It’s three weeks in to the Elimination Diet, and I personally have learned a few things about my (new) gastrointestinal system that I long suspected but never really tested. We’re supposed to be eating a ton of vegetables but that can get difficult to maintain over a week, especially when I’m working in DC and Jen is still juggling teaching, her other paying work, and the house. As a result we’re eating a lot of rice as a side dish/protein source which isn’t the best thing for our GI tracts or nutrition levels. We’re into day 2 of the first reintroduction cycle; yesterday was citrus, which is a nice addition to our generally basic diet.
Casual readers here know that I’ve not shied away from discussing my GI tract before: during chemotherapy/radiation and the aftermath, after surgery, and my second trip to the hospital when things weren’t happening. I’ve shared plenty about my bowels, so I’ll now share a little more. When they pulled out the baby, they also pulled my gall bladder with it. The gall bladder is in charge of producing bile for the stomach, helping to break down fats in the small intestine. What this means is that my GI tract, which I used to be able to set a watch to, is now a lot less predictable, in all ways you might expect.
Having taken almost all fatty foods out of my diet, I’ve noticed things are definitely more regular and manageable. If I don’t learn anything else from this diet, it will confirm what I already knew: I need to permanently alter my diet to take better care of the GI tract I’ve got, as difficult as that’s going to be. This means more vegetables and fewer baked goods, which will be a major shift in my brain chemistry: when I need quick energy my body craves carbs, which means I think of baked goods and nuts when I should be going for better proteins. Problem is, vegetables hold me for about 30 seconds and then I’m hungrier than I was before.
It’s hard to emphasize how much I miss coffee right now. I’ve written about my relationship with coffee before when I wasn’t able to have any before surgery, and if anything I miss it even more now, more than any other food I’m prohibited from having. I admit I really wanted a cold beer on Saturday after doing a bunch of work out in the yard, but I don’t miss one every night with dinner as much as I feared I might.
We do get potatoes on Wednesday and beef on Saturday (HOORAY) and then we go through different types of nuts until the second week in June. I’m going to make a GIGANTIC pile of hash browns and dive into that fucker the minute I’m able.