Day 15: I Can See The Light At The End Of The Tunnel!

In many ways I am very glad I started this diet right before the holiday season! Why, you ask? Because the less money I spend on take-out and other eating establishments means I have more money to spoil people for Christmas! :-)

But really I am glad I am working on this diet during the holidays because this time of year is always accompanied with good food and a lot of it! Cookies, cake, ham, turkey, and all those other yummy things we all love to eat during this time of year! I am thankful to be on this diet because I am learning how to enjoy different foods and not feel deprived. I can honestly say that I have not felt deprived on this diet. I thought I would feel deprived but in all honesty I have not. I get chocolate every day which is very important and with my almond milk and my frozen bananas, I can make fabulous smoothies that are almost as good as my beloved oreo shakes!

This diet has also allowed me to develop my cooking skills even further. I have been getting creative as of late with my meals too! So if anyone needs healthy yet delicious ideas for meals, let me know. I have had some real winners as of late such as roast chicken and carrots, stuffed peppers, and mashed sweet potatoes.

I will admit, though, that I am so glad the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer, because I am looking forward to having a few more things back in my diet. What I am mainly hoping for is to have dairy and eggs back in my diet and pork too. The gluten I honestly won't miss as there are other things out there to replace that and I am also hoping to be able to have rice back in my diet too. I love rice and hope I can eat it again as well as tomatoes. How I have missed my salsa and ketchup!

Overall, I am not feeling any sicker or worse than I was before. I don't necessarily feel any better, but I don't feel worse and I am thankful for that.

Today I have another appointment with the doc and we will see if anything is going to be changing. We may even discuss my custom diet plan a little today. I am hoping so, because I plan to eat something fantastic after this diet is over, but I also will not eat anything that could screw up all of the work I have done either. But if he says I can have dairy, I am so celebrating with some sugar free frozen yogurt!

Day 10 - 14: Thanksgiving Break

I am so glad the long weekend is over! Too much good food floating around, but all things considered I think I did fairly well. Friday was probably the worst day for me as I did have a little bit of white potato and a small Diet Pepsi with lunch, but that was the worst thing I ate all week.

The mashed sweet potatoes and quinoa stuffing I made for Thanksgiving were a hit. A good many people in the family tried both and enjoyed it. I still have leftovers and I am glad because I enjoy leftovers from Thanksgiving. Yum!

Over the weekend I ran out of my "protein" shake so I had to run to the doc's office this morning and get some more. This was probably the worst weekend to run out of that, but I survived.

Well, I have only one week left of this strict diet! Some time next week after I am done with this diet, the doctor will be customizing a diet for me, so I am sure that there will be things I will be able to have again that I haven't been able to have during this time and I am sure that some things will remain restricted. My suspicions on what I cannot eat lie with gluten and anything deep fried in animal based oil or peanut oils. I also think caffeine and refined sugar will be out as well which is good as I need to kick my caffeine habit once and for all. If anything, this diet has been a blessing for kicking the caffeine. I honestly didn't see how I could go more than a day without my Pepsi, but I have learned that I can and I have also learned that I am the master of what I eat.

So, here is to the rest of the week! Today for lunch I have packed some leftover dill-lemon infused cod and some cooked zucchini. I made this for dinner last night and it was yum-o! So I am having it again for lunch today!

Day 9: I Can't Eat That, Or That, Or Even That

Yesterday went fairly well. I had my sweet potato and turkey sausage for breakfast. And I had my leftover white chicken chili for lunch. The caffeine headaches started yesterday and they got so bad I went home early from work. I laid down and was out like a light bulb. My calendar notification on my phone woke me up and reminded me I had a wedding reception to go to. I love going to wedding receptions, but not when I am on a restrictive diet. I went to the wedding and the bride and groom were lovely. As I made my way to the food table, everything on the table looked fabulously yummy and delicious but there was not one thing on the table I could have except for the water spiked with fresh orange slices, so I got a cup of that.

We sat down and I watched my mother eat a plate of yummy food and even have a very positive reaction to a chocolate cake ball. For a fleeting moment I was a little jealous. I did make it through the wedding without breaking my diet though. This is the first major social function I have been to since starting this diet and it helped me realize I am my own master and conquer this! Tomorrow (Thanksgiving), will be the ultimate test, however. I made some mashed sweet potatoes today for our work potluck and I think they will be good. I tried some of them last night and they were pretty tasty, so now I can have at least turkey and potatoes for lunch. Yay!

Tonight I am venturing my way to my grandparents cause my aunt and I are going to the movies and she wants to go to dinner, so tonight I have to be strong again and order a salad or grilled chicken. Wish me luck!

Day 8: One Week Down, Two To Go!

