Phase 2

I'm on day 17 or so of the elimination diet and I started reintroducing foods. I started with lemons and noticed no poor effects. My next food was supposed to be tamari, but I swapped that out for red wine, because I read the red wine has pre-biotics, which are enzymes and things that your pro-biotics (or good gut flora) like to munch on.

Well, who am I kidding? I just like wine, plus my friends were coming over. I did not notice any effects of the wine, but I did stay up until midnight, which is very late for someone whose alarm goes off at 5am and then commences to teach algebra to cranky teenagers at 7am.  So, perhaps I will try another glass of wine with an early bedtime and see what happens.

I've been mostly eating yams, quinoa, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, kale and pears in the form of green smoothies, beets, carrots and adzuki beans. Oh, and sauerkraut...I've been heaping that on top of all my meals. I also have been drinking coconut milk. I find that I have to eat quite frequently to keep up my energy. I don't have a scale, so I'm not sure if I've gained or lost weight, but I definitely feel less puffy and bloated.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned is that I was not eating nearly as many vegetables as a vegetarian ought to...most of my go-to convenience foods were grain, dairy and egg based.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to start on the phase 3  foods, beginning with bananas. I will probably try to go a full 6 weeks gluten-free because I think that's the minimum amount of time I would need to notice a difference.