Elimination and Detox Diet – Day 15 Update

I’m well underway with the 28 Day Elimination Diet from Whole Life Nutrition, so far so good. No cheating. I’ve stayed on course. BUT, I do have a confession to make. I only completed one day of the green smoothie cleanse. I only have a standard blender and just couldn’t get my apple/pear/kale smoothies very smooth – they were pulpy and

Whole Life Nutrition’s Harvest Green Smoothie

by the end of the first day I was gagging with each sip. And I was STARVING! I didn’t enter this diet to starve my self or lose weight, so after much deliberation, I decided to skip the second cleansing day and move on to phase 1.

Phase 1 started out ok, but breakfasts were really difficult. I’m used to one of the following: a bowl of cereal, oatmeal, eggs, or toast with some sort of nutbutter. Instead I had to move to quinoa and rice hot cereal mixed with apple sauce (no milk allowed) and loaded up with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia, and hemp. Another breakfast option was rice crackers topped with sunflower or pumpkin seed butter and an apple or pear. Great, but I missed my daily banana.

Amazingly enough, this desert hound hasn’t even missed her desserts. Is that even possible? Who am I? Desserts are part me, my identity. Normally I have to eat a piece of something sweet after every meal. Now, I can even sit next to someone devouring a piece of cake, ice cream, whatever, and it didn’t bother me. Sure, I’d love a bite, but I don’t NEED it like I used to. I do miss the taste of chocolate though.

And unlike my last elimination diet, which I created for myself quite unsuccessfully, I didn’t go through any withdrawal symptoms – no headaches, no fatigue, etc. I had read that most people do go through them with this diet from Whole Life Nutrition, but lucky for me, I avoided that part altogether. I’m certainly not going to complain about that one!

I was just getting tired of the Phase 1 foods when it was time to move on to Phase 2. I was really looking forward to this phase as it’s when I was allowed to start reintroducing food to my diet. The diet says to introduce something new every three days, but I’ve read elsewhere that two days is usually sufficient, so I opted for the two-day option as I’ll be traveling at the end of the month (National Eczema Association’s Patient Conference, here I come!) and need to figure out what I can and cannot eat as quickly as possible. First up, I introduced lemon and limes. No problems at all. Great. Next, wheat-free tamari. I was ok the first time I tried just a small amount. The second time I had a slightly larger amount and BAM! My stomach bloated up to 6 month pregnant size and I developed heart burn. So, tamari is a no go for now. I removed it from the diet.

Next, moving on to Phase 3, time to add more exciting foods. First up was the nightshade veggies (peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant). I had some tomatoes and peppers for lunch the next day and I was fine. At dinner I had potatoes and tomatoes and BAM! I was hit with what felt like uterine cramping and bloating. I didn’t think this was related, but after a little research it turns out some intolerances can present themselves this way. This morning the cramping and bloating were still there, but after a trip to the bathroom, things were better. I did have to take a digestive enzyme this morning to help, which I also did after eating the tamari. Both times the enzymes really improved my symptoms. Have you tried digestive enzymes? My friend, a naturopath and nutritionist, recommended them over the probiotics I was taking and they’ve really been working for me on an as needed basis.

So, here I am, Day 15. My apparent intolerances so far are: tamari (probably all soy products, but I’ll test that later) and potatoes (I don’t think it’s all nightshade veggies, but I’ll test that theory out later as well).

Take a look at my other posts and my journey on this Elimination Diet.

Can I Tempt You with Another Elimination Diet?

It’s Elimination Diet Time & Cookbook Giveaway

Elimination & Detox Diet – Getting Started