Tuesday Day 2 - Elimination Challenge continues

I was woken suddenly at 1am by a Felix kitty getting spooked and jumping straight up from the bed and then taking off.  I have no clue what was going on but when he got back in bed he refused to lay on the sheets and chose a pillow.  I was in a sleep/wake pattern until 4:30!

But this face is SO darn cute I just can't take it!  

But moving on!  I had my typical breakfast - protein shake and a few sips of my leftover chai latte from Biggby.  I felt fine all morning.  No bloating, nothing weird.  Winning!

That brings me to lunch and eating the remainder of the roasted cauliflower I had from last week.  I hate to waste so I figured I would just go ahead and eat it and see what would happen.  Bloating!  Though not as bad.  So this was last night's leftovers.  Roasted root vegetables, a little bit of chicken.  I did add a couple spoonfuls of bacon jam I had just made too.  I also had a matcha latte at work.  I made myself so I could control the amount of matcha that went in, it was just right!  

I made my way home and got a call from the photographer for our house listing.  He was coming in 10 minutes!  Yikes.  I quickly put things away and moved items around so our house looked good.  Here's hoping they came out well!

I needed to get school work done but still haven't in the past 4 days!  I did finish up my own data that I am sharing with another student in the NTA program.  We are going to interview each other which should be a lot of fun.  Tomorrow I will have most of the day for studying.  I'm not behind, but want to be further ahead.

So after all that I decided to make dinner since it was going to take a little bit.  Real Plans again!  Though I wasn't wild about the taste and I doubt I will make it again unless I change up the seasonings.  Turmeric Turkey Cabbage Rolls and Sauteed Collard Greens.  The collards were fantastic, just coconut oil and salt.

Sadly, bloated again and I ended up eating 3 of these and the meat out of a 4th.  It's packed with carrots and onions.  It's really not a big deal.  Tomorrow I plan on pitching the cabbage (ugh!) and re purposing the turkey.  Stay tuned for that!  I'm going to read.  Till tomorrow!

Monday Day 1 - Back to the elimination phase!

I totally have a rebel tendency (Gretchen Rubin) as I have said before.  I have to be challenged that I can't do something so I can prove I can.  I asked my bestie to tell me she didn't think I could do the elimination again as I desperately needed to.  My gut is off (bloated, gassy), my face is broken out, my anxiety is up!  I'm a hot mess, not where I was over a year ago but I know I can be better.  I need and want to put my symptoms into remission!  So here I am diving back into an elimination.  I am so lucky to have Real Plans because I would hate to have to plan out every meal.  I already feel stretched between work and school and the amount of practice clients I have taken on so this is one less thing to worry about.  To top of the stress and anxiety level we are putting our house back on the market!  I love this house but there are things that I want that won't happen here.  The biggest thing is a bigger open kitchen.

So how is my Monday the first day back into it working out?  UGH!!  Jack woke me up at 2 am throwing up in the corner of the bedroom.  I so would have left it until later but it stunk.  I know why would I leave it?!  It was 2am!  I so didn't want to get up, but I did.  I let him outside while I cleaned everything up.  He came in like nothing happened and we went back to bed.  Then starting around 4 or 5 the cats began to come in to jump all over me to get up and fed them.  Easier to resist and I got up with D's alarm at 6:30.

Everyone was fed by 6:45 and I was on to make my breakfast.  I'm keeping it as it is since it's clean and I have no issues with what's in it.

Equip Foods Prime Protein, collagen, pea protein milk (or coconut), maca and a whole small avocado.  The avocado give the protein shake the perfect thickness!  I love it.  I'm also giving up coffee and going with matcha tea lattes.  I had one leftover from Saturday at Starbucks so I had the rest of that one and planned on trying one at Whole Foods later.

I got to the gym around 8:30 and was out around 9:30.  I like quick workouts specially when they are efficient!  I had a ton of errands to do - Costco, drop of groceries from Costco to work, Whole Foods, Target, Kroger and the Post Office.  I finally got home just after 12:15 and was starving.  I was smart with my spiralized zucchini noodles because this lunch came together quick!

