I’m prepping to make a crock pot and thought I’d share a cautionary tale. Yep another one. They keep coming so I’m going to keep sharing in the hopes I’ll provide some sort of helpful advice. One of my favorite mainstays on the elimination diet was chicken breasts cooked in the crock pot with taco seasoning. Of course I couldn’t use my normal go-to taco packet seasoning as it wasn’t diet approved so I was pretty proud of myself for putting together my own. Who knew the taco seasoning packet was merely a tasty mix of cumin, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, onion powder, salt and pepper (and probably some other weird preservatives that I definitely do not need). Pretty fool proof and no chopping required which made it an A+ recipe in my book. Continue reading “Kitchen Tales”
Tag: diet
The Loss of Free-For-All Eating, Shopping and Other Guilty Pleasures
It has been a week since I ended the 21 Day Elimination Diet–part 1 of my journey to figure out what I’m eating that is wrecking havoc on my body. I’m proud that I completed the process, but there is definitely some mourning (and celebrating) that needs to happen over the loss of my previous lifestyle and habits.
Here in no particular order are some things lost along the way–some forever, some for now and some whose future is uncertain…
Forever Lost
1) Time. Point blank it takes more time to eat healthy and to consciously think about every morsel that goes into your body. To follow the elimination diet, careful planning and preparation are a most. It took me until about day 3 when I was starving to get the hang of that. Eating in a pinch used to consist of grabbing my favorite chips and dip from the cupboard. Not really an option when processed foods are a no-no, and hidden ingredients lurking in the most benign of foods make them off limits as well. Did you know there is sugar in EVERYTHING?
2) Money. Ok, to be fair money spent in the pursuit of ones health should probably not be considered a loss. But this is my mourning list, so I’m gonna cry over those dollar bills spent at Whole Foods anyways.
3) Free-for-All Eating. As in, I eat what I want, when I want, and as much as I want. And that goes for drinking too. This mainly applied to queso and chips, wine and mac n chz. Gah, no wonder my body went all toxic and ragey on me. Was it trying to tell me something? That I’m not 21 anymore? My metabolism is failing me? Oh, the horror. And truth. All good things must come to an end. Goodness gracious, I sound all growed-up.
Lost For Now (I mean forever is a strong word)
4) Peanut Butter Easter Eggs. This was especially tragic as they only come around once a year. Peanut butter and chocolate were most definitely on the not list so I had my first Easter in the history of Easters without them.
5) Free-for-All Shopping: Like free for all eating, free for all shopping was just how I rolled pre life changing experience. I might have a list, but that didn’t stop me from wandering down every aisle, throwing the random delicious treat in my cart and trying every sample I could get my hands-on. Now I have to stay on the outskirts of the fun, and stick to the freshies that run the perimeter of the store. Which is kinda not fair because there are many things on the perimeter like cheese and ice cream that I can’t have.
6) Extra pounds. I was not sorry to say goodbye to the extra pounds courtesy of my free-for-all eating/drinking. I guess everything comes with a price which I was willing to pay in 10 pounds give or take.
Future Uncertain
7) Headaches. Searching for the cause of my daily headaches was a major reason to embark on this process. And since beginning they have all but disappeared! And besides my diet nothing else has changed. Things are still good on the home front and work is still driving me insane especially without alcohol to unwind in the evenings. I’m not sure what will happen as I continue the incorporation process, but hope this one will stay gone!
8) Bread, soy products, cheese, ice cream, sushi, chocolate, beer, wine, and on and on and on. Basically, all the good things in life. Eliminated through the process, and awaiting reintroduction. Every three days, I get to introduce one new item from the no-no list and see how my body reacts. It’s been a week and I’ve tackled eggs, bananas and tomatoes. So far so good. Parting was sad, but the reunions have been great. Of course, it remains to be seen about the others.
Will I have to part with mac n chz for good? Am I allergic to wine? Will a random stash of peanut butter easter eggs appear in my life? Will the pounds return? What will become of me?? Will I still be the Lauren that I have spent years coming to terms with??!!
Breakfast of Champs
Typically on weekend mornings we have fried eggs and bacon. It is the one meal in my repertoire that I can do without even thinking. I’ve even gotten the technique down of flipping the egg in the pan without breaking the yolk. I find it a bit thrilling.
Sooooo sad face that this fun tradition has been missing from our lives thanks to the elimination diet. I’ve been kinda at a loss for what to do in its place (I mean seriously. There really is no replacement.) so I usually make a smoothie. I tried making quinoa breakfast cereal once and it was no bueno.