I have crossed the one week mark! It has been rough but for the most part I have been triumphant! The doc said I may experience fatigue and headaches. Well, that hit today. I am so tired and it has nothing to do with going to be late and I have a lack-of-caffeine headache this morning as well.

Yesterday wasn't too bad of a day. Doing some of my meal prep on Sunday helped a lot. I enjoyed a hearty breakfast of sweet potatoes and turkey sausage which I paired with a banana smoothie. I brought some of the leftover peppers I made for dinner the night before for lunch. I however, didn't think dinner through last night. The power company had to do some repairs in my neighborhood last night so the power was out and all of my appliances are electric so I couldn't make anything for dinner. The boyfriend and I went to my church activity and then we went and got some salads from Zupa's. I was hoping to get some soup, but they didn't have any soups that didn't have tomato, dairy, or noodles. All of the soups had at least one of these components.

I am now drinking my "protein" shake three times a day the doc has me taking. After this week I will go back down to twice a day and then once a day.

I am looking forward to going shopping for my Thanksgiving things today after work. It will be awesome! I enjoy cooking, so I will enjoy helping with the Thanksgiving feast this year and providing some alternatives to the dinner table!

Well that is all I have for today. Yesterday was easy to a degree even though I was a little frustrated with things I can't have. But alas, I will survive.

Day 6 & 7: The Weekend

I made it to the weekend! This has been a typical weekend full of activities and all sorts of fun! And like always these activities include good food. Since I am on this diet, I have had to be very choosy about what I eat. On Friday, my boyfriend and I went to the movie with some friends and we went to dinner before. We did go to a soup and salad place that has a fabulous salad bar, so I was able to get a green salad with lots of yummy veggies and chicken and nuts on it! Saturday my friend and I went to another movie and after the movie we went to lunch. Fortunately, we went to a place that has a huge a menu so I was able to order a veggie burger and I left all the condiments off and just got lettuce and onions on it. The other veggie they put on their burgers is tomatoes and I can't have those so it was a very boring burger by even my standard and I don't like a lot on my burgers to begin with. For dinner, though, I made white chicken chili in the slow cooker. My co-worker found the recipe for me and it was fabulous! I will have to post the recipe when I remember to.

Today (Sunday) has been a little easier and that is only because I typically don't eat out on Sundays and since I live alone I am able to control what I eat more than most. For breakfast I sliced up a sweet potato and put in a skillet with some olive oil and salt and pepper and cooked the potato until it started to get crispy. I then added some sweet Italian turkey sausage to the potato and finished cooking the potatoes with the sausage. I was a little worried it wouldn't taste good because of the natural sweetness of the potato, but it actually turned out really well and I loved it! I loved it so much I cooked another batch this afternoon and portioned it out into containers so I have breakfast all ready to go this week. For lunch I just had some of the leftover chili I made last night. I then put the rest of the chili into some containers and froze it. I will have some yummy lunches this week. For dinner I cooked my first quinoa. I made stuffed peppers which were stuffed with quinoa, ground turkey, carrots, and some various spices. I then baked the peppers in the oven. They turned out great! I had stuffed peppers leftover, so I will be taking some to work tomorrow for lunch for both the boyfriend and myself. I have made stuffed peppers before and those stuffed peppers re-heated well, so I am confident these will as well.

I then whipped up a batch of my banana almond milk smoothies. Instead of making them one at a time, I decided to make a large batch that will last about a day. I want to have some with breakfast and since I would rather sleep than get up and prepare breakfast I took advantage of my free afternoon to get ahead in my food preparation. That is the biggest thing that has changed. I have had to take time to prepare almost every meal I have eaten at home or at work. In the past, I could just grab one of my tv dinners or something from the fridge\freezer for easy lunch, but now I have to take time to prepare. During the week I don't have much time to do advanced meal prep, so I was glad I had today to do some. I am set til Wednesday in terms of breakfast and lunch. Dinner doesn't need to be prepared beforehand as I tend to make that up on the spot anyways.

Tomorrow I will have been on the diet for one week and I must say I am feeling pretty good about reaching my goals. Thanksgiving is this week and I have already found some great recipes to do, so I will not be deprived of any of my favorites.

Have a great week everyone and I will be back with more diet updates!

Day 5: A Little Better

I am doing much better this morning than I did yesterday. The doc warned me there would be days when I would crave lots of bad for me things and yesterday was definitely one of those days. I made it through though.

Yesterday I ate my first sweet potato! It was quite tasty and since I can't have butter or anything like that, I nuked the thing in the microwave and then sprinkled some of my "candied" pecans on top. It was quite delicious. I am glad I liked the sweet potato because now I know that I will be able to have mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.

