You keep tripping over your words.
I’ve been looking forward to the weekend so badly. It felt like it just dragged on foreverrrr. It’s been a bit of a rough one after losing my Fishy. 
Today is day 53 of my elimination diet. This week I’ve been challenging bread and I don’t think it has gone very well at all. I definitely feel more blocked up (if that’s even possible!) and have had headaches every day since having it. I’m going to stop eating it now and move onto something else (cheese!) and then try bread again at a later date. I guess a gluten intolerance wouldn’t be so bad since I live with my boyfriend who is also gluten free. I could deal with it… I’d just miss eating freshly baked bread!
EDIT: After writing this last night, my night’s sleep was absolutely horrible. For some reason at about 6am it was like everything I was allergic to go into my nose and I couldn’t stop sneezing for so long. >_< I haven’t had bread in over a day so now I don’t know what to think.
I really need to stick to my lists of things to do in the weekends. Got to put my foot down! My list of goals is growing now so I really need to put some things in motion to get closer to them. Fingers crossed I manage to make a start on some this weekend.
What’s everyone else doing this weekend?
Hope you enjoy these little goodies…
- My girl Lydia made this amazing looking gluten free nutella cake and I need it in my mouth right now. I know she says the ganache didn’t set, but it looks perfect as it is to me!
- I am so in awe of this amazing wedding invitation suite by Kate Allen (the bride) and Plurabelle Calligraphy. The colour combination is absolute perfection – navy, gold and coral. Love!
- I held my breath the entire time I watched this trailer for I Believe I Can Fly – a feature documentary about the Skyliners team who do unbelievable things at great heights with tightropes, slackline and parachutes. Total bonus that the cinematography is fantastic.
- Check out this awesome Party In A Box created by Amanda and Cree for those overseas friends that couldn’t make it to Cree’s 30th birthday. What a neat idea!
- I would have LOVED to go to the MT Expo this year, which is on till the 8th in Tokyo. Even the building is covered in giant washi tape! So cool. I would have gone nuts in there and bought hundreds of dollars worth of washi tape haha. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m not in Tokya!
- The lovely Amy posted some of her recent logo work and introduced me to this worn vintage logo tutorial. Must try this out sometime! It’s great if you have a design that you don’t have a hardcopy of to photograph too.
The Elimination Diet: Challenging
Day 36
Before I left for Christchurch I contacted my ENT specialist about my progress (or lack there of in this case) on the Elimination Diet. So far I’ve seen no improvement on my sinuses whatsoever, which means that it’s fairly likely that a food allergy is not the cause of my problems. He told me I may as well start challenging foods now so here goes!
Last night I had my first bit of dairy in over a month. Crazy! I actually don’t like milk, at least not by itself or in something that I can still taste the milk through. If I could have had chocolate milk I would have but that contains cocoa and other bad stuff that I’m not challenging yet. So I decided to go with a banana berrie smoothie.
Banana Berrie Smoothie
1 banana
1 cup semi frozen berries, or fresh berries
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup milk (actually I just estimated this amount once everything was in)
Blend it all together… easy!
I got a headache almost instantly. That could have been a coincidence, I’m not sure though. I was probably worried that I’d have some kind of side-effect and brought it on myself. Have to note everything down though, just in case.
Today I will try have two smoothies, or balls up and drink a glass of milk by itself. I have to have about three cups of milk a day for three days to see if it has any effect. If I feel a negative effect I need to stop having milk, wait till the effect goes away and then I will start bringing in the next challenge food… gluten! If it has no negative effect I can continue to have milk and I think after gluten I will try out other dairy products, like cheese!
If anyone has any suggestions for how I can drink/eat milk please sing out! Anything that can add flavour so I can’t actually taste the milk would be fantastic. 
The Elimination Diet: Bored
Day 21
Another week down and my symptoms haven’t changed. Sigh. My ENT has told me to wait it out till the end of week four and then contact him again about my progress. I can’t imagine that much will change in a week but we shall see.
I do feel lighter. Not like, in weight terms (although I have lost weight on this diet). I just don’t feel so bogged down after meals now. Not sure what I will do if he tells me that I don’t need to carry on with the diet. I’m thinking about carrying on as long as I can because I do feel so much healthier. I’m so proud of myself for even making it this far without just having a little nibble of chocolate, or taking a bite of satay chicken off my boyfriend’s plate. As I type this I can smell nachos and it’s basically taking over all of my thoughts! Haha.
So I’ve been on the look out for good blogs and recipe sites that promote organic and vegan lifestyles because what I have been living off is so booooooring. I’ve literally eaten the exact same stir fry vegetables every night on this diet. Luckily I’ve come across some goodies which I’d like to share with you…
My New Roots
Sarah is a nutritionist and vegetarian chef. I think what attracts me most about her blog is her photos! They make everything look so appetizing. I actually found her blog through Bre posting Sarah’s How To Make Nut Milk video. It’s made me really want to make my own, cause it costs about $9 a litre for almond milk here!