This morning I was craving something sweet, feeling ambitious and resourceful so I decided to try it again. The last go round wasn’t sweet at all, and did not hit the spot. I thought adding an apple might help, but I wasn’t sure how to add it in. I decided to go with my favorite new kitchen shortcut–when in doubt, blend it.
One blended apple, quinoa, unsweetened almond milk,a few drops of stevia and cinnamon thrown in the pot to cook and voila. Breakfast is served.
**I want to point out that a crispy piece of bacon crumbled over the top would be the coup de whoa.**
Delicious and Nutritious
I promised that I would share some of the delish food that we’ve had while on the elimination diet. I can’t believe that we are already 1/2 way through. I can say that we have made some great food discoveries and substitutions to make this feel less like an elimination diet and more like a culinary challenge. Chopped, anyone?
Here in no particular order are my favs.
1) Almond crusted cod with asparagus. The almonds added some texture, and were our substitute for breading.
2) White bean and kale soup. I did not expect this so be such a popular item on the diet, but it is a staple. It’s rich and savory soup goodness. We might never go back to box soup.
3) Almond butter. With everything. Seriously. I ate a whole jar of it in the first week. It’s yum in smoothies, with celery, apples or in a pinch by itself.
4) Bison burger lettuce wraps. When we discovered we could have wild game we decided to try it. Frankly, we were getting a bit chickened out and wanted to mix it up a bit. We sliced the bison burgers and served them with pineapple salsa (garlic, onion, pineapple, lime juice and avocado) in a lettuce wrap. The salsa made a great condiment! I am a massive condiment lover so that has been really hard for me. I was happy to find I didn’t miss my burger being slathered in mayo, mustard, A-1 steak sauce, BBQ sauce, ranch and whatever other saucy goodness I could add.
5) Salads. When I was growing-up I loved salads. Well I loved ranch dressing so maybe the salad was a vehicle for that, but still I was getting my veggies in. As an adult I’ve learned that making your own salad requires slicing, dicing and chopping– not my forte. And ranch dressing really isn’t that good for me. So salads have been a thing of the past. Well, not anymore. I’m learning it’s really not that hard to throw together a salad. I bought a fun dressing maker shaker thingie from Target which probably helps matters. It lists the ingredients for a variety of dressings with measurements on the side of the container so it’s pretty fool proof.
Now that’s what I call living well.
Perception
I was flipping through the television and came across the Live Well channel. It was my first experience with the channel, and I assumed that it was all about health. Perfect! If I saw that sriracha taco commercial one more time than this diet might be OVER. It seemed like a safe haven from the barrage of commercials urging me to eat this and drink that. None of which are items that I’m currently interested in endorsing. Oddly enough, there aren’t a ton of commercials pimping the virtues of the veggies and fruit that are mainstays of my diet right now. But I guess that’s another topic for another day.
Imagine my surprise when the segment was all about cocktails. While I’m off the wagon for the next 10 days at least, I plan on enjoying a fun drink again so I was excited to learn about living healthy and enjoying a cocktail. And then the hostess proceeded to mix a cocktail made with beer. Not even a light beer, but a dark, smooth, decadent looking stout…Urrrghhh, I do not need to be thinking about beer right now! Humph, so much for living well!
When I mentioned it to Garett his response was spot-on.
Well, sounds like they are living well…
Oh, right.
Who Does That?
I had to share this because I can’t stop wondering if it’s just me or if the situation I’m describing below is a “who does that?”
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m on an elimination diet. On Monday (my second week of said diet) I walked into work, went into the break room to stash my diet essentials that would get me through the day and immediately noticed a massive baking pan of brownies sitting not so inconspicuously on the table.
I immediately knew who was responsible. With an office of 4, it’s pretty easy to figure out who staged a major temptation, on a MONDAY of all days, to thwart my diet. My lovely coworker who never brought treats for us in over a year suddenly had the impulse over the weekend to go into a major baking frenzy. And then bring it into the office to share. And talk about how she felt kinda weird bringing them in since one of us was on a diet. But not really.
Because seriously if you felt weird about it then the logical thing seems to be to parade it in the public break room versus in your massive corner office where you have plenty of room to host visitors and eat brownies.
So not that I really care, because anyone who knows me knows that I’d be much more tempted by mac n cheese or ruffles and french onion dip, but still who does that??
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diproute.com 