In preparation for the most difficult Thanksgiving ever eating wise I started looking on the internet for recipes. I have never ventured much into the vegan free, gluten free, or dairy free world and so I was quite astonished as to the amount of recipes and blogs out there with recipes! I have a co-worker who is vegan so she gave me some resources too! And some of the recipes I stumbled upon looked absolutely delicious! I am thankful that there are people out there who eat this way either because of personal beliefs or for health reasons who have done the leg work for me. I don't think I could be this restrictive in my diet forever - I enjoy food too much! But I am glad I have this opportunity for a little while to understand that I can still eat well!

Here are some of the blog\recipe sites I found that I really liked:
- For the Love of Food Blog: A food enthusiast's journey to find community, health, and joy through eating.
- My Real Food Life

These two sites have a lot of resources on them, especially the second one. It has gluten free, vegan friendly, dairy free, and even soy free recipes on them.

Today will be better! I got more bananas, so I was able to have my new favorite thing with breakfast - my banana almond milk smoothies! I had that with the rest of my chicken sausage. Today I start having my "protein" shake twice day - once before breakfast and once before dinner. I am kind of glad I get to have it more right now cause it is the only sweet chocolatey thing I get all day! I will take my chocolate fix any way I can get it! By Monday I will be having this shake three times day with each meal.

I can't believe I almost through my last week. I have started to see some results, but right now I am still working through the caffeine and sugar withdrawals. Hopefully by Monday those will be more manageable. Here is to the next week!

Day 4: My Resolve Is Weakening

Well, I had my first follow-up appointment with the doc yesterday and was able to report that I am doing okay on the diet, but I must say my resolve is weakening!

I don't know what is causing my resolve to weaken. It could be what I discussed with the doc yesterday or it could just be my body craving certain foods and the cravings are almost more than I can stand.
I had a couple of questions about some specifics on the diet - mainly if there were some foods I could have since the diet guidelines didn't clarify on them. The first one I asked about was honey. I know I was told I couldn't have sweeteners but I thought maybe honey was different as it is nectar and bee spit. The doctor said no honey. So basically the only sweet thing I can eat is fruit and I can use spices and herbs and there are some spices like cinnamon and vanilla that are kind of sweet. The next thing I asked about was rice. I know the diet said no rice, but I wasn't sure if that meant white rice or all rice. Doc said it was all rice. And then I asked about oatmeal as I wasn't sure if this was a grain or what. Apparently oatmeal has gluten in it - who knew? So since I can't have gluten, I can't have oatmeal and I love oatmeal. The doc said I could have fruit juice, but only if I juiced it myself and made sure the pulp from the fruit was put back in. But I can buy orange juice at the store, but have to buy 100% juice with lots of pulp. So, that was nice to find out.

The doc then asked me how I was feeling overall. He asked if I was getting any headaches. I had told him I hadn't had any headaches, but then last night one hit me hard. Let the caffeine withdrawals begin! He also asked me if I had any brain fog - well, I didn't yesterday but my brain is a little fuzzy today, but I think it is just because I am tired. I didn't realize that when you are going through a detox how hard it can be on your body.

The first thing I thought about doing this morning was cheating on my diet. I was craving a breakfast sandwich from the sandwich shop that is literally a half a block from my home. They are so good, but I persevered and didn't fall for the craving. I had my "protein" shake this morning and then I had some almond butter with celery sticks and apple slices for dipping. I also ate an orange too. So, I have survived this morning so far.

For lunch I have packed a sweet potato which I plan to "bake" in the microwave. I also have some grapes and cashews. But I am thinking of running out on my lunch and getting a grilled chicken breast from like Wendys or Chik-Fil-A (or as my nephews call it: the Chicken-Cow place).

So, this brings me to my next point. I LOVE to eat out because I enjoy trying to new foods and I really enjoy a few places. Last night I found myself in the food court at the mall. I always knew mall food wasn't very good but when you are on a strict diet what do you eat? I was able to order a chicken sandwich from Chik-Fil-A and I ditched the bun and just ate the chicken breast with the lettuce. Not as filling as I had hoped, but I did feel satisfied in that I got to eat out. I also have plans to eat out for dinner tonight too. I am thinking I am going to get the steamed veggies and mandarin chicken from Panda Express, or I will get a salad from Subway. I will decide when I get there.

So, here is to the rest of the day - I hope I survive. And if anyone is interested in nut butters, check out this site for more information on how to make them yourself. I am exploring this new world of food and nut butters and so I am willing to share what I find. Click here for the information on the nut butters.

And since the doc told me I can't have the traditional Thanksgiving dishes other than Turkey and Veggies, I am going to be finding a rice stuffing recipe but substitute quinoa in place of the rice and I am going to get some buckwheat flour so I can have gravy and I will be attempting to make some mashed potatoes from sweet potatoes as well. And I think I will make enough in case other people in the family want to try it.