the journey continues

I am still on my dietary journey, each day learning to make these changes.  Yesterday I had a moment where I really missed cheese.  I just wanted to make myself a big chef-style salad.  In the past it would have been no meat and perhaps two kinds of cheese.  Now it's meat, no cheese.  And knowing that I couldn't have the cheese made me want it more.

After the first two weeks of my dietary changes I am now adding in more vegetables and fruits.  The testing that I did broke my food sensitivities into 3 categories, high sensitivity, moderate sensitivity and low sensitivity.  For the first two weeks I ate nothing on the list, even the low sensitivity list.  It got really boring.

I have a confession to make.  I don't like cooking for myself.  I much prefer to cook for others.  I like eating with others and I certain love when people cook for me.  But if I have to cook specifically for me...not so much.  And because of my dietary changes I was doing a lot of that.  And it got boring.  For anyone who knows me, that's a surprising statement.  I LOVE food, I like thinking about it, talking about it, researching it, helping others with their food.  I love food.  But because of the restrictions I am on it I started to become less enthusiastic about my food.  I figured out a few dishes that were dietarily compliant, figured out how to add back in the meat slowly (still working on that) and tended to live on the same 8-10 recipes.

Now that I'm able to add other foods back in I am all of a sudden much happier.  In part I am now able to eat an expanded list of foods which is always a good thing.  Plus many of the foods on the low sensitivity list that have been added back in are grillable veggies. In the summer that is one of my all-time favorite ways.  (If it was winter I would be making vats of soup!)  I like to make up several large salads, grill a huge batch of veggies and then make composed plates by adding in a protein.

I am learning so much from this experience.  Part of it is a deeper respect for some of the dietary changes I sometimes ask folks to go through as we work together on their journey toward health.  I have had my own journey and have certainly done many of the things that I ask clients to do (such as a candida cleanse) but this time around the process seems much more mindful.  As I journal my food choices and how my body is responding to the reintroduction of meat I am much more aware of how I feel and why I am making some of these choices.  In many ways to a much greater extent that ever before.  I am also learning to understand some of the complexities that can lead to boredom with food.   I am grateful for this deeper understanding of myself but also because I believe it helps me to better help others.

And the journey continues...

rotation diet

A couple of people have asked me to explain how exactly a rotation diet works.  As I mentioned in my last post it is writing out a plan of what you can eat and not repeating a food more than once every four days.  This often allows people to eat foods without building up sensitivities to them because they are not overexposed to the proteins in those particular foods.

Here is an example.  When it comes to nuts my favorites are almonds and cashews.  While I eat a lot of almonds, according to my testing I can no no longer eat cashews, brazil nuts, pistachios, pecans, or walnuts.  If I eat almonds every day there is a possibility that I will eventually become very sensitive to the proteins in the almonds and then I will not be able to eat them anymore.  By avoiding the ones that I am sensitive to for 3-6 months and by doing a GI Restore Program, I can quite possibly heal my insides to the point that I can eat some of those again.

In order to avoid creating more sensitivities for myself I follow a rotation that goes like this:

Day 1 - almonds

Day 2 - filberts

Day 3 - pepitas

Day 4 - peanuts

And yes, I know, peanuts are not a nut but we eat them that way so that's where they are in the rotation. This pattern applies to each category, fruit, vegetables, proteins, etc.   Some people need to follow a rotation diet all the time.  I am hoping that is not the case here, but if it is I'm at least grateful to know that I have a plan that appears to be working for me right now.

managing leftovers

I'm eating in a new, to me, way.  Following a rotation diet that was carefully designed to avoid any of the food sensitivities that showed up on the test.  The purpose of a rotation diet is to help avoid any potential new food sensitivities from cropping up by not eating them more than once every four days.  It is a generally accepted practice as those who have food sensitivities have inflammation going on in their gut and it's far to easy for them to eat too much of one food thereby triggering a sensitivity to those proteins as well.

A new challenge that I am discovering is the concept of leftovers.  In the past if we had leftovers I happily ate them.  I love leftovers.  Now that's not an option unless it's something that everyone else will eat, it freezes well, or it will last four days until I can eat it again.  I'm determined to be consistent about this as I know that it is important.  So I'm also trying to learn to cook more in line with what we will actually eat.  Whereas before it didn't matter, now it does.

I'm realizing I used to be very laissez faire about leftovers and now I need to think about those too.

continuing to learn

As I move forward with my new nutritional plan I am struck by the realization that it's not easy to make one meal that satisfies everyone in my household.  With one vegetarian, one emerging flexitarian, and one committed omnivore meals are a little more challenging.

