for sure!  Either soup, or meat and veges with broth on the side...including breakfast! But a few weeks to reset and heal my digestive system is well worth it in the long run!!

Today I am feeling:

Not great...totally pigged out home-made (sugar free) Reese's Peanut Butter Cups last night and was paying for it all night...I really don't tolerate peanuts well at all!

Bloated, gassy (sorry, if you decide to read my daily elimination diet ramblings, you're going to the gory details! LOL).  Mind-fog pretty bad today, can't concentrate well at all.  Feel tired and a bit achy.  Probably doesn't help that my 5 year old kicked a soccer ball hard into my face about 30 minutes ago...

Excercise: 

Went for a walk up and along the cliff tops with my 5 & 7 year old's for about 20 minutes.

Sleep:  

Slept well last night, about 8 hours.

Cravings:

Okay so far, I think that the 800mcg of chromium I'm taking is really helping!

Okay, well, that's it for today!  Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better!