I’ve been wanting to have asparagus since I started this diet but the ones in the supermarket haven’t looked the best so I’m going to have to wait to make this asparagus ribbon salad (omit the lemon juice from the dressing). I’ve gotten into smoothie mode too, and Sarah’s strawberry sunrise smoothie sounds so good. Pity strawberries are so pricey right now. Because everything yummy that I’d usually eat for dessert isn’t allowed, I was looking for some kind of sweet snack and found these energy orbs on Sarah’s blog. I ended up finding ones that I could buy from an organic food store which are alright but I think I’d rather make my own and change the dates to apricots and maybe add some shredded coconut! Nom nom nom.
The Vegan Stoner
This is such a cute food blog! Each recipe is illustrated! Although I’d have to remove a few items from some of these recipes, they all seem so tasty. I’m particularly attracted to this whole beet salad. I’ve never cooked up my own beetroot before so I’m really keen to try this one. I can’t have tofu so that would be out, but I’m sure I could think of some other vegetable to add in. The other recipe that I must try out is this peach rice pudding. Something sweet and warm will hit just the spot!
Elimination Diet by Unami
It doesn’t look like this blog has been touched in a very long time but it’s not like the recipes go out of date. I found this blog by searching for homemade pasta sauce recipes. Luckily found this non-dairy pesto recipe which I need to make to add to pasta because it seems to be the only sauce I’ve found that I can actually eat. It’s just annoying that all of the pre-made ones from the supermarket contain parmesan cheese and lemon juice. So making it from scratch will be good for me. Now I just need a food processor….
So if any of you have any other blogs you want to share with me please do! I need more variety!
The Elimination Diet: The Basics
As some of you might already be aware, I have suffered from ongoing sinus issues for a very long time. I’ve been seeing an ENT (ears, nose and throat specialist) for about 10 months now and earlier this year I had sinus surgery, which for a while was a success. But then I got a flu jab and the sinus infections just wouldn’t let up.
So here we are now, trying to find out (again) what is causing my problems. I’ve always had a bit of an allergy problem. I’m already well aware that I’m allergic to animal fur (no cats or dogs for me!), dust and grasses. When I was little I used to suffer from eczema and as I got older that went away, but I now suffer from psoriasis. I also get the occasional bout of acute urticaria which appears to be caused by an allergy to the temperature changes from physical activity. Yes that’s right, I’m actually allergic to exercise. I’m not just using it as an excuse, I really am.
That’s just a bit of background to let you know how I got here, to The Elimination Diet.
It seems that a food allergy (or maybe more than one) is a possible cause for all of my symptoms and there’s no completely accurate food allergy test so the elimination diet is your best bet at finding out your allergies. In a nutshell I am on a very limited diet (which I will go over in a second), and I stay on this until my symptoms go away and I have five or more symptomless days. Then I can start to reintroduce foods and ‘challenging’ them, one at a time. If my symptoms come back straight away then I’m more than likely allergic or intolerant to that one food. But then I have to stop eating that, wait to get a little better, and then start on my next challenge food, and so on until I have challenged everything I cut out. Once I’ve done that I can figure out how I can change my diet to stop incorporating those foods that I’m allergic to and hope that keeps my sinus problems at bay.
What I can eat:
Cereals: Quinoa, rice and millet puffs or flakes
Grains: Rice (except wild rice), buckwheat, millet, quinoa, amaranth and teff (I cannot have yeast)
Flours: Rice, millet, quinoa, amaranth, teff, bean flours and tapioca (no wheat/gluten)
Fruit: All fruits except for citrus fruits (no oranges, lemons, limes or grapefruit)
Meat: Lamb and wild game meats such as venison
Beans/Legumes: All beans and legumes except for soy and peanuts
Vegetables: All vegetables except for tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, potatoes and corn
Nuts/Seeds: All nuts and seeds except for peanuts
Oils/Fats: All oils except for peanut oil, corn oil and soybean oil
Sweetners: Pure maple syrup and brown rice syrup
Beverages: Water, rice milk, all juices except for ones containing citrus and herbal teas
Condiments: All except for chocolate, tomato products, pepper products and vinegars that contain malt
I cannot have any dairy, preservatives or additives, and basically everything I eat has to be fully organic.
Day 14
Today marks two weeks on this diet. When I started this I had spent the 3 weeks beforehand with no sense of taste or smell whatsoever, and I was blowing my nose probably about 30-50 times a day. Not a lot has changed to be honest. I can taste and smell a bit now, but it goes on and off and those senses are weakened so I’m only getting a faint taste of whatever I’m eating. Today, for example, I haven’t been able to taste anything at all till I got home and had dinner. Bit of a shame since I didn’t like what I was eating for dinner and could have gone without being able to taste it.
I’ve basically been living off rice crackers, rice cakes (very pleased I can spread honey on those!), pears, bananas, plums, strawberries, stir-fry vegetables with mixed herbs to add a bit of flavour, sweet potato chips, macademia nuts, sunflower seeds and various juices.
My hunt has begun to find good recipes to help keep things interesting with this diet. So if anyone has any ideas for recipes or links to good blogs about organic/vegan/DF/GF eating I would gladly welcome them!
P.S. I’ll be impressed if anyone actually reads this entire post cause it is LONG!