Because my choices are limited by my rotation diet I am having to think and plan ahead more so that I can make multi-stage meals that can be finished off or enhanced for the other members of the family who do not need to avoid dairy, etc.  Quite honestly I haven't really gotten the hang of it yet and it's definitely an eye-opener.

I hadn't thought that it would be so difficult.  After all over the years I have managed various different dietary needs folded into what was once a household of five.  Low fat, low cholesterol, low carb, various different dietary plans all rotated through our house before I became a Nutrition Educator and learned more about whole foods and eating according to the needs of your body rather than a one-size-fits-all dietary plan.  Obviously through my training and work I have come to see clearly how we are all bio-individual and one-size does not fit all.  I'm feeling a little humbled as I learn to juggle this new nutritional state of affairs.

On the other hand I'm feeling fairly good about the dietary change.  I did try a few bites of chicken, and the next day my stomach wasn't too happy, I am taking it slowly and plan to start introducing some broths into my diet as well.  And I'm reasonably content with what I am eating the rest of the time.  It turns out (at least a few days in) that I don't miss dairy as much as I thought I would.  The biggest challenge at the moment is to remember what day of the rotation I am on and to plan meals.  For example, today is corn for my grain and black beans for my protein.  So we're having taco bar.  That's easy I can set everything out buffet style and folks can help themselves.  But I do need to think ahead if anything, like beans, needs to be soaked or otherwise prepared.

It's a learning adventure and one that I realize will help me have a deeper understanding of what I suggest for some clients.  As I mentioned in my last post, I've written a lot of Rotation Plans, but I've never followed one myself.  It's one thing to comprehend it and entirely something else to understand it.

walking the walk

I love what I do, how I am able to help people learn to eat well so they can be well.  I also work hard to take care of my own health through nutrition and other means.  I feel like I am in good shape and know that I have come so very far since the health care crisis of 2003 that lead me to this career.

Part of my changes, way back when, was the adoption of a vegetarian diet.  I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis after more than ten years of misdiagnosis as IBS.  The Nutritionist suggested that I consider eating a vegetarian diet for three months to allow my gut to heal.  I felt so good on the vegetarian diet that I didn't look back.  I was able to eat a balanced diet and to learn how to stay healthy with this eating pattern.  This is something that many many people do.  According to a 2008 study by Vegetarian Times over 7 million Americans follow a vegetarian diet.  More than half of them do so for health reasons.

I know that some people try vegetarian diets but ultimately wind up becoming carbotarians instead.  Thinking that because they are not eating meat that means they should eat lots of pasta and other simple carbohydrates.  Being a vegetarian isn't difficult but it does require thinking about your protein and fats and, oh yeah, you do need to eat vegetables.  Many, if not most, carbotarians eventually wind up going back to eating meat because they get so sick by not supporting the needs of their body.

I'm confident in my knowledge as a Nutrition Educator, I've helped lots of people feel better with learning to eat the right way for their body.  And no, that does not mean I make everyone become a vegetarian.  We work together to help you find what works best for your bio-individual body and then we go from there to build a nutritional plan.  I have always said that I was a vegetarian because it best met my body needs and my focus is to eat in harmony with my body.  I've also been fond of pointing out that our dietary needs change throughout different cycles of our life, otherwise we would all still be drinking breast milk.

So imagine my shock when I received the results of a recent food sensitivity test (which I have never taken before) which indicated that I had some very serious food sensitivities going on.  I feel good, I look fine, I struggle a bit time-to-time but I put that down to the UC which I manage without medication.  The results of the test appear to indicate that I have a fair amount of inflammation going on in my gut and what I had been attributing to one thing was actually something quite different altogether.  I now need to make some significant changes to my diet.

The bottom line is that I am highly sensitive to dairy products (cow and goat) and eggs.  Darn.  That's a significant source of protein for me.  Considering my options I feel that it would be best for me to add lean meats back into my diet, a big change after all these years.  I've also had to write a rotation diet for myself.  I've created a number of them for clients but never imagined that I would wind up doing this for myself.  I hadn't realized how comfortable I'd become with my vegetarian diet, my inclination when reaching for breakfast is eggs, my idea of a great snack is a yogurt parfait with fresh fruit.  Because I am committed to my health and my body I know that for at least the next three to six months those are no longer part of my diet.  I am hopeful that by avoiding them and doing an intestinal repair and recolonizing program I will be able to at least add them back in on a rotation basis when this is all done.

In the meantime I am reminded on so many different levels how the only thing that is constant is change.