Zucchini noodles, 4 strips of bacon and some Kettle and Fire chicken mushroom bone broth.  It was good but I needed more and had a tablespoon of coconut butter.  Exhaustion fell over me pretty quickly as it normally does in the afternoon - thank you adrenal fatigue!  I had some time before my appointment with the realtor so I laid down on the couch and had a cute face that down with me.

He is just too cute!  I just love that face and he just loves to rub his face on mine and give lots of kisses.  After the realtor I headed to Vitamin Shoppe for some probiotics.  I got home to shower and start a load of laundry.  By the time I sat down to even try to be even more productive it was time to start making dinner.

Tonight's dinner was roasted chicken and root vegetables.  I really should have taken a before picture of the chicken since I butchered the crap out of it.  D got home and was hungry so I just started to rip it apart.  The vegetables are carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, and golden beets.  I ended up eating a little more chicken when I was de-boning the rest of it for lunch later this week (and tomorrow).

Dessert was an (2!) AIP carob cherry cookie.  Really good and I wonder how the carbs will hit me.  Dependin on the carb source I can end up being really hungry.  But, so far so good!

Now I am going to chill and watch DC's Legend's of Tomorrow.  I just started watching it and I'm hooked.

What did my protocol look like then and now

I can't give out too much information about my particular protocol but I can give you some kind of clue as to what my version of AIP looked like for a few months of starting my protocol.

First, my decision to seek out a functional medicine doctor was the best choice I made.  I had come to a point in my life that seemed to be hopeless (how I felt mentally and physically).  It also came at the loss of a job that I truly loved.  At the time I couldn't pin point what was happening.  I felt stupid.  I was reading but couldn't grasp anything that I had just read.  I would read a number thinking it was right but one little thing was off.  I was devastated.  I thought I was making great food choices because we were eating deli every day and I would eat paleo.  I mean how bad can lunch meat, mayo and vegetables be?!  Well, the deli meat is what destroyed my brain and my physical well being.  January was rough.  I was out of a job, I had horrible brain fog and felt ill daily.  I would start the day off feeling okay and would just progressively get worse as the day went.

Don't be sad though!  I look at everything in life as a place were I need to be at that particular moment.  Everything happens for a reason.  A series of events whether they are good or bad always lead us to where we are suppose to be.  Life is a journey and we need to pay attention at the series laid out before us.

So, I seemed out 2 functional medicine doctors.  I met with them both and chose Dr. Brett Allen.  Not only was he more reasonable, but I also didn't have to drive 45 minutes away to sit in a office.  My appointments were in the comfort of my own home via Skype.  How convenient and comforting that when your appointment was scheduled it was kept!

After my initial phone conversation with him, I scheduled the remaining blood tests I needed - which wasn't much for me since I had ordered a bunch of tests in January.  I also received a food allergy panel.  For this the phlebotomist came to my home.  The rest of the labs I went down the street from my house to Quest.  So convenient!  Are you seeing a pattern here?!  Great care and it was easy!

I should mention that while I was waiting for my results and speaking to him again I jumped into AIP - textbook style.  I eliminated everything except for coffee.

My results came back and I had a severe candida overgrowth, leaky gut etc.  The first four weeks of the protocol were of course strict, but then each week I was able to introduce new foods.  I have to mention the food intolerances since they are not true allergies.  Eggs, dairy, bananas are the top 3 I want to mention.  My scores were 1 & 2.  Since they still scored it is advised that I keep them in my rotation but only eat them a maximum of 3 times per week.  I have mentioned before that when I do go over board that my face breaks out.  I don't have a problem with nuts, BUT that being said that if I do eat them more than 3 times per week my face shows it.  It's the only thing that I try to do once per week and sometimes twice since I am baking and recipe testing and everything has almonds in them.

Now I am quite comfortable as to where my breaking points with certain foods are, so to speak.  Right now I'm staying clear of fruits - but mostly bananas.  I could eat them everyday!  Zero dairy now too.  Which reminds me, I came across cauliflower cheese and OMG what a life changer!  I have omitted the nutritional yeast and garlic from the recipe but it is awesome!  It shreds and melts. Awesome!!  

Here is a few meals I have put together recently.

I made mention to my friend Kari that my food is not very pretty, so I will be working on that.  But this was the cauliflower cheese on the side with ground turkey and a mix of cauliflower and spinach topped with a fried egg and hot sauce.  Not AIP for all, but my own reintroductions.

Tonight I made cassava flour tortilla's from Urban Poser.  I need to work on these more.  I ended up combining dough balls so I could make larger tortillas.  So I got 4 large and 2 small tortillas.  I ate one of the small ones plain to test it out - so good!  I would have hoped to get them thinner but they kept ripping on me.  A work in progress.  On this tortilla I had lime cauliflower rice, shredded purple cabbage and carrots and hiding under that is a piece of salmon.  I was so filled from this meal.  It was nice.  I ate better today then what I have been.  Usually at work I am doing so much I don't feel like it much so I typically will have a bar.  They usually have nuts so I try to avoid them, but they are easy when I am busy.  But when I get home I eat all night since I feel so hungry.

So there it is so far.  Always a work in progress and always try to define what works best for me.  Everyone is different and my AIP is not everyone else's AIP.

A "cheat" night. It's just almond butter!

This morning I got early.  I planned on going to the gym and just jog for a while.  I got dressed and headed out only to find they were still closed!!  They had closed yesterday at 3pm for some unknown to me reason.  They didn't state they wouldn't be open the next morning at 5am!  Complete darkness and a lot of cars that were pulling away.  I think there were too many unhappy gym goers!  Lucky for me I have a home gym.  So, I grabbed my laptop and found a YouTube cardio video and off I went!  I got just sweaty enough and elevated my heart rate for 30 minutes.

I haven't been getting my 11,000 daily steps in lately and it's something I need to work on.  Since I took this new job it has been difficult.  Prior to that easy peasy!

I showered and was ready to fix breakfast.  I had potatoes that I roasted from the last two nights dinner, so I gave those to the pups after I took a couple bites.  I made my usual dandelion tea coconut milk latte.  I love it with unsweetened vanilla coconut milk.  I love almond milk too but since I am weening to more AIP by Monday I have been loving the coconut milk.  Then I fried up brussel, bacon and beef.  I left all the bacon fat in there to get absorbed into the brussels.  It's so yummy I can't stand it!  I made another latte before I left for work.

Lunch is just odd.  I grab whatever sounds good even if they are weird together!  Trader Joe's Grilled Cauliflower and Epic Pork Rinds.  I did top the cauliflower in avocado crema.  I mean why not!  I even did the pork rinds in there too.  It was tasty and hit the stop.  I also have been drinking a lot of water.  I should be getting in between 60 and 70 ounces per day.  It's a work in progress to say the least cause I would rather not drink water.

I was starving by the time I got home.  I mean really, lunch was not going to keep me full no matter how much water I drank!  Cassava Flour Pancakes! from Adventures in Partaking.  I'm sure I didn't cook them long enough.  I think they will make good wraps!  I only made half the batch.  Look at them cook!

I made bacon and topped with almond butter (opps! not AIP!) I also had 2 pieces of canadian bacon or ham.

I have 6 pancakes left, so I think I will use some tomorrow at lunch and wrap chicken and lettuce in them.  They are that versatile!  Dessert was 2 homemade carob coconut butter cups.  I made a second batch!  I figured on Monday I won't be eating them so get it all in now! No, it's not a good plan but that's what I'm going with!

This weekends plan is to do just that!  Plan all the things.  Mostly I need to plan my meals since D will be back home and he will want dinner after all.  He can be picky and easy at the same time.  As long as I have his staple ingredients all should be well!

I get all my supplements tomorrow and will be talking about those.  Granted I won't start them until Monday but getting prepped is the best possible action.  Pictures that won't be food! YAS!

One last thing!  I'm going to become a beachbody coach.  I figured I love fitness and I'm already a yoga and group fitness instructor, why not get in with a good company and grow my business!  Be on the look out for that one.