It's elimination time!

Hello my wonderful readers! Today is day 1 of my elimination diet and so far so good. If you have never heard of an elimination diet before then let me inform you. An elimination diet is used to help you pin point what foods/ food groups your body is allergic, sensitive or has low tolerance for. For the first 23 days you are eating the most basic bland meals you can come up with. These meals need to be gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, shellfish-free, nuts and seeds free, alcohol-free, caffeine-free and whatever else you suspect is harmful to your body.
I know, I know you're thinking, "But what are you supposed to eat then, air?" Well, believe it or not there are ways around that. Below is a picture of the groceries I made today and will be constantly making throughout this elimination process.  

For breakfast I choose a cereal. Chex's Rice Chex gluten-free cereal, with Silk's unsweetened coconut milk and some blue berries for sweetness. 

For lunch and dinner I choose fat free chicken breast, Mahatma jasmine gluten free rice, red peppers and zucchini. 

And to drink I will have good ole water and Badia's caffeine-free chamomile tea. 

Your basic diet foods could be anything you know won't harm your stomach and are free from the food groups mentioned earlier. Elimination diets have some fruits and vegetables to avoid as well but I'll let you do your own research on that. My picks for fruits and vegetables are basic ones that I know, to the best of my knowledge, won't harm my body. 

After 23 days you reintroduce an eliminated food group, one at a time, and you record your reactions/ symptoms towards that food group over the next 48 hours. So on day 24, let's say you reintroduce dairy foods to your diet and consume cheese, yogurt and milk. On day 26 and 27 you would eliminate dairy again, go back to your basic diet and record your symptoms/ reactions to dairy. The reason why you need to eliminate all the food groups mentioned above for the first 23 days is because that's how long it usually takes for your body to fully recuperate it's self from harmful foods. Within 48 hours of consuming a food group your body will react, sometimes good and sometimes bad. After the 48 hours are done you can either move on to a new food group or test the previous food group again, just to be sure. A lot of work, days and recording symptoms goes into this process but at the end you will feel more in control of your body and what upsets it or really fuels it. 

Below is a link to a diet log I made that details almost every reaction possible. In the diet log, reactions can range from 0-5. Zero meaning no reaction and 5 meaning severe reactions. It also goes into the digestive symptom reactions and moods. At the top is a field for your heart beat per minute. This field reads, "Heart Beat FTIM", which means Heart Beat rate first thing in the morning. There's also a section to write any additional notes you wish to jolt down. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jXKV2QWvwEbeAkUXYsdyP5tQf-wzoERM_6Y0CC0pYGQ/edit?usp=sharing        

I hope you find this blog helpful and good luck finding your food intolerance until